Marriage Act

The 2015 Marriage Act enacted the Thirty-Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland into law, which legalized same-sex marriage. Previously, same-sex couples could enter into civil partnerships under the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. The Marriage Act amended the Civil Registration Act 2004, inter alia, by adding a provision that allows anything that applies to marriage between two people of the opposite sex to apply to marriage between people of the same sex (Section 5). The Act also provides that nothing therein obliges a religious body to recognize a particular form of marriage ceremony or to solemnize a marriage (Section 7). It also provides for the recognition of certain foreign marriages and registered foreign relationships (Sections 12 and 13) and amends the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964 to allow a married couple of the same sex to adopt a child (Section 16).