1829 Catholic/Protestant marriage mystery

[MoranD]

Hi Dudley, very interesting thanks.
Strangely in Waterford there are many Catholic marriage records pre 1829 - back as far as 1750 or earlier. I had been very surprised to see this as I had thought that this wasn't allowed.
My guess is that they were mixed religion couple with John having possibly been Church of Ireland. Or John may have been trying to "fit in" in a city ruled my Anglicans, which it was. My Dad doesn't believe that his Great Grandparents could have been anything but Catholic

[MoranD]

May have solved this with information which I got on the Cheshire Archives site. See below. I believe that the rules governing UK would have been the same here. Just replace "Church of England" with "Church of Ireland". Sound logical?

Quote
"People of English Protestant denominations who did not follow the teachings of the Church of England, were known as non-conformists.
Before 1837, whatever their religious beliefs, most people were baptised, married and buried in the local Church of England parish church.
Despite differences of belief and even after the Toleration Act of 1689 which gave them the freedom to worship, many non-conformists continued to use their parish church for registration purposes.
Some non-conformists kept their own registers during the period 1689 -1837. These were mainly for baptisms and burials.
Between 1754 and 1837, legislation made it illegal to marry anywhere but in a Church of England parish church. Exceptions were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and Jews who were exempt from this Act and permitted to keep their own records."

[MoranD]

Another quote from the same site. This must have been the same in Ireland?

Quote
From 1754 to 1837, most Catholics complied with Hardwicke’s Marriage Act and married in Anglican churches to ensure that the marriage was valid under English law. However, many couples also had a Catholic marriage ceremony. It was only following the Catholic Relief Acts of 1778 and 1791 that a Catholic church could be legally registered as a place of worship and that Catholics felt it safe to keep registers which identified them. Subscription to the Roman Catholic church in Cheshire tends to be confined to urban areas.

[shanew147]

Legislation was often separate for Ireland, and the dates would be different - as far as I know Hardwicke's Act only applied to England and Wales, similarly the 1837 date. Registration of non-catholic marriages commenced in Ireland as a result of legislation in 1845. Full registration of births, deaths and other marriages started in 1864.

Catholic marriages took place well before this, without any additional marriage in the established church, although sometimes those Catholics that were well off married in the established church for legal reasons - e.g. property transfers, wills etc