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Catholic World News News Feature

Same-sex marriage legal challenge in Ireland November 12, 2004

An Irish judge ruled this week that a lesbian couple who were granted a marriage license in Canada will be allowed to argue that it should be legally recognized in Ireland.

High Court Justice Liam McKechnie said Ann Louise Gilligan and Katherine Zappone had present an arguable case that merits a full hearing. The women were "married" in British Columbia in September 2003, soon after a Canadian court declared it legal there. The Irish legal case could have far-reaching consequences. Not only is it the first legal challenge to the traditional understanding of marriage in Ireland, but it could also open up the floodgates in the European Union. Belgium and the Netherlands already allow the practice and Britain and Spain may follow suit.

If successful, the Irish case could spur similar lawsuits in other European countries where marriage remains protected as an institution of one man and one woman.

McKechnie emphasized that his ruling is not an endorsement nor an indicator of what an eventual decision will be. Zappone is a member of Ireland's government-appointed Human Rights Commission and Gilligan is a lecturer in philosophy in Dublin. Their lawyer has argued that neither the 1937 constitution nor recent tax laws, under which their complaint has been filed, explicitly define marriage as solely between one man and one woman. The case was partially justified by an appeal to the European Convention on Human Rights.