Panti Beat The Queen In Irish Viewing Figures For Christmas Day Speech

Panti Bliss 1 - 0 Queen Elizabeth This year Panti gave a Christmas speech on TV3, looking back at the moments that defined 2015. Over on BBC One, on the same day, The Queen of England gave her annual Christmas message. The viewing figures are in and unsurprisingly Panti received nearly double the number of viewers than The Queen. 71,000 people tuned into TV3 to watch 'Queen of Ireland’s Christmas Message’, while on average 43,000, from the Republic of Ireland, tuned into BBC One to see The Queen speak. A key part of Panti's speech was about the marriage referendum which was held this year. "Back in May, Ireland was asked to make a change. In some ways it wasn't a big change - in a way, we were just asked to let more people get married if they wanted to. But to some people, on both sides of the question, it was huge", Panti said. "For some of us, me included, we were being asked to finally decide, forty years after a few brave men and women first asked, whether or not LGBT people are full and equal members of this society and deserving of the same respect as everyone else", she continued. Watch Panti's full speech here: Video via YouTube/TV3. Lead image via TV3.