Northern Ireland couple make history with first same-sex marriage

Robyn Peoples, 26, and Sharni Edwards, 27, tied the knot in Carrickfergus, near Belfast, after landmark new legislation came into effect on Monday

Legal change was opposed by group of local lawmakers, but they failed in last-minute bid in October to block its implementation

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Sharni Edwards (right) and Robyn Peoples kiss after being married in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:30am, 12 Feb 2020Updated: 5:21am, 12 Feb 2020

A couple made history on Tuesday by becoming the first same-sex partners to get married in Northern Ireland, after a landmark change in the law last year.

Robyn Peoples, 26, and Sharni Edwards, 27, tied the knot in an afternoon ceremony in a hotel in Carrickfergus, near Belfast, after the new legislation came into effect on Monday.

The legal change followed campaigning by Amnesty International and partner organisations in the “Love Equality” coalition, which hailed it as “a landmark moment for equality in Northern Ireland”.

“We are literally living the dream, it’s incredible,” Edwards, a waitress from Brighton on the British mainland, told the domestic Press Association news agency soon after the service.

Robyn Peoples (left) and Sharni Edwards pose for the media after becoming the first same-sex couple to get married in Northern Ireland in Carrickfergus on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

“We didn’t expect to be the first couple, it’s coincidental.”