Northern Ireland is facing increasing pressure over its stance on same-sex marriage after Ireland voted Yes in Friday’s (22 May) referendum.

Unlike in the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland still prohibits same-sex marriage; England, Wales and Scotland legalized it last year.

Last month was the fourth time the Northern Ireland Assembly rejected a motion, initiated by Deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness, to hold a referendum for same-sex marriage – with 47 votes in support and 49 against.

McGuiness welcomed the Irish result yesterday, calling Ireland ‘tolerant, pluralist and outward-looking’ before urging his fellow politicians once more to reflect on the issue.

‘The world is moving on and Ireland is taking the lead. Pride in Ireland has taken on a whole new meaning,‘ he said.

Caitriona Ruane, Sinn Féin’s representative for Suth Down, said the high numbers of emigrants returning home to cast their vote highlighted the need to legislate on gay marriage in Northern Ireland.

‘The marriage equality rights that will be enjoyed by Irish citizens in the south must be shared by citizens in the north,’ she told the Belfast Newsletter.

‘Sinn Féin will continue to campaign for marriage equality for all in the North and to end the discrimination against our LGBTI community.’

Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland program director Patrick Corrigan said the country was ‘the last bastion of discrimination’.

‘Northern Ireland’s discriminatory laws are a badge of shame – not to be worn by the people of Northern Ireland, a majority of whom support same-sex marriage, but by those politicians who oppose equal treatment for the LGBTI community,’ he said.

‘The Northern Ireland Executive should waste no more time in fulfilling its first duty to its people – to ensure that none are treated as second-class citizens.’

Amnesty also announced a march in Belfast yesterday, organized in cooperation with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Northern Ireland’s largest LGBTI support group The Rainbow Project, which will be held on 13 June.

John O’Doherty, director of The Rainbow Project, congratulated the Republic of Ireland on the Yes vote but voiced his disappointment at Northern Ireland’s continued refusals to consider gay marriage.

‘Fr us, this sweet victory is tinged with sadness. Northern Ireland is now the only region in western Europe where marriage equality is not a reality,’ he said.

‘This is a shameful injustice which cannot be allowed to continue.‘