Same-sex marriages in Ireland reach 21 per week on average

In the past twelve months since they became legalised in November 2015, there have been over one thousand same-sex marriages in Ireland.

A total of 1,082 marriages have been performed in the past twelve months, with county registrars performing an average of twenty one same-sex weddings each week.

It’s not only Irish same-sex couples who are tying the knot in Ireland since the legalisation of same-sex marriage last year, however.

One Fab Day, an Irish wedding blog, reported that they had noticed an increase in popularity for the services they provide for gay couples from outside of Ireland.

Susan Gallagher, One Fab Day’s creative director, said: “Currently we are assisting a gay Polish couple preparing for their wedding here as it is illegal back home.”

Dublin Leads The Way

Dublin City accounted for the largest number of these same-sex weddings, and with Dublin 2 totalling 450 of the 1,082 weddings (42%). By comparison, Dublin County accounted for 22 same-sex weddings in the same time period.

Cork had a total of 92 same-sex marriages, with 67 registered in Cork City and 25 registered in Cork County.

Kildare had 48 same-sex weddings in the last year and Wicklow had 56.

Ireland’s first same-sex marriage took place in Clonmel in Co Tipperary. Partners Cormac Gollogly and Richard Dowling were married on November 17, 2015 which was the day after same-sex marriage was legalised in Ireland.

Having joined as civil partners only two months earlier, the first same-sex couple to be married in Ireland had hoped to make history.

“We wanted to try and get in the history books and be first across the line,” Richard Dowling said.

For some couples who have already been civil-partnered, opting to have a same-sex marriage allows them to strengthen their union.

By the time that Ireland was celebrating the first anniversary of the referendum vote which passed same-sex marriage, 412 same-sex weddings had taken place.

Image: By Dennis Bratland (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons