Laws dating back 500 years to the reign of King Henry VIII which were the result of that monarch's "dynastic difficulties" still operate in the State, the High Court has been told.
Winnie Tipper (otherwise Kavanagh), of Stephen's Road, Inchicore, is seeking a declaration that her marriage in August 1972 to her uncle-in-law, Joseph Kavanagh (who died five years ago), is valid.
She claims the existing legal position is unconstitutional and is seeking declarations that Acts passed in the time of Henry VIII in 1537 did not survive the passage into law of the 1937 Constitution and that part of the Marriage Act 1835 (known as Lord Lyndhurst's Act) is also unconstitutional.
Mr David Hegarty SC, for Ms Tipper (50), said that Joseph Kavanagh married Kathleen McLoughlin in St Michael's Church, Inchicore, in April 1956. There were five children from the marriage. Kathleen died in 1969.
In August 1972, Kathleen's niece, Winnie Tipper, then 21, married Joseph Kavanagh, then 41, at Mount Argus Church. There were three children from the marriage.
Mr Kavanagh died in February 1996, having made a will. He appointed Winnie as his personal representative and bequeathed his personal property, consisting of the premises at Stephen's Road, to her.
It was submitted that Winnie and Joseph Kavanagh were not blood relatives when they married and there was no such impediment to their marriage.
Ms Tipper claims that she is deprived of her legal rights under the Succession Act 1965 and is financially prejudiced under capital acquisitions and capital gains taxation legislation as a non-marital beneficiary under Mr Kavanagh's will.
The hearing, before Mr Justice Smyth, is continuing.