Sharni and Robyn Edwards-Peoples, the first same-sex couple to legally marry in Northern Ireland, and have criticised the region’s Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis MP, for the delay in allowing same-sex weddings in churches and conversion of existing civil partnerships to marriages.The couple issued a call for urgent action by the Secretary of State, on the one-year anniversary of the House of Commons vote to extend same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland, which passed an amendment from Conor McGinn MP on Thursday, July 9, 2019.Same-sex civil marriage became legal in Northern Ireland on Monday, January 13, 2020, and the first wedding took place on February 11 when Sharni Edwards and Robyn Peoples married in Carrickfergus.However, couples who.