Ireland's voters will go to the polls in May to vote on a gay marriage referendum, and one citizen who’s fully supportive of the right to marry is Colin Farrell.

As we’ve reported before, Farrell’s brother Eamon is gay and had to deal with lots of abuse growing up in Dublin. Farrell remembers the hurt – physical and emotional – and has been a vocal supporter of gay rights for some time now. On Monday night he was interviewed on a new talk show in Ireland urging a yes vote for marriage equality.

Eamon Farrell and his husband Stephen married in Canada in 2009, and returned to Ireland at the end of that year for a civil partnership ceremony in which Colin served as best man.

"To see them every day live their lives as a happily married couple is an amazing thing, and to think that they had to leave their own country to do that is sad and disappointing and just grossly unfair I feel," Farrell told interviewer Claire Byrne.

"I carry Ireland with me everywhere I go, and I love my country deeply. This is my coming out of the closet as it were publicly and saying that I support this vote with every fiber of my being.”

Farrell remembers several horrific moments from Eamon’s childhood, all because others pegged him as gay.

"I remember him coming home with blood on his shirt, and he got plenty of beatings and he got just called names continuously," Colin said.

"So he had a very, very, very tough time, a lot of cruelty, like real, absolute shameful cruelty that was placed upon him."

In other Farrell news, his latest ad for Dolce & Gabbana was released last week, and if the scent smells as good as he looks it’s bound to be a big hit.