A Belfast woman who is due to marry her fiancé, the Republic of Ireland footballer Eunan O'Kane later this month, has won a landmark High Court case to secure legal recognition of their humanist wedding.
Laura Lacole was challenging the refusal to grant official status at the ceremony, and the judge ruled today that her beliefs had been unlawfully denied equal treatment with religious couples, and he granted a temporary authorisation for a British Humanist Association celebrant to perform a legally valid and binding wedding on 22 June.
The ruling was welcomed by the bride-to-be who was in Belfast High Court for the hearing.
Mr O'Kane, who plays for Leeds United, was not in court as he is training with the Republic of Ireland squad ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Austria on Sunday in Dublin.
Humanist marriages are legal in the Republic and in Scotland but not in England, Wales and the North.
