Anything in the law to stop you having multiple wives?

In that case, the defendant married in a registry office in England. Her husband was involved in criminal activity and was jailed. She returned with her child to Limerick.

She met an old boyfriend who took her into his house and looked after herself and the child. She endeavoured to get a divorce from her husband but he refused unless he obtained custody of their child. She would not agree to that.

A well-intentioned catholic curate prevailed upon her that she was not married in the eyes of the church. He met them at six in the morning. He purported to marry them. The priest wanted to regularise the position of the man she was now living with and herself. The marriage was witnessed by the parish clerk and the priest's housekeeper.

When her husband was released from jail, he came to Limerick looking for his wife and his conjugal rights. He broke into the room where she was sleeping with her partner. A row developed between the two men. The gardaí were called. The sergeant who arrived decided that the cause of the trouble was the woman so he arrested her and charged her with bigamy. The two men then went drinking.

She pleaded guilty in the District Court. The district justice felt he could only impose one year and that that was not sufficient having regard of the nature of the crime. He sent her forward on her plea of guilty to the Circuit Court. She came before the most respected president of that court, Ó Briain J sitting at Limerick.

I was a young barrister listening to the case. My recollection is that Mr William Binchy was for the defendant, although the report has him appearing for the Attorney General. I vividly recall him demanding to know why the Attorney General did not prosecute the priest. She was an uneducated poor woman who was doing the bidding of her priest. The priest was an accessory before, at, and after “the fact”. The trial judge said that the crime would normally require at least eighteen months imprisonment. This was possibly to placate the learned district judge who had declined jurisdiction as “he could only give twelve months”.