Court ruling a positive step towards legalising humanist marriages in NI, says model

judges have paved the way for enabling legally recognised humanist marriages in Northern Ireland, it has been claimed.

The Court of Appeal identified a legislative route for couples to avoid potential discrimination by appointing a celebrant who shares their beliefs.

Belfast model Laura Lacole, who wed Republic of Ireland international footballer Eunan O’Kane following a previous legal battle, insisted the verdict will allow other humanists to have the ceremony they want.

She said: “This outcome is a massive positive — hopefully now it will not just be Eunan and I that can have a legally recognised humanist marriage.”

Under current law a couple seeking a humanist wedding must also have a separate civil registration for it to be officially acknowledged.

In June last year, Belfast woman Ms Lacole won her High Court challenge to the refusal to grant official status for her wedding ceremony.

She had issued judicial review proceedings against the General Register Office for not authorising the marriage to be overseen by British Humanist Association celebrant Isabel Russo.

A judge held the marriage was a manifestation of the model’s beliefs, and that she was denied equal treatment to that given to religious couples — a breach of her human rights.

He ordered the granting of temporary authorisation for a humanist celebrant to oversee a legally binding wedding.

It meant Ms Lacole and Mr O’Kane were able get married at a ceremony in Co Antrim.

However, Attorney General John Larkin QC and the Department of Finance appealed the verdict and its implications.

Mr Larkin argued that the 2003 Marriage Order includes provisions for the solemnisation of civil marriage — ensuring no breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Delivering judgment, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan allowed the appeal by setting aside the declaration of incompatibility with human rights legislation.

The court accepted the statuSENIOR tory prohibition of a humanist celebrant solemnising Ms Lacole’s marriage would have constituted discrimination under human rights law.

Crucially, however, it considered that Article 31 of the 2003 Order provides a basis for avoiding such discrimination by enabling the appointment of Ms Russo without having to utilise an interpretive tool within the Human Rights Act. Laura Lacole outside the Court of Appeal in Belfast yesterday