The current Rose of Tralee, Maria Walsh, has said she hopes to get married in a Catholic church one day as she is hopeful they will hold LGBT ceremonies "in the next five years".
Walsh was raised as a Roman Catholic and told the RTÉ Guide that she doesn't take issue with the fact that her church regards her being homosexual as a sin because she has a great relationship with her parish and her faith.
"I have never been turned away from the steps of the Catholic Church and I have a great relationship with both my parish priest in Shrule and my parish priest in Headford," she said. "I try to go to mass as often as I can. For me it is part of how I grew up and there are many people outside the Catholic Church who don't respect or understand me being gay.
"If I ever get turned away from a church, my opinion might change, but as of now I'm a practising Catholic."
Maria Walsh on the set of The Late Late Show
Walsh added that she hopes to one day tie the knot in a church, once she finds the right person, "I’m single at the moment but ask any person and they will tell you that finding the right person is high on the agenda. I would love to get married in Ireland. My thing is if Jesus Christ was kicking around right now he’d be welcoming all sorts into the church.
"Five years ago, if you asked whether the country would have voted to legalise gay marriage, the answer would have been no. And yet we have voted for that. And hopefully Catholic churches in the next five years will have LGBT ceremonies in their churches."
Read the full interview in this week’s RTÉ Guide, on sale now.
