Madam, - Tony Allwright (February 27th) asks for someone to explain how the meaning of marriage could be weakened by gay people taking vows to commit themselves to each other for life.
Simply by consulting a dictionary we can see that marriage is defined as the union of a man and a woman in wedlock as husband and wife.
Most married people in this country, on their wedding day, will have heard the words, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."
The average reader should have no problem understanding that the word marriage applies to a heterosexual union and that it carries with it the possibility of the most intimate and creative relationship known to mankind. Why set any other expectation for it? - Yours, etc.,
SEAMUS O'CALLAGHAN,
Bullock Park,
Carlow.