Newlywed mum’s son denied Irish passport

A newlywed mum from Donegal who has had a baby with her wife in the UK has been denied an Irish passport for her 11-week-old son because of her gender.

Katie Gallagher, 34, received a letter from the Irish Passport and Visa Office bluntly refusing a passport for her son Griffin because she is technically not considered either his mother or his father, despite Katie’s own fertilised egg being implanted in her wife’s womb as part of an IVF process.

Katie and her wife Holly Groombridge, 31, who live in Suffolk, underwent two attempts at IVF before a successful implantation of Katie’s egg and an anonymous sperm donor, who was sourced through an American sperm bank.