No: 23 The Civil Partnership Act 2010

It was December 23, 2010, and Dermot Aherne, then Minister for Justice and Equality signed the commencement notices for the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 at a ceremony with GLEN. The ceremony was meant to be held in the Department’s offices on Stephen’s Green but we had big snow in Dublin, and as the Minister was coming from Dundalk, we relocated the ceremony to a hotel by Croke Park. The notices brought the Act into force on January 1, 2011 and given the need to give three months’ notice, the first Civil Partnerships could be entered into in April 2011.

It was a relaxed and jovial occasion. There was great relief that finally and soon, lesbian and gay couples would have legal recognition of their relationships with equal rights in crucial areas such as social welfare, immigration, taxation, health and so on.

Karl Hayden took photos and videoed the event and did interviews with the Minister and others afterwards. There is a lovely interview with the late Christopher Robson, who was his usual insightful and humorous self. As this Act was a great achievement for our democratic republic, I thought it crucial that we have the tricolour at this celebratory event. I think the GLEN staffthought I was mad. Where were we going to get a tricolour and stand, at this short notice and in the middle of a snow storm! But get one they did and it’s there in the background of the photos.

There were just two speakers, myself as chairperson of GLEN and the Minister, and he spoke very generously, saying that the Act was the highlight of his legislative career, opening out rights to people. He also said that with the next General Election there would be an influx of younger TDs and that this would hasten the introduction of civil marriage, and so it proved to be.

Eoin Collins, then Director of Policy Change at GLEN, had done so much to hasten the introduction of civil partnerships and ensuring that they were on the basis of legal equality with civil marriage. His work on the Colley Group was pivotal as he managed to persuade them to put forward just two equality-based options for legal reform. These were marriage, and if not marriage (due to Constitutional issues), then full civil partnership giving the same legal protections and recognition as marriage.

Eoin was shortly to emigrate to New York to be with his partner Josep. Ironically the immigration equality that Eoin had done so much to achieve in Ireland was denied to him in the US.