Brian Kennedy on growing up as a gay man in Northern Ireland

Singer-songwriter and author Brian Kennedy has spoken about the difficulty of growing up as a gay man in Northern Ireland, and how he will be campaigning for marriage equality in the upcoming referendum campaign.

"I only ever heard about other gay people in an abusive context. You never had Paddy and Johnny, or Sile and Marie who lived at the top of the street and they were members of the community. It was always about some paedo or some child-catcher or some awful thing."

In a podcast with Roisin Ingle Kennedy explained that he doesn't want the gay community to be "a mirror image of straight life. However, I do from a legal point of view. And I want my partner to have the same rights, absolutely I do."

Kennedy's music is heavily influenced by his upbringing on the Falls Road in Belfast during the troubles, which he describes as a "literally a ghetto, a Catholci ghetto.... like anybody's childhood, it is the most permanent tattoo, emotionally and physically, that you'll ever experience."

The singer also performed five songs in the show, which can be listened to on the Irish Times and on soundcloud and can be subscribed to for free each week via i-tunes.