Unmarried fathers in Ireland gain parental rights in landmark ruling

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2007-09-21 22:01

Story here. Excerpt:

"DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - An unmarried father of twin boys must have his children returned to his custody from England, a Dublin judge ruled Tuesday in a landmark judgment for the parental rights of unmarried men.
...
Until now, Irish law recognized no custody rights for unmarried fathers, chiefly because Ireland's conservative 1937 constitution emphasizes that such rights flow from marriage and motherhood.

But High Court Justice Liam McKechnie said the man, a school teacher identified in court only as «Mr. G,» was the de-facto joint guardian of the twins before the mother took them without warning to Manchester, northwest England, eight months ago."

Like0 Dislike0

Comments

To bad about the constitution though, sounds like if she appeals to the Supreme Court of Ireland she stands a pretty good shot at getting it reversed.

Hope the fathers rights groups in Ireland all band together around this decision and put as much pressure on the government as possible to get that amendment.

Now a case like this need to take place in every other country in the Western World and we'll be well on the road to having fathers recognized as parents by default rather then by the mothers sole discretion which is the standard today in most places.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by Paragon on Sun, 2007-09-23 14:14