Practitioners should be aware of the provisions of rule 3(4) of the Circuit Court Rules (Family Law) 2017, which came into operation on 14 June 2017 and which provides as follows: “In any proceedings which concern the marriage of any person, an original marriage certificate shall be produced. Where the certificate is not in Irish or English, the certificate, duly notarised, shall be produced together with a translation of that certificate into Irish or English, which translation shall be verified by the translator on oath or affidavit.”

It should be noted that the only new requirement with regard to such certificates that are not in Irish or English relate to the translation. An affidavit must now be produced in which the translator swears that the translation is a correct translation or the translator must swear to this in court.

The affidavit does not require to be sworn before a notary public, notwithstanding the reference to the words ‘duly notarised’.