Boyzone Infight Starts Rumors About Same-Sex Marriage Again

Boyzone's new video in which Stephen Gately is seen in a steamy clinch with a male model has sparked more debate amongst punters over just when 'Civil Unions' or same sex marriage will be passed in Ireland.

Bookies Paddy Power are offering just 10/11 that the first Civil Union will take place in Ireland next year, while it is now 4/1 that same-sex marriage will be recognised in Ireland in the next 6 years (before 2015).

The move from Ireland's top bookie comes just one day after Cardinal Sean Brady controversially suggested Ireland should ban same-sex marriages, like California.

Currently the Republic of Ireland does not recognise civil unions or same sex marriages but a bill for Registered Civil Partnerships is underway, after Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern set the wheels in motion earlier this year.

"Boyzone have made history by being the first boy band to feature a homosexual couple in a video and if the odds are anything to go by it might not be long before the ban on gay marriage is made history too!," Sharon McHugh, spokesperson for Paddy Power, said.

The bookie is also betting on which high profile Irish gay celebrity will say it loud and proud and get hitched first when the Act is eventually passed.

Westlife's Mark Feehily is their 3/1 favourite followed by a few other high profile names such as Big Brother's Brian Dowling at 6/1 and singer Brian Kennedy at 12/1.