The Irish government have blundered into a diplomatic nightmare over a ruling affecting thousands of foreign nationals, including Filipinos, who have had their marriages held in their embassies or consulates in the Republic.
Thousands of foreign couples who have got married at their country’s embassies in the Republic of Ireland in the past few years have being told their marriages are not legally recognized.
The ruling has sparked a diplomatic row between the Government and many other countries, which have asked Spain – the EU presidency – to interceded on their behalf. This decision ruling also affects both the citizens of European Union and non-EU states, whose embassies conduct marriage ceremonies.
The Irish General Register Office informed all foreign embassies them that marriages performed by diplomatic missions were not recognised as such unless they conformed to Irish law. They were also told marriages would not be valid unless they were performed by an authorised registrar and took place in a registered building which was open to the public, in other words, on Irish soil.
This comes in the wake of the Ireland's 2004 Civil Registration Act, which updated existing laws on registering weddings. It became law 5th November 2007, which means all marriages in foreign missions in Ireland since then are invalid.
This ruling has been challenged both by the opposition party and diplomats. One problem with this is that although international law states a marriage is invalid if not recognized in the country it is held in, foreign embassies are in fact pockets of the country they represent, so in fact a marriage held in the Philippine embassy in Dublin, if held according to Philippine law, has in reality been held in the Philippines and not Ireland.
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