In 1940 Ireland, can a woman marry a divorcee from the USA?
<p>My questions arise from a (possible) scenario in <em>Finnegans Wake</em> by James Joyce, published in 1939, and hence pertain to Irish and US divorce law around or before 1939.</p>
<p>I understand that at this time divorce was  <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/45889/on-irish-marriage-property-and-divorce-law-circa-1939">illegal in Ireland</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce_in_the_United_States#20th_centu" rel="nofollow noreferrer">difficult in the USA</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Prior to the latter decades of the 20th century, divorce was
considered to be against the public interest, and civil courts refused
to grant a divorce except if one party to the marriage had betrayed
the &quot;innocent spouse.&quot; Thus, a spouse suing for divorce in most states
had to show a &quot;fault&quot; such as abandonment, cruelty, incurable mental
illness, or adultery.</p>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li>In Ireland at this time, could a woman marry a man who is legally divorced in the USA for one of the above reasons?</li>
</ul>

<p>Article 41.3.3 of the <a href="http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/cons/en" rel="nofollow noreferrer">1937 Irish Constitution</a> said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No person whose marriage has been dissolved under the civil law of any other State but is a subsisting valid marriage under the law for the time being in force within the jurisdiction of the Government and Parliament established by this Constitution shall be capable of contracting a valid marriage within that jurisdiction during the lifetime of the other party to the marriage so dissolved.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Until this section was <a href="https://www.irishlegal.com/article/full-wording-of-divorce-referendum-amendment-revealed" rel="nofollow noreferrer">changed</a> by the 2019 amendment.</p>
<p>I can find no source to show how &quot;but is a subsisting valid marriage under the law&quot; was interpreted, but it seems that a person divorced in or prior to 1940 under US law would not have been permitted to marry in Ireland after 1937 until 2019 under this provision.</p>
<p>It should be noted that although <em>Finnegans Wake</em> by James Joyce was published in full in 1939, much of it had been written and published in sections by 1926. It is not at all clear just when it is <strong>set</strong>. In the 1920s, the constitutional provision quoted above was not yet in effect.</p>

united-states divorce ireland