Judge rules in-laws may marry

A High Court judge yesterday wished a "happy life" to a divorced woman and her brother-in-law who had successfully challenged the constitutionality of laws preventing them from marrying.

Ms Justice Mary Laffoy was speaking after being told the final legal obstacle to the couple's marriage had been removed as the State would not be appealing against her finding of unconstitutionality in the landmark case.

David Hegarty SC, for Maura O'Shea and Michael O'Shea, said a negotiated settlement of the matter had been agreed with the State. This involved the State agreeing not to appeal the High Court decision and his clients withdrawing their claim for damages. His clients were also to receive their costs.

Because the judge had declared unconstitutional a law that prevented the couple from marrying each other while Ms O'Shea's ex-husband lived, the couple were free to marry, he added.

Ms Justice Laffoy said she wished the couple well and remarked: "I hope they have a happy life."

Maura O'Shea (45), Ballybraher, Ballycotton, Co Cork, and her brother-in-law Michael O'Shea (49), of the same address, had booked a wedding reception in Ballymaloe House in east Cork and had learned of the ban on their marrying each other within weeks of their planned wedding some years ago.

When they were finalising arrangements with a registrar, they learned of the legal ban on marriages such as theirs.

Last month Ms Justice Laffoy ruled the ban was not justified to either protect the family or the institution of marriage and was unconstitutional. The prohibition on such marriages was contained in an Act of 1907, as amended by a 1921 Act, both Acts dating back to the reign of Henry VIII.

Maura O'Shea had married John O'Shea, brother of Michael O'Shea, on October 23rd, 1980. The couple had two children, were separated in January 1985 and were divorced in May 2000.

John O'Shea is still alive, has remarried and has two children by that second marriage.

Maura and Micheal O'Shea were prevented from marrying by Section 3.2 of the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act, 1907, as amended by the Deceased Brother's Widow's Marriage Act, 1921. It prohibits marriage between a man and the sister or half-sister of his wife during the wife's lifetime or between a woman and the brother or half-brother of her husband during the husband's lifetime. In her reserved judgment, Ms Justice Laffoy found the section was inconsistent with the Constitution, in particular as amended by the people with the introduction of divorce in 1996.