The Civil Registration Service investigated 41 weddings last year as suspected “marriages of convenience”, with 20 ceremonies ultimately prevented from proceeding.

A couple has brought a legal challenge to a refusal to allow them to marry because it would allegedly be a sham marriage.

An Irish-based Portuguese woman who wishes to marry her partner before their child is born has secured the permission of the High Court to challenge the Civil Registration Office's refusal to recognise her Portuguese divorce.