SCOTTISH Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has revealed that she and her partner want to marry in Ireland if the nation votes "yes" in a referendum on same-sex marriage later this week.

Ms Davidson said her Irish girlfriend, Jen Wilson, is "desperate" to see the change in legislation passed on Friday so that the couple can tie the knot in her home country.

Ireland wants to change its constitution to extend civil marriage rights to gay couples - a move that requires the approval of its parliament and of its citizens in a referendum.

Polls show the Yes campaign is well ahead, but the controversial vote has pitted Ireland's Catholic religious leaders against the Government.

Speaking during a joint interview on a Dublin radio station, Ms Davidson, 36, dismissed warnings about legalising same-sex marriage, saying the "sky hadn't fallen in" since its introduction in Scotland last December.

She said: "The question is: do people who love each other, who are already permitted and encouraged to have civil partnerships, should they be denied marriage? I love this woman that is sitting to my left here. I would very much like it if it was a possibility for her to go home to get married because there are young people who are leaving Ireland right now because they don't fell like they can be their whole selves."

Ms Wilson, a 33-year-old marketing assistant for a green energy charity, said she had felt compelled to leave her hometown of Wexford in 2003 because she "just never really felt I could be completely myself".

She added: "I gave myself a really hard time about being gay. It's not something that was terribly openly discussed I think in general in Ireland at the time or seen as being acceptable."

Ms Wilson will not have a vote in Friday's referendum, however, as she is resident in Scotland.