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Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland
Barry Dignam and Hugh Walsh became the first male couple in Ireland to avail of new legislation allowing civil partnerships for same-sex couples in April 2011.
Marriage
Almost 1,000 civil partnerships in Ireland in 2012
Now almost 2,000 people have entered civil partnerships since they became available in Ireland in April 2011.
SOME 965 CIVIL partnerships took place in Ireland up to the end of 2012 which represents more than two every day since they first became available.
Almost 2,000 gay or lesbian people from all parts of the country have entered civil partnerships in Ireland since the new legislation to make them available was put in place in April 2011.
Today, Kieran Rose, chair of Gay and Lesbian Equality (GLEN) said these figures do not account for the many more hundreds of lesbian and gay couples in Ireland who were married or entered a civil partnership abroad. These marriages and partnerships are automatically recognised in Ireland as civil partnerships with the same rights and entitlements as Irish civil partnerships.
“In every county and every city across Ireland, lesbian and gay couples are celebrating their love and commitment in front of family, friends and communities,” Rose said. “These couples and their celebrations are changing forever the perceptions of lesbian and gay relationships.”
“These newly civil partnered couples are laying the groundwork for the next step in the rapidly evolving progress towards marriage for lesbian and gay couples,” he added.
Read: Labour TD calls Pope’s gay marriage comments “deeply insulting”>
More: Chief Justice launches guide to rights for gay couples>
