MEET Brenda and Maria . .. and congratulate them. They have just celebrated their first wedding anniversary and like every newly wedded couple they are excited about their future life together.

They hosted their wedding on the tiny island of La Palma, close to Tenerife, and in front of about 40 friends and family members they were declared married under a sunny sky and new legislation which has legalised the marriage of same sex couples in Spain.

They chose to marry on La Palma because that was where Cork native Brenda Kelleher (30) met Maria Torres
(33) more than seven years ago when they were both volunteering on an organic farm on the picturesque island.

But then they arrived back to their lives in Galway and the personal happiness at their wedding was tainted slightly because in the eyes of the Irish State, they are not a married couple.

“We were on such a high when we got married and everyone had wished us well and sent us cards — and then we came back here and the legal situation is that we are still just seen as friends under Irish law,” Maria said.

Maria is originally from Valencia in Spain — a country which she says is very similar to Ireland in terms of tradition and the debate which raged there on the issue of marriage between same-sex couples until it was legalised two years ago.

“In Spain there would have been a lot of people who were against...