More than 100 children married during wait to raise minimum age to 18

At least 116 children, including 91 teenage girls, have been married in Northern Ireland since work began more than three years ago on new laws to raise the minimum age.

It is legal for 16 and 17-year-olds in Northern Ireland to marry with permission from a parent or guardian, unlike in England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland where it is prohibited until the age of 18.

Stormont’s then finance minister Conor Murphy said in July 2022 that work to prepare new laws would begin after a public consultation showed overwhelming support for raising the minimum age to 18.

The Commissioner for Children and Young People Chris Quinn said he recommended the laws come in “as soon as possible”.

The latest data, from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) and the General Register Office for Northern Ireland (GRONI), does not break down the figures by community background.

However, Stormont’s consultation on marriage reform, which took place in 2021 to 2022, indicated the majority of under 18s married by the Catholic Church are from the traveller community.

A member for an organisation that works with the traveller community – Craigavon Travellers Support Committee (CTSC) – said it was “still a cultural norm in some traveller families that marriage at 16 and 17 is acceptable”.

Lisa Hogg added: “At the same time, we are also seeing an important shift, particularly among younger women, who are saying they would prefer to marry around the age of 19 or 20.”

In allowing marriages for people under 18, Northern Ireland is out of step with much of the rest of the UK – England and Wales – and the Republic.

While Scotland allows marriage for those aged 16 and 17, its government confirmed in July it was committed to consulting on raising its minimum marriage age to 18.

Child marriage can disproportionately affect young girls, research from the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) has shown.

It indicated that child marriage can compromise a girl’s development by resulting in early pregnancy, social isolation, limited career opportunities and increased risk of domestic violence.

The Law Society of Northern Ireland’s submission to Stormont’s consultation warned that there is an increased risk of children being trafficked to Northern Ireland and entering forced marriage.

In September 2024, the Northern Ireland Executive gave approval for the bill to be drafted to raise the minimum age for marriage and civil partnership to 18, and to criminalise the arrangement of under-age marriages and civil partnerships.

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance, now headed up by Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd, said the drafting of the bill was “now in its later stages of completion”.

They said it would be brought before the Northern Ireland Assembly for consideration and approval once it is finalised, and that O’Dowd intends to bring the bill during the assembly’s 2025/26 term.

Figures published by Northern Ireland’s registrar general – which monitors registrations of births, deaths and marriages – show that from July 2022 until the end of June 2025, 91 girls and 25 boys aged under 18 got married.

These figures are based on the assumption each individual married only once as a 16 or 17-year-old during these time periods. The data for 2024 and 2025 is provisional.

The Craigavon Travellers Support Committee (CTSC) in Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon supports increasing the minimum legal marriage age to 18 and called for the government to continue consulting directly with traveller communities and to invest in awareness and education.

The organisation’s operations manager Lisa Hogg said: “We recognise and respect traveller culture and traditions, but we also know from the evidence that early marriage can affect health, wellbeing and education, especially for young women.”

She added that some local priests have already introduced their own practice of not conducting weddings before the age of 18.

“While some marriages at a young age may be supportive and stable, we also see situations where young people struggle.

“A girl might marry someone she doesn’t know well, or feel pressure to settle down before she is ready.

“By the age of 18 or 19, some may already be parents, facing challenges such as financial dependence or relationship difficulties. These are the circumstances that worry us most.”

South Tyrone Empowerment Programme (Step) has also called for the legislation to be brought forward at the earliest opportunity.

Deirdre McAliskey, Step’s policy and engagement manager, said: “Through our partnership work with An Tearmann traveller support group we know that many girls and boys still marry under the age of 18.

“There exists a diversity of views and opinions on this practice and, as the law develops, we need to minimise the potential for criminalisation through education and support.”

She added that raising the legal age to 18 would “bring us into line with international human rights standards and reduce potential for violation of children’s rights through coercive, sexual or financial abuse”.

She added: “For children from the Irish Traveller community, we will need to see a much more holistic approach which acknowledges and addresses how few other ‘rites of passage’, such as school completion, graduation, secure employment or tenancy, exist for them at present.”