Two women from Bishopstown in Cork have become the first same-sex couple in the country to be legally identified as the parents of babies from birth.

Geraldine Rea and Niamh O’Sullivan were both registered as the parents of twin girls Réidín and Aoibhín O’Sullivan Rea on the babies’ birth certs, without having to go through a court process. Geraldine had given birth to the twins at Cork University Maternity Hospital on February 4th following donor sperm treatment at the Waterstone Clinic.

The new process of direct registration follows the enactment last May of the final sections of the 2015 Child and Family Relationships Act.

Prior to the signing of the legislation into law, female same-sex couples had to go through a court process to re-register the birth of their children, in order for both of them to be legally recognised as the children’s parents.

However, since last May, the birth mother and the intending co-parent, be they spouse, civil partner or cohabitant, can now register directly with the registrar for the births, deaths and marriages as the parents of a child born as a result of a donor-assisted human reproduction procedure.