The incident prompted the couple to write a letter to Gay Community News magazine in Dublin, who published it in their November issue.
According to the letter, a waiter approached the couple during the course of their meal and told them that other customers had complained about their displays of affection.
After speaking with the waiter and the manager, the couple left the restaurant feeling 'humiliated'.
The reader's name and address were provided to the magazine, but the letter was printed anonymously.
Read the letter in full here:
We like to think of Ireland as a place where gay people are fully accepted and respected, especially since the landslide passing of the same-sex marriage referendum, but if my experience last week is anything to go by, this is still a surface image.
My partner and I were in a Dublin city centre restaurant celebrating our second anniversary, and we were being physically tactile with each other. Not kissing the faces of each other or anything, but holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes.
A waiter came to our table and told us that customers at another table were complaining about us. He suggested that we stop showing each other physical affection. We asked to see the manager, who said something similar, adding that he had no problem with gay people.
When we said we had every right to show each other affection, the manager said that it was unfortunate that other customers were uncomfortable, and suggested that we leave. He told us we wouldn’t be charged for our meal. As we were leaving the restaurant, feeling humiliated, a woman at one of the tables, probably the one who had complained about us, said the word “disgusting”.
This is not the indication, on any level, of acceptance,or even tolerance. The whole experience has really shaken the foundations of what I had come to believe post referendum about my country.
