Mary Molloy Solicitors has an office at 2 Rose Inn Street in Kilkenny city centre, so families in the south-east and midlands can meet in person without travelling to Dublin — and most of this work can equally be done by telephone or video, which for families with young children is usually easier.
The Office, and What It Is Useful For
The Kilkenny office is city centre, walkable for local families and an easy drive from Carlow, Waterford, Tipperary, Laois and the surrounding counties, open Monday to Friday with same-week appointments generally available. In-person meetings suit some conversations better than others: families making decisions together, going through documents, or executing wills often prefer to sit down, and that is straightforward here. Everything else — establishing who is a legal parent, advising on which guardianship route applies and from when, working through documentation for a child born abroad — works as well over video, and frequently better for a family managing a newborn. What is worth being clear about is that none of this is local law. The rule that the woman who gives birth is the legal mother, the uncommenced state of the 2024 Act’s principal surrogacy provisions, the guardianship conditions and the succession consequences are identical across the State.
Wills, and Why This Firm Emphasises Them
Most surrogacy advice concentrates on parentage and guardianship, and rightly so. This practice emphasises something further, because it sits at the intersection of two things the firm does: Richard O’Shea is a TEP of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, and the firm runs a substantial probate and estates practice. Seen from that side, the parentage gap is a succession problem — and the one consequence that cannot be repaired after the event. Where a child is not recognised in law as the child of one of the people raising them, that runs through the intestacy rules, through the construction of wills using undefined phrases like "my children", through inheritance tax treatment, and through what the child can claim in that person’s estate. Families discover it at the worst possible moment, after a death, when nothing can be fixed. It is entirely preventable in advance with properly drafted wills, carefully defined classes of beneficiary, testamentary guardians appointed, and tax advice taken from your accountant before anything is signed.
Two Free Tools Before You Call
The Surrogacy Route Check is for people considering surrogacy: what each route means under Irish law as it stands. The Legal Parentage Checker is for families whose child is already born: who is a legal parent today, and what to put in place meanwhile. Both run entirely on your device — nothing is stored or sent.
Where Does Your Family Stand?
Whether the child is born, whether there is a genetic link, which country, and what documents exist. Those four answers shape everything - and most families have never had their position confirmed.
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