UK transwoman suing because Irish citizenship not recognised for his child.

[BruachAbhann]

I can't believe we've gotten to this state where a newspaper is referring to 'her sperm'!
Basically, a UK man who has transitioned to transwoman used his frozen sperm to impregnate his female partner (who doesn't have Irish citizenship). He is now suing because the baby is not being recognised as an Irish citizen. He has Irish citizenship but does not want to be registered as the 'father'.

'The woman - who has Irish citizenship while her wife does not - submits that if she has to claim to be the "father" of the child as part of the application, it would be an "offensive, discriminatory and unjust attack" on her person, gender identity and legal status.'

It's so confusing reading the article as the trans woman is being referred to as a 'woman' and 'she' but 'her sperm' really takes the biscuit.

Hopefully, this case might force the Irish government to decide whether biology matters!

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/trans-woman-who-used-her-sperm-to-have-baby-with-wife-challenges-irish-citizenship-refusal-for-child/a1333201313.html?errorCode=0

Content below.
A UK transgender woman, who used her frozen sperm to have a baby with her wife, has been granted permission to bring a High Court challenge against a refusal to grant Irish citizenship to the child on the basis that she is not the biological mother.
The woman - who has Irish citizenship while her wife does not - submits that if she has to claim to be the "father" of the child as part of the application, it would be an "offensive, discriminatory and unjust attack" on her person, gender identity and legal status.
At the High Court this week, the woman was granted leave to challenge a refusal by the State, which does not recognise her as the birth mother, to enter the child on the Foreign Births Register.
The case is being taken by the child through the woman against the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General and Ireland.
The woman is seeking a declaration from the High Court that she is legally and genetically a parent of the child.
She is also seeking an order compelling the State to register the child on the Foreign Births Register and for the child to be granted citizenship under Section 7 (1) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956.

Persons born outside of Ireland who have an Irish national grandparent born in Ireland may obtain Irish citizenship through registration with the Foreign Births Register, which is maintained by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
In submissions to the High Court the woman, who was born male, states that she is a UK resident but with Irish citizenship through her own lineage.
The submissions state that the woman had stored sperm with a UK fertility clinic, intending it to be used at a future date. She changed her name and transitioned from a man to a woman under UK law, receiving a UK gender recognition certificate.
The woman married her female partner and frozen sperm was then used to have a baby with her wife by an IVF procedure at a UK clinic.
The woman says she fears any UK withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights would mean her family could lose its protections and status in that country.

It is submitted by the woman that her child was refused entry into the foreign births registry - thereby denying Irish citizenship - as the woman was not the biological mother of the child and because her wife, who gave birth to the child, was not an Irish citizen.
The woman submitted that the Department of Foreign Affairs informed her that "under Irish law, as applied to date, the mother of the child is the woman who gives birth to the child and therefore the child would derive their citizenship through that mother".
It is claimed by the woman the department's position is that, because she is not the biological mother of the child, she therefore does not meet the requirement of an Irish citizen parent and the application cannot proceed.
The woman further submits that she could have claimed to be the "father" of the child and "could have possibly obtained citizenship by descent that way". "I feel it would invalidate me as a trans woman, invalidate my legal status as a woman and invalidate my same-sex marriage," she said.
The woman submits that if she had to claim to be the "father" of the child, it would be an "offensive, discriminatory and unjust attack" on her person, gender identity, legal status and on same-sex marriage.
The woman also submits this would also be an unjust attack "on the State's obligation to protect the family as the natural and fundamental unit group of society".
Ms Justice Sara Phelan granted the woman leave for judicial review of the matter and adjourned the case to January.

This...

Headline: Man demands attention.

Someone wise told me to look for who is not saying anything. Most people are afraid to broach the subject; most people tend to agree with the terfy perspective. But somebody has to go first! I've heard great stories of women tentatively raising the subject at work, to discover that absolutely everybody agrees.

That won't always be the case, but you'll often be pleasantly surprised!

A similar tale about two "mothers" and "her sperm" in Israeli news: https://www.ynet.co.il/economy/article/hyhmrbsyzg

Also this individual must be an Irish citizen through one or both of their parents rather than being born in Ireland themselves.

If they were born in Ireland their child would not need to be entered on the Foreign Births Register.

My father was Irish so I was able to apply for an Irish passport directly, whereas for my daughter we had to apply for her to be put on the Register.

It's probably time for a challenge to the GRA in Ireland or whatever law brought in self ID (sorry, not sure), so that, similar to the FWS case, references to gender and so on mean biological sex. I don't think that's defined in Irish law. Yet.

Please forgive me if I'm totally wrong here, I'm skimming the thread (mouth open!) and vaguely recall the above re Irish related laws.

The Irish GRA creates a clear split in the meaning between "sex" and "gender" as the two words are used in a way that indicates they are two different concepts in that act.

