US-born Becky Larson is a clown with Duffys' Circus. Red-haired and pert-featured, she has an exuberant personality and she shouted "Yes!" when Ms Mary McCarthy, the receptionist in the solicitors' office in Molesworth Street, which houses the Registry Office, told her she could be married at 11 a.m. on September 1st.

She is going to marry L'Amin Elamrani, an Iraqi acrobat at the circus, which is at present performing in Dublin. "This is where we met, this is where we fell in love, and this is where we're getting married," she said. L'Amin blushed when she told The Irish Times she remembered the date they first kissed, on May 12th last year, shortly after she joined the circus.

She had always wanted to be a clown and "ran away to join the circus". But she did so at the age of 27, selling all her belongings. That was seven years ago and she has never regretted it. L'Amin joined a circus after leaving school but was skipping school to practise acrobatics from the age of 10. They will be in Ireland until November, when the season ends, and hope to remain here afterwards. This, however, depends on their contracts being renewed with Duffys'.

As they were finalising their dates, applause came from the adjoining room where Mr Andrew Wade and Ms Lisa Hitchcock had just been married by the registrar. They had flown from England to be married in Ireland.

"We both had Irish connections, we loved the country and visited it a lot," said Mr Wade. They have booked into a Dublin hotel for a month for their honeymoon.

About 20 per cent of the couples who marry in the Dublin Registry Office are visitors who come to Ireland to marry, according to Ms McCarthy. They come from Australia, the US, Europe, "and this morning I took a call from Indonesia". Some have Irish connections but many do not.

Another 15 per cent are non-nationals who are resident in Ireland and who may belong to religions which have no premises here, or, like Muslims, whose marriages are not recognised by the State.

She said recent years had seen a huge increase in the number of refugees being married in the Registry Office, many of whom would also be members of minority religions. They now made up about 20 per cent of the total.

The remainder were Irish couples where one had been divorced, or who do not practise any religion, or who "don't want a big church wedding with all the palaver".

The total numbers have grown greatly over the past three years, according to the registrar, Mr Gordon Kerr Johnston, who is retiring this month. "We make our returns every quarter. It used to be about 100 a quarter. Now it's about 100 a month."

Last year, there were 957 civil marriages in Dublin, and this is expected to reach 1,200 this year. There were 3,845 marriages altogether in Dublin in 1997, so one in four of those took place in the Registry Office.

The figures are less for other areas but are still rising. In Galway, for example, the registrar, Mr James Walsh, is doing about three civil marriages a week, which would mean about 150 a year. His area excludes Loughrea, where the registrar is an auctioneer who was not available yesterday.

In 1997, there were 963 marriages in Galway city and county, so about 15 per cent of all marriages there were civil marriages.

Mr Walsh is the superintendent registrar for the area, the health board official responsible for the registration of births, marriages and deaths. The marriages take place in the boardroom of the health board offices in Merlin Park, Galway.

He said there was a three-fold increase in the number of couples marrying in his office, from 13 to 39, between 1984 and 1995, the last year for which there were definite figures. But there had been a huge increase again in the past three years.

He also reports a significant, and growing, number of foreign visitors coming to Ireland to marry for sentimental reasons. But he also notes sociological changes. "Because of the changes in the social structure in the Galway district there are more people who do not have any religion. There has been a significant increase in that sector.

"Since divorce was introduced, the number of people remarrying following divorce accounts for a significant portion of the increase."

In Cork city, the proportion of civil marriages is less, with 109 there in 1997 out of a total of 1,921, perhaps reflecting fewer tourists opting to marry there.

The increase in demand is putting greater demands on the service. Although, as Mr Walsh points out, civil marriages have been performed in Ireland for 150 years, until recently they were relatively uncommon and the arrangements for them were haphazard.

Anyone, except a publican, could be a registrar, and they include shopkeepers, farmers and auctioneers, as well as the more usual solicitors. According to Mr Kerr Johnston, the registrar in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, was for years a shopkeeper and he closed his shop when conducting marriages.

When he died, the function was taken over by the health board and the replacement of private registrars by health board officials has been taking place gradually all over the State as the private registrars die or retire. The health boards have to provide suitable premises and in Dublin these will be in Sir Patrick Dun's hospital, where there will be two full-time registrars.

However, the registrar in Cavan is a printer, Mr Thomas Black, who has been solemnising civil marriages there for over 30 years. In Cavan, they are running at four or five a year. "They take place here on the premises. I have a front room," he told The Irish Times, as the sound of printing machines clattered in the background.

Those callers who rang RTE distressed at the conditions in the health board offices in Lombard Street should perhaps wonder about civil marriages in Cavan.