Apparent Error in GRO Copy, Can GRO Check Original?

[Wexflyer]

Seems strange they insisted on signatures of all on the R.C. return, including witnesses, and then just copied into their books.

This!

My default assumption back then (1990s-2004), and indeed my assumption until now, has been that the original, signed Catholic marriage registration forms must surely have been retained. The signatures were and are a legal requirement, so discarding the signed originals would seem bizarre! So much so that I never even entertained the possibility - until this discussion.

[Purpeller]

Very interesting thread.

Just wanted to add that I ordered a copy of a COI ancestral couple's civil marriage many years before Irishgenealogy existed. Later I went to the RCB library and I looked up the parish register. It was an identical image - the same handwriting, etc. They married in a Dublin church which is no longer a church.

[Jon_ni]

Purpeller
The CoI minister (or his curate) made the quarterly copies so the handwriting is often be the same, differences are in the hand for the signatures (or X mark) of the bride, groom and witnesses and whether the entry number is handwritten or pre-printed.
For the Grangegorman (Dublin) example ones in <reply 20>, marriage entry 13, the brown faded page is scanned from the RCB holdings and written on the marriage day 31 Oct 1866, the other the true copy of it made 7 Apr 1867.
That minister has not been the promptest in sending his copies, is now into quarter 2 he should have sent eg 7 Jan 1867 for the preceeding 3 months. Both were written by Henry Hogan per his certification at the bottom of the quarterly copy.
The next entry in the RCB parish register [#14] is 27 Jan 1867, with 4 very different hands apparent in the signatures, and was performed by Wm Martin. By co-incidence he makes the quarterly copy (for Jan to March) on 4 Jun 1867, two thirds into the next quarter, but has a least sent on separate page and not combined with the Apr-Jun ones (sent 19th July) thereby complicating the volume filing, quarterly surname indexing and page numbering by the clerks in Dublin.

The next pages:
https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/display-pdf.jsp?pdfName=d-511-3-2-008
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1867/11486/8221828.pdf
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1867/11496/8226907.pdf

Edit: also the difference of just 2 marriages to a page on the parish/RCB vs 4 on the certified copy. Can see the bound book stitching and edges of the hardback cover in entries 15 & 16 of the churchrecords link; it had 50 pages & 100 entries then they start a new volume 511-3-3-001

[Purpeller]

Thanks - I will compare them side by side to check.

[Jon_ni]

Wexflyer, I wrote above

Section 18 of the 1863 Act the right to search local district indexes and obtain a certified copy does not appear to have been repealed (reworded 2002 but still effective), though the current practicalities of that may be rarely tested.

That was incorrect it seems with regard to public inspection, and perhaps you were aware hence your opening question "Has anyone had any success in getting the GRO to check the original registration? If so, how does one go about this?" following on from your background "In the 1990s and early 2000s - through at least 2004..." https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=877085

Due to other posts today I noticed that within https://www.ombudsman.ie/publications/reports/hidden-history-the-law-th/
Submissions from interested groups
The Civil Registration Act 

  “Unfortunately, despite very strong opposition being voiced prior to the passing of the Civil Registration Act other than through searching an index the long established right to make searches in the locally held civil registers was rescinded.”
     “The 2004 legislation has rescinded the long established right to carry out searches among the locally held original Registration District books”
     “The authorities used to recognise that at times a manual search through a Registration District book may be the only way to locate the required entry without reference to the index attached to the book.”

You co-incidently posted the 2004 Act in relation to modern certificate formats and noted there had been numerous repeals in the Act.
So for future readers this seems to bit that now applies to Searches in indexes and registers https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2004/act/3/enacted/en/print#sec61

[Wexflyer]

Wexflyer, I wrote above

Section 18 of the 1863 Act the right to search local district indexes and obtain a certified copy does not appear to have been repealed (reworded 2002 but still effective), though the current practicalities of that may be rarely tested.

That was incorrect it seems with regard to public inspection, and perhaps you were aware hence your opening question "Has anyone had any success in getting the GRO to check the original registration? If so, how does one go about this?" following on from your background "In the 1990s and early 2000s - through at least 2004..." https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=877085

Due to other posts today I noticed that within https://www.ombudsman.ie/publications/reports/hidden-history-the-law-th/
Submissions from interested groups
The Civil Registration Act 

  “Unfortunately, despite very strong opposition being voiced prior to the passing of the Civil Registration Act other than through searching an index the long established right to make searches in the locally held civil registers was rescinded.”
     “The 2004 legislation has rescinded the long established right to carry out searches among the locally held original Registration District books”
     “The authorities used to recognise that at times a manual search through a Registration District book may be the only way to locate the required entry without reference to the index attached to the book.”

You co-incidently posted the 2004 Act in relation to modern certificate formats and noted there had been numerous repeals in the Act.
So for future readers this seems to bit that now applies to Searches in indexes and registers https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2004/act/3/enacted/en/print#sec61

Yes, unfortunately "progress" is sometimes retrograde.... and the 2004 Civil Registration Act is now the key controlling act.

In retrospect it seems that the withdrawal of the ability to inspect the local registers was not just a local thing in Wexford ca 2004, but nationwide. I was told at the time that the historic local registers were no longer there, but had been transferred to Roscommon.