‘An Irish solution to an Irish problem’
Constructing legitimate intimacy in tax marriage and migration marriage in Ireland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24226178 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Steph Hanlon (University College Dublin) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-24 |
| Publication date | 2026-08-31 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Community (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1369183x.2026.2708447 |
| OpenAlex | W7204770517 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 24 |
In Ireland, the extension of rights to same-sex citizen couples coexists with the restriction of rights to transnational heterosexual couples. This article contrasts dual constructions of materially motivated marriages as a celebration of national belonging and threat to national integrity. Drawing on twenty-eight texts from the Irish press, it analyses the discursive construction of a tax-motivated marriage by two Irish citizen men in 2017, dubbed ‘the marriage of convenience with love at its heart,’ against portrayals of unions involving heterosexual couples with non-citizen spouses, which were cast as a criminal threat. The analysis highlights how discourses legitimise instrumentality in some cases while condemning it in others, depending on racialised, sexualised and citizenship-related criteria. Drawing on Anthony Giddens’s conception of the ‘pure relationship’, this article examines how marriages that depart from this ideal are constructed as ‘instrumental’ or ‘impure’, and how such classifications are unevenly applied. The findings demonstrate that media and political discourse evaluate these so-called ‘impure’ marriages differently: tax-related same-sex citizen unions are discursively embraced as pragmatic and legitimate, while immigration-related heterosexual unions are discursively criminalised. These contrasts reveal that the boundaries of legitimate intimacy are contingent and socially constructed, mediated through intersecting hierarchies of sexuality, race, and citizenship.
Anthony Giddens · Citizenship · Criminalization · heterosexual marriage · Ireland · Irish press · marriage of convenience · media discourse · national belonging · national integrity · pure relationship · Race · same-sex marriage · Sexuality · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender and Feminist Studies · Migration, Refugees, and Integration
Same-sex marriage and migration
An Ideal Husband? Marriages of Convenience, Moral Gate-keeping and Immigration to the UK
Global Marriage
Penal Contradictions and the Pre-emptive Criminalisation of ‘Marriages of Convenience’
Cultural Intimacy
Terrorist Assemblages
New Global Politics of Reproductive Labor
After Marriage
Same-sex marriage and the pinkwashing of state migration controls
A proper wife, a proper marriage
Everything but the Marriage Certificate
An Irish Solution to an Irish Problem
Debating Reproductive Rights in Ireland
A Real Marriage? Applying for Marriage Migration to Norway
Contesting categories
Buy me love
Class, mobility and inequality in the lives of same-sex couples with mixed legal statuses
An Acceptable Marriage
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |