This weekend marks the first anniversary of the passing of the historic marriage referendum.

Last May, Irish people backed marriage rights for same-sex couples by 62% to 38%. The Roscommon-South Leitrim region was the only constituency to reject the referendum, by a slim margin of just over 1,000 votes.

But there were some other narrow differences in other parts of the country. Donegal South-West carried the 'yes' vote by just 33 votes, while voters in Longford county rejected the refeerendum by a margin of less than 1%.

Newstalk reporter Richard Chambers told the Pat Kenny Show today about his recent visit to the Roscommon-South Leitrim area, where he spoke to constituents about how their region voted. 

One person said she voted 'no' out of fear that the children of same-sex couples would be subjected to bullying. Another said that while she was "glad for people", she voted 'no' due to her religious beliefs. 

Richard also spoke to Roscommon councillor Laurence Fallon, who said he feared criticism of how the constituency voted might colour people's view of the area.

"I would say people gave a fair bit of thought to this. There was too much negative publicity about this with regard to Roscommon and it was being treated as a backward area," he said.

"I'd be a little bit concerned that if you have enough of that media backlash, there is a risk that you'll create a view that there is a part of Ireland that is different. If someone is thinking of relocating to Roscommon, they might decide not to."

Listen back to the full report here: