I was recently contacted by two couples who had planned to marry in a civil ceremony. When you start this procedure, you have to give several months notice but in the two cases the Civil Registration Office in question cancelled the ceremony, in one case with five days notice and in the other case with 14 days notice stating that they believed that a criminal offence had been committed and that the parties did not understand what was involved in the getting married and that they were referring the matter on to the gardai.
They made this decision despite the existence of a High Court order by Judge Hogan, which clearly states that it is beyond the powers of the Civil Registration Office to make a decision such as this.
I have absolutely no doubt that this was a piece of pure unadulterated bullying. The official responsible presumed that the two couples involved would be so intimidated by the threat of Garda involvement and by the last minute notice that they would not take any action. However, they did and a week later following the threat of High Court proceedings, they withdrew their objection and invited the couples to pick a new date to marry. The fact that both families had been put to enormous inconvenience and expense was entirely ignored.
If an employer treated an employee like this, I would have no hesitation in advising them to institute breach of contract proceedings based on bullying, harassment and intimidation. The State as we know however is above the law. Isn’t it strange that this only happens where the couples involved are foreign nationals?
In school a bully gets expelled. What do you do if the bully is the State?
Kevin Brophy