BELFAST scored a first yesterday — but delivered it with the unmistakable imprimatur of Northern Ireland — when a lesbian couple became the United Kingdom’s first participants in a civil partnership ceremony as the native Old Testament tendency howled its dismay.

Seventy guests packed one of the campest buildings in these islands (the City Hall is nicknamed “the Wedding Cake” for its Rococo flourishes of Victoriana) as Shannon Sickels and Grainne Close exchanged rings and vows.

Northern Ireland was first because the registration period is shorter. Henry Kane and Christopher Flanagan, who arrived at City Hall in a pink stretch limousine shortly after Ms Sickels and Ms Close departed, became the first male gay couple to form a civil partnership.

But Northern Ireland’s fundamentalist streak ensured that the “Save Ulster from Sodomy” brigade — mostly members of the Rev Ian Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church — were outside singing hymns and hurling abuse such as “sodomy is a sin”, “you’re going to Hell” and “filth, filth, filth”.

Happily for the couple on their big day a counter-demonstration soon formed, with humour as its main weapon. Two satirical interlopers infiltrated the anti-gay ranks wearing garish sports jackets and toothbrush moustaches but no trousers, carrying their own placards as an antidote to the religious tracts being paraded in Donegall Square.

These read “Bring back slavery” and “Earth is flat”. There was so much laughter that even the moral indignation of the Christian fundamentalists seemed on the verge of giggles. At times it seemed that the excitement generated by the first occasion on which a same-sex couple could legally commit themselves to one another would descend into a punch-up. That it did not perhaps speaks volumes about how much this once dourly Presbyterian city, where playground swings used to be chained up on Sundays, has changed.

“Don’t call me a fruit again!” spat one demonstrator across the lines as both sides participated in a bizarre version of the conga, jumping in front of one another to smother their banners with their own. “Are you a fruit? You’re a sodomite and an abomination,” came the reply.

“This is about human rights.”

“It’s not, it’s about filth.”

“Oh, this is so ugly, isn’t it?” sighed a young man wearing eyeliner and a big pink tie.

Most of the action was at a different entrance to the City Hall, where Ms Sickels and Ms Close’s black cab, decorated with ribbons, arrived for their ceremony with the registrar.

But among the guests Brenda Murphy and partner Nuala Quiery decided they were not going to be intimidated and they proudly joined friends and family through the front entrance. “You need to repent, love,” cried James Dowson, of the Christian Reform Foundation, who mistook Ms Murphy and her friend as the happy couple. “You are marrying this other lady, and that’s a sin.”

“You’d be so lucky to have this lady, mate,” she replied.

After the ceremony Ms Sickels, wearing a white trouser suit, said: “This is about making a choice to have our civil rights acknowledged and protected and we could not be here without the hard work of many queer activists and individuals from the queer community.”

Mary Kay Mullin, of the Lesbian Advocacy Service Initiative, had a unique perspective on the occasion. She was at City Hall in 1969 as a student when People’s Democracy began its march for civil rights. “I’m here to support and celebrate because those men over there can be intimidating. But things have changed here, the law is in action and they are the voice of the past. We no longer need to listen to them. In 1969 I ended up in the river at Burntollet when we were attacked by Paisley’s crowd.

“In 1969 Paisley was outside the City Hall when we set off. He isn’t here today.”

A number of civil partnership ceremonies will take place in Scotland today followed by almost 700 in England and Wales tomorrow. Among the first will be Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish, who held a joint stag party in a London club last night. Among those attending were Cilla Black, Bryan Adams and TV presenter Janet Street-Porter.

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