Same-sex couples to be able to marry from next month

Same-sex couples will be able to marry from the middle of next month after legislation that is the end of a “46-year-long journey” for equal rights was ratified by both houses of the Oireachtas.

The marriage bill, which is the legal document in response to May’s referendum in favour of marriage equality, passed through the second stage of the Seanad yesterday and will be signed into law by President Michael D Higgins next week.

Speaking in the Seanad as the bill was passed, Independent senator David Norris said this is “the end of a 46-year-long journey”, before asking politicians to applaud people sitting in the public gallery who had sought the right to marry for decades.