Up to 100 people have protested outside the Civil Registry Office in Dublin at the continuing ban on same-sex marriage in Ireland.
The organisers, NOISE, said the protest was designed to highlight the inequality suffered by same-sex couples who wish to marry.
NOISE spokesman Paul Kenny said the Government's proposed Civil Partnership Bill does not go as far as many gay and lesbian couples would like.
Mr Kenny also criticised as unwarranted what he described as the ‘thinly veiled threat’ made last month by Cardinal Sean Brady, that the Catholic church could take a legal challenge to the bill when enacted.
He said it was long past the time when the church could dictate to Government how to run the country.
Senator David Norris, who also addressed the protest, said there was no provision in the Bill for real equality.
He said it was high time same-sex couples had the right to civil marriage, as their taxes funded the Civil Registry Office.
The Senator said the Government's suggestion that full civil marriage could not be granted to same sex couples because it would conflict with the constitution was rubbish.
He added that the Law Reform Commission had said that giving same sex couples the right to civil marriage would only be unconstitutional if they got greater rights than couples of the opposite sex.
