Jewish wedding at Waterford Courthouse, 1901

Marriage in Ireland (the Republic of Ireland) is a long-standing institution, regulated by various civil and religious codes over time. Today marriages are registered by the civil registration service, and solemnised by a solemniser chosen from a list maintained by Department of Social Protection.[1] The list includes priests, imams, rabbis, humanist celebrants, civil registrars themselves, and others.

How to register

Three months advance notice of intent to marry, provided to the local branch of the civil registration service, is required, starting from when the relevant application is received by the service.

A marriage registration form must be prepared, and issued by the relevant civil registrar;[2] sometimes known as a marriage licence, no legal marriage can now occur without this.

Prior to the issue of the form, couples at least one of whom is a foreign national, or involving an EU national and a non-EU national, must attend an interview, and in certain circumstances, the civil registrar can refuse to issue the marriage licence. Such decisions can be appealed to the courts.[3] The marriage registration form is finalised after the solemnisation of the marriage, and becomes valid when signed by the two parties to the wedding, and the solemniser.[2]

Statistics

As of 2017, 52.8% of opposite sex marriages were solemnised in Catholic church services, while 1,727 couples, for example, solemnised with Humanist Association of Ireland services and 1,159 couples with Spiritual Union of Ireland services.[2]

As of 2015, about 1/3 of marriages were solemnised by civil registrars; a limitation on this service was that it could only perform the ceremony from Monday to Friday, though venues beyond civil registry offices were permitted, with certain exclusions, such as beaches and private back gardens.[4]

Arranged marriages, both legal and illegal, were common before the end of the twentieth century,[5][6][7][8][9][10] but later became more common among immigrant communities.[11][12]

Activism and Reform

Prior to 1995, divorce was constitutionally prohibited;[13] both church and civil annulments (declarations that a marriage never existed legally, for example for reasons of incapacity) were possible but rare. Although the Catholic Church campaigned against divorce,[14] the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland passed in 1995, and divorce was legalised.[15]

Same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland has been legal since 16 November 2015, following the 2015 Irish constitutional referendum.[16] Its introduction was preceded by the use of civil partnerships in 2010, which gave same-sex couples rights and responsibilities similar, but not equal to, those of civil marriage.[17]

References

  1. ↑ "Updated List of Solemnisers in Ireland". 31 January 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Birney, Karen (11 January 2019). "Getting married in Ireland: The ultimate guide to the types of wedding ceremonies to choose from (and what each costs)". Irish Independent. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
  3. ↑ "How to get married in Ireland". www2.hse.ie. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  4. ↑ Holmquist, Kate (9 May 2015). "Don't want to be married by a priest? Call the solemniser". Irish Times. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
  5. ↑ Hill, Jane. "Arranged Marriages In Ireland". Ireland's Own.
  6. ↑ "Intro Matchmaking | Matchmaking in Ireland | Irish Dating". June 9, 2014.
  7. ↑ Connell, K. H. (1962). "Peasant Marriage in Ireland: Its Structure and Development Since the Famine". The Economic History Review. New Series. Wiley. 14 (3): 502–523. doi:10.2307/2591890. JSTOR 2591890.
  8. ↑ Connell, K. H. (16 December 1955). Marriage in Ireland after the Famine: The Diffusion of the Match (PDF) (Speech).
  9. ↑ Cassidy, Amanda. "Marriage, then love: Why arranged marriages are on the rise". IMAGE.ie.
  10. ↑ "Customs in Ireland, Birth, Marriage and Death". www.maggieblanck.com.
  11. ↑ Murphy, Darragh Peter. "The Government is finally going to outlaw forced marriages (but no one knows exactly how many take place in Ireland)". TheJournal.ie.
  12. ↑ Tuite, Tom (January 24, 2016). "Arranged marriages netted €350k". Irish Examiner.
  13. ↑ Shatter, Alan Joseph (1986). Shatter's Family Law in the Republic of Ireland. Wolfhound Press. pp. 81–101. ISBN 978-0-86327-080-2.
  14. ↑ Urquhart, Diane (6 February 2020). Irish Divorce: A History. Cambridge University Press. p. 232. ISBN 978-1-108-49309-3.
  15. ↑ Spreng, Jennifer E. (12 March 2015). Abortion and Divorce Law in Ireland. McFarland. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-7864-8435-5.
  16. ↑ Marriage Equality. "Marriage v Civil Partnership FAQs". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
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