7 short words - Same Sex marriage prohibited in Ireland

damien

Well, we were looking for where it banned same sex couples from marrying. We couldn't find it in the constitution, but in the Civil Registration Act of 2004 it states:

http://www.irlgov.ie/bills28/acts/2004/a304.pdf
From page 11:

(2) For the purposes of this Act there is an impediment to a marriage if—
(a) the marriage would be void by virtue of the Marriage Act 1835 as amended by the Marriage (Prohibited Degrees of Relationship) Acts 1907 and 1921,
(b) one of the parties to the marriage is, or both are, already married, 9 [No. 3.] Civil Registration Act 2004. [2004.] Pt.1 S.2 © one or both, of the parties to the intended marriage will be under the age of 18 years on the date of solemnisation of the intended marriage and an exemption from the application of section 31(1)(a) of the Family Law Act 1995 in relation to the marriage was not granted under section 33 of that Act,
(d) the marriage would be void by virtue of the Marriage of Lunatics Act 1811, or
(e) both parties are of the same sex.

Yoda

DamienM pointed me to the Civil Registration Act, 2004. This is "an Act to provide for the reorganisation, modernisation and naming of the system (to be known as the Civil Registration Service) of registration of births, still births, adoptions, marriages and deaths....". The text which deliberately and intentionally discriminates against same-sex couples is in the second section of the "General and Preliminary" part of the Act:

2.—(2) For the purposes of this Act there is an impediment to a marriage if—

(a) the marriage would be void by virtue of the Marriage Act 1835 as amended by the Marriage (Prohibited Degrees of Relationship) Acts 1907 and 1921,

(b) one of the parties to the marriage is, or both are, already married,

(c) one or both, of the parties to the intended marriage will be under the age of 18 years on the date of solemnisation of the intended marriage and an exemption application of section 31(1)(a) of the relation to the marriage was not granted under section 33 of that Act,

(d) the marriage would be void by virtue of the Marriage of Lunatics Act 1811, or

(e) both parties are of the same sex.

One would like to know who specifically is responsible for this bill, what members of the Oireachtas supported it, who if anyone opposed it, and so on.

Yoda

According to this discussion of the history of the bill, it was sponsored by Mary Coughlan, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs.

I have checked the Bill as initiated (presented 2003-07-17). It does not contain a mention of impediments to same-sex marriage. I have checked the Bill as amended in Select Committee. It was in committee from 29 January 2004 to 3 February 2004.

This needs looking into. The full debates are on that history page. I'm going to be in Iran for three weeks from Tuesday, so I doubt I will have time to look into it. But it would be worth knowing whether anyone mentioned this in debate in the Dáil or Seanad, or whether this discriminatory text was simply inserted into the Bill silently and without discussion.

damien

Mary Coughlan is the gracious lady who previously said that Ireland was not ready for same sex marriage.

Amnesiac_ie

It's odd that it got through both houses without any debate on that clause. Senator Norris must have been at a Joycean conference or something!

falteringstar

How the HELL did this pass everyone by?

It is an absolute disgrace I'd go so far as to say this act is both unconstitutional and contradictory to all recent equality legislation, it is clearly discriminating on the grounds of gender and sexuality. It is an absolute disgrace that no organisation on gay rights was consulted......

Yoda

Taxi's coming here in an hour, so I can't work on this, but if you follow the links in my second post enough you can read the text of all of the actual Dáil and Senate debates. I checked one of the Senate debate links (there are several); Norris does not refer to these seven words, but he did mention his disappointment that same-sex relations were not recognized. If someone has time to read these, perhaps something interesting will turn up. I'm afraid I won't be able to think about it for three weeks.

Victor

falteringstar wrote:

....and contradictory to all recent equality legislation,

And therein is the rub, the Oireachtas is exempt from that equality legislation.

Yoda

Anyone have a chance to look at the legislative record there?

Victor

damien.m wrote:

Same Sex marriage prohibited in Ireland

6 words?

/me gets coat.