AN action brought by a woman who claimed the public was misled by the Government in the divorce referendum campaign was struck out in the High Court yesterday.
Ms Barbara Hyland, of Duncairn Terrace, Bray, Co Wicklow, who began her action against the State before the outcome of last November's divorce referendum was confirmed, claimed the Government had failed during the campaign to inform people about the existing right to remarry under the civil law of nullity.
She had sought an order obliging the Government to inform the people of any intention to amend or declare obsolete the civil law of nullity should the referendum result be confirmed.
She also wanted an order preventing the Government from holding another referendum on divorce should former Senator Des Hanafin win his Supreme Court appeal against the decision by the divisional court of the High Court.
Last June, however, the Supreme Court held that Government funding of the pro-divorce campaign, while wrong, did not affect the referendum outcome.
Ms Hyland had also wanted the court to confirm the necessity for the Government to establish the office of a legal ombudsman to prevent legal injustices by lawyers.
Yesterday, the State brought a motion against Ms Hyland asking for the proceedings to be struck out because the matters pleaded by her were political and were not justifiable by the courts.
Striking out Ms Hyland's claims, Mr Justice McCracken said the decision to amend the law was a matter for the Government and not the court.
The court could not interfere with the legislative process once the procedures were followed.
He understood that Ms Hyland's call for a legal ombudsman arose directly from her own experience of the way her affairs were handled.
It was not, however, within his powers to grant the relief claimed by her.
Ms Hyland said she had wanted to bring her action in order to highlight the legal difficulties suffered by people in situations where their marriages had broken down. Tearfully, she told the court: "I don't want anybody to go through what I went through."