Sex being biology and
Gender being a way to live.

Up untill 2015 the legislation which used gender could be read as the law was passed with the intent that the words meaning was a polite swop out for sex.

There may be a problem if any "modern" legislation dealing with citizenship and birth registration used the term gender rather than sex.

However the GRA IMO will not come into play as the individual must follow the Irish law to be recognised as a female/woman/mother.

And he and his child needs to be registered under the Irish register of births and the 2004 law on registration used the word sex.

https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2004/act/3/schedule/1/enacted/en/html#sched1

FIRST SCHEDULE
Particulars to be Entered in Registers
Section 19 .

PART 1
Particulars to be Entered in Register of Births

Date and place of birth.
Time of birth.

Sex of child.

Forename(s) and surname* of child.
Personal public service number of child.
Forename(s), surname, birth surname, address and occupation of mother.
Former surname(s) (if any) of mother.
Date of birth of mother.
Marital status of mother.
Personal public service number of mother.
Birth surname of mother's mother.
Forename(s), surname, birth surname, address and occupation of father.
Former surname(s) (if any) of father.
Date of birth of father.
Marital status of father.
Personal public service number of father.
Birth surname of father's mother.
Forename(s), surname, qualification, address and signature of informant.
Date of registration.
Signature of registrar.

Yes, it would have saved me a lot of time finding the relevant documents, filling in the forms and waiting months.

This man fathered a child using his sperm - biological reality.
He now wants to try to force the Irish state to give his child Irish citizenship on the basis that he is the mother rather than the father.
This is why the application was refused.
He is not the mother and can never be.
The mother under Irish law is the adult female human who gives birth to the child - which he did not do and could not do.

The child's mother is his wife.
He can claim citizenship for his child by stating he is the biological father which is what he is, regardless of how he identifies.
The child already has one mother and it's not him.

The child could not exist without a father and that' s him.

I'm sooooo pissed off about this issue. It's the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm in the process of writing a letter and going to send it to every TD I can find. I am not going to do nothing while they try to take away the word and meaning of 'mother' from us and will try claw back the right to call ourselves women.

FFS

?????

Sorry, I was momentarily confused about what you meant. My head is all over the place- I've just written the first draft of the letter.

"I feel it would invalidate me as a trans woman, invalidate my legal status as a woman and invalidate my same-sex marriage,"

FFS. Still, I guess if you’re attempting to bend reality to your cause, you may as well go the whole hog.

AnSolas · 13/11/2025 10:21
The Irish GRA creates a clear split in the meaning between "sex" and "gender" as the two words are used in a way that indicates they are two different concepts in that act.
Sex being biology and
Gender being a way to live.

Thanks, An Solas, I wasn't aware that 'they' [Irish parliament] had actually got around to giving a clear definition of 'gender' before they waved the GRA through with absolutely NOBODY raising any objections to it - sorry that's not accurate: there were some criticisms that the GRA didn't go far enough as it didn't cover 'trans' children..

It would be wonderful if a case could be brought to the High Court [our equiv of UK Supreme Court] to test the meaning of sex and gender in Irish legislation.
I don't see it happening. Having lived for a long time in the UK, I am constantly reminded about the importance of scale - in a country with 70 million people there's the possibility of various 'flavours' of feminist groups including gender critical feminists like FWS; the existence of 'LGBTQI+++++' but also of the LGB Alliance, etc etc.

In a country of 5m people, if you scale that down, groups like GC feminists or the Irish LGBA are going to be very small, and poorly resourced - keen, motivated, active and enthusiastic, fair play to them, but that won't butter any legal parsnips, so to speak..

I just don't see the necessary critical mass of GC feminism in Ireland to take on the GRA as FWS did in the UK.

If there is a challenge, I think it's more likely to be from ultra-conservatives, in which case us Irish GC feminists will be force-teamed with what is described as 'the far right'.

That all sounds very depressing😟
I think seeing serious journos in Ireland being forced to write and speak words like 'her frozen sperm' 'her wife gave birth to her baby' as if they made any sense was very depressing.

Bruach - I have this evil plan, which I'll probably never carry out because I have so many 'plans' that I never carry out! - of copying what current TDs [MPs] and Senators said in support of the Gender Recognition Act in 2015, sending it to them, and/or their current party leaders, and asking them if they still stand by what they said.

Spoiler alert: their universal enthusiasm for genderwoo has not stood the test of time well, and I think many of their constituents would be very unimpressed with their lack of scrutiny..

Don't they do that already? Andrew Bridgen MP certainly thinks so. He says living and working in the EU post Brexit is not a problem ; ' You just apply to the Dublin government for a passport '.

Unless he is mistaken. But isn't possible , is it Ted?

I dont think we need to team up with the far right @MarieDeGournay . Just the average rural TD. Most of them are fairly apolitical - unless the GAA and Credit Union count as political ideology.

I live in a rural constituency in Munster. People here voted for Equal Marriage and Repeal by big majorities ,though Mass attendance remains high by national standards. There is also a lot of compassion for trans people. But I've never met a person , not one , who thinks you can actually change sex , that a man can bear a child or a woman father one. Farming people are only too well aware of mammalian reproduction.

We'd have to couch this in the appropriate lingo. ' Some hairy ould gobdaw in our Camogie team is it? No votes for that here , deputy.'

Re taking a case to the Irish High Court - Naomi Cunningham has Irish grandparents through her dad
Holyrood Inside Politics | Naomi Cunningham: I’m fuelled by rage, and I’ve been lucky
so she could play football for Ireland .. 'Niamh Ní Chuinneagáin' has a certain ring to it, hasn't it?... Just sayin'...😁

I agree that TWAW didn't trickle down from the politicians to what Myles na gCopaleen called 'The Plain People of Ireland'.

I asked around some of my 'elders' and found examples of two completely non-gender-conforming people back in Days of Yore, one in Dublin and the other in rural Ireland - a man who wore makeup and was called 'Mary' by his neighbours, and a woman who only wore men's clothes, did men's work, drank pints with the men, and swore like a trooper.
They were regarded with a certain amount of pity and amusement, but nobody bothered them and nobody thought they had 'changed sex'.

I agree with you that the majority of The Plain People of Ireland - and probably a lot of their political representatives - don't believe that people can change sex.
It is evidence of the disproportionate power of the trans juggernaut that such a large majority of people daren't say that openly.

I don't think we should team up with the ultra-conservatives at all, it's just that they are more likely than us to have the ways and means of taking it to the High Court.

Having cake you don’t like, eating the cake you don’t like and then demanding you are given more cake you don’t like because you have eaten all the original cake you don’t like, but now you think it is mean that you should be offered cake you don’t like because eating cake you don’t like is against your human rights and makes you very very very sad is a funny old legal argument imo.

I knew that Bridget is no longer an MP as he lost his seat in 2024. I feel a little guilty indulging in
schadenfreude on reading the following in his Wikipedia entry.

Family legal dispute
edit
Bridgen has been involved in a long legal battle against his own family's potato and vegetable business, AB Produce, stating the firm treated him unfairly and forced him out, while the business was suing him over claims he has failed to pay rent on a £1.5 million property owned by the firm. In April 2022, High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he "lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner", was "an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct", and "gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions". After losing the case, Bridgen stated that "in actuality I won the case and my brother will be compelled by the Court in due course to repay considerable sums of money back to the businesses", adding "if courts always got everything correct the first time there would be no need for appeal mechanisms".[100] In August 2022, Bridgen was evicted from the property, and ordered to pay £800,000 in legal costs.[101]

MarieDeGournay · 16/11/2025 11:09

AnSolas · 13/11/2025 10:21
The Irish GRA creates a clear split in the meaning between "sex" and "gender" as the two words are used in a way that indicates they are two different concepts in that act.
Sex being biology and
Gender being a way to live.

Thanks, An Solas, I wasn't aware that 'they' [Irish parliament] had actually got around to giving a clear definition of 'gender' before they waved the GRA through with absolutely NOBODY raising any objections to it - sorry that's not accurate: there were some criticisms that the GRA didn't go far enough as it didn't cover 'trans' children..

@MarieDeGournay
Ooof you give the elected toooooo much credit there is no clear definition of "gender" in Irish law.

Just that its been defined a way of living in the GRA which is somehow different for women and men. And its not fixed as the GRA can be refused/cancelled.

https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2015/act/25/section/10/enacted/en/html#sec10

Requirements on application for a gender recognition certificate

10. (1) A person who applies for a gender recognition certificate under section 8 shall furnish the following to the Minister:

(f) a statutory declaration declaring that he or she—
(i) is not married or a civil partner,

(ii) has a settled and solemn intention of living in the preferred gender for the rest of his or her life,

(iii) understands the consequences of the application, and
(iv) makes the application of his or her free will.

The Enoch Burke case will touch on some parts of it with the language. But i think he will end up loosing as the right of a child to an education as approved by a parent will trump his rights to be employed as an objecting teacher in that school.

I dont think that any of woman held in the Limerick Prison with BK will bring a case to the HC for cruel punishment.

Other future stuff like the proposed legislation (eg period products is for bleeders not women) trying to tapdance could still prove to be a problem eg breast/cervical cancer has to also be for women who have has their body part removed etc. but the public system has no obligation to provide screening care for "men".

There could be a challange on marraige grounds as the State has legislated for a forced "same sex" / "both sex" union by not bringing section f(i) above into force.

Or abortions being only for women....

So this case may be a little bit of a game changer as it is trying to challange the legal meaning of woman (& man by default) and mother both of which are used in the Constitution.