No room at inn for same-sex couples

SAME-SEX couples can lodge an application for civil registration in HSE centres in Ennis, Ennistymon and Kilrush — but can’t officially endorse their partnership because the buildings were never designed with a room for a civil ceremony.

Heterosexual couples who wished to get married in a Clare registry office in the past couldn’t do so either because of the lack of a proper building.

Historically, Clare and Limerick were part of the same district and Clare people seeking a civil ceremony had to go to either Limerick or Nenagh in north Tipperary where ceremony rooms are available.