My first memory of Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan was seeing them on the news in October 2006, outside the Four Courts, as they began their quest through the Irish courts to have their Canadian marriage recognised here in Ireland. They had married in Vancouver in September 2003, months after marriage equality had been introduced in British Colombia. It was the first time I had seen a lesbian couple talk about their love, their deep commitment to each other, and their long-term relationship in public. It was the first time I had seen or heard about a married lesbian couple. It seems funny now, but we lived in a different country then. A less equal, less open, more frightened one.
Ann Louise and Katherine’s visibility and courageous litigation not only gave me (and many others) the inspiration and motivation to be my authentic self, but they also founded the movement for marriage equality in Ireland. Although the High Court judgement in December 2006 did not give them the outcome they were looking for, it did put the issue of equality for same-sex couples firmly on the political agenda. Katherine and Ann Louise appealed to the Supreme Court in February 2007. Their appeal came before the Supreme Court in 2012, but returned to the High Court to challenge parts of both the Civil Registration Act of 2004 and Civil Partnership Act of 2010.