Couple free to marry as court rules old law invalid

A DIVORCED woman and her ex-husband’s brother, who have been in a 20-year relationship, are free to marry each other after the High Court yesterday declared unconstitutional an early 20th century law that prevented them from marrying each other while the woman’s husband is still alive.

The couple are also suing for damages. Maura O’Shea, aged 45, of Ballybraher, Ballycotton, Co Cork, was in court for the decision by Ms Justice Mary Laffoy that the ban on her marrying her brother-in-law Michael O’Shea, aged 49, of the same address, while her ex-husband John is still alive, is not justified to either protect the family or the institution of marriage and is therefore 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 in England and having ecclesiastical roots in the Book of Leviticus.