This article is from page 14 of the 2011-07-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
CLARE couples who want to marry with the backdrop of a romantic view or to have a civil ceremony in the hotel where their reception is to be held will have to go join a queue more than a year long in Limerick.
At present, although some of Clare’s most beautiful spots would get the thumbs up as places where civil ceremonies would be allowed, staffing at the Clare registry offices is such that all civil marraiges are being dealt with through Limerick.
And with the recruitment ban in the public service, staff in the Limerick office can’t meet all the requests for civil ceremonies.
Bride-to-be Jennifer Flynn from Westbury was told the next date on which a registrar could come to her chosen hotel is a weekday a year from now.
“I was amazed because I was told three months notice was necessary but I never would have thought they were so booked up,” she told The Clare People .
Staff at the the Ennis registrar’s office confirmed that civil ceremonies for couples in Clare are currently being conducted in the Limerick office.
“We go through Limerick for the civil ceremonies at present. The couples have to contact the registrar there and give three months notice and the Limerick office will take it from there,” she said.
Sources in the registrars office also confirmed that the staff there are stretched and could not meet the growing demand in Clare for civil marraiges in situ.
For Jennifer, who plans to marry partner Colm next year, it means thinking it out again.
“We have the option of getting married in the registry office and then going to our reception and that’s probably what we will have to do. Neither of us are religious so we don’t want a church wedding. But the registry office seems so cold and impersonal and it means we’ll only be able to have our witnesses and a couple of other people at the actual marraige. I’m sure the registrar is very nice and will do everything possible to make it special but why make it legal to marry outside the office and then not have enough people to make that a possibility?” she said.