New divorce laws required over loophole

New legislation is needed to recognise foreign divorces after the Supreme Court found that Irish law does not recognise their validity in certain circumstances.

The Supreme Court judgment related to the recognition here of foreign divorces obtained before 1986, the year a law was enacted abolishing the dependent domicile of a married woman.

The five-judge court ruled, by four to one, that Irish law does not recognise the validity of a foreign divorce lawfully granted before October 1986 in a country where neither party to the relevant marriage was domiciled at the date divorce proceedings were instituted but where one party was resident.