Orla Egan-Morley was glued to the radio yesterday, with her one- year-old son Jacob in her arms, when the news came through from the High Court.
She, along with her partner Catherine, were among hundreds of lesbian and gay couples waiting to learn whether the Zappone-Gilligan ruling would advance the campaign for equal rights between gay and opposite sex couples in Ireland.
"It's ridiculous," she said from her home in Castlemartyr, Co Cork, shortly after hearing the ruling. "It isn't in tune with the world we live in. In our day-to- day lives we have such a positive relationship with our neighbours. We're just like any couple with kids. I buy nappies in the same aisle as other parents. I'm here minding Jacob, who has a tummy bug. Yet, in a legal sense, we're being treated as outcasts. Somehow we're being told that we're a less desirable family unit."
The Zappone-Gilligan judgment came at a crucial time in the national debate over what level of recognition should be afforded to same-sex couples.
Opinion polls appear to show increasing public support for gay marriages, with 51 per cent favouring such a move in the latest national opinion poll.
The Taoiseach spoke last year about the need to make gay and lesbian people full and equal citizens in the Republic. An options paper on domestic partnerships commissioned by the Government, suggests gay marriage as a potential option to be explored.
However, yesterday's High Court ruling shows any move towards gay marriage will need a change in the Constitution - a step which the Government says would be too divisive to contemplate at this stage.
Instead, it is considering introducing a form of civil partnership which would stop short of marriage but provide gay couples with many marriage- like privileges in areas of tax and inheritance rights.
For couples such as Orla and Catherine Egan-Morley, however, anything short of full equality for gay couples is not enough. A civil partnership, they say, would address financial issues but not resolve legal issues relating to parenthood.
Orla and Catherine were unable to avail of fertility services here as a lesbian couple. Instead, they went to Britain. Orla gave birth to Jacob over a year ago, yet in the eyes of Irish law, Orla is regarded as a lone parent and Catherine is childless. As a family, they have no rights.
"If Catherine was with Jacob and he broke his arm and they went to hospital, she would not have any right as a parent to consent to treatment for him. Those kinds of issues are my real concern. If they bring in partial partnership rights, the whole movement towards equality will be dissipated."
In the meantime, the unavailability of gay marriage affects them in unexpected ways. Just the other day Orla was filling out a form for Jacob's school, but there was no space to write the name of his two mothers. "There was space for a father and a mother, but not for us, so we had to write a letter to accompany the form, explaining the background," says Orla.
Last night Orla and Catherine - who have both changed their second names to Egan-Morley so their son will have their surname - were digesting the ruling.
"Everyone I know considers me to be Jacob's full and equal parent," says Catherine. "I have never experienced any difficulty about my parenthood. And I work publicly with priests, nuns and Christian Brothers. I find it incredibly hard to believe the State would just completely ignore that."