A divorced Irish man who married a woman from Ghana whom he met over the internet has brought a High Court challenge to the refusal of the Minister for Justice to permit his new wife entry into Ireland.
In a one-line email communication from the Department of Justice in August 2005, Thomas Lyons, with an address at Church Road, Blackrock, Co Cork, was informed that a visa was being refused to his Ghanaian wife Beatrice on the grounds that a "prior existing relationship" between the couple had not been established.
Feichin McDonagh SC, for Mr Lyons, a switchboard operator at Cork University Hospital, yesterday secured leave to bring a judicial review challenge to the refusal of a visa to Beatrice Lyons, née Addy.
Mr McDonagh said Mr Lyons was divorced with grown-up children, was free to remarry and had married a woman from Ghana in May 2005. Prior to the marriage, Mr Lyons had visited Ghana and had applied for a visa for his new wife before they married.
However, two months after they married in Ghana, he was informed a visa had been refused on the basis that the couple had not established a prior existing relationship.
Mr Lyons had appealed the refusal but his appeal was dismissed.
Mr McDonagh said he was contending that the basis for refusal of the visa was irrational.
There had been no attempt by the Department of Justice to explain its approach and it appeared the position would remain as it was indefinitely. His client had spent time with his wife in Ghana over the past two years.
According to legal papers before the judge, Mr Lyons married an Irish woman in 1975 and obtained a decree of divorce in April 2005.
He said in an affidavit he had met Ms Addy over the internet in November 2003 and the couple had spent as much time together as their budgets allowed. He had spent time in Ghana in April 2004 and again in May 2005, when the couple wed.
Mr Justice Michael Peart granted leave to bring the judicial review challenge.
