Two heterosexual Irish men marry to avoid inheritance tax on property (photos/video)

Two Irish men, who are not gay, got married in Dublin to avoid paying €50,000 in inheritance tax on a house.

Best friends Matt Murphy and Michael O’Sullivan are both heterosexual, but they decided to get married when they discovered how much tax would have to be paid on the house Murphy, 83, intended to leave in his will to O’Sullivan, 58, who is his carer.

Murphy could not afford to pay O’Sullivan as a carer. The elderly man said the only way he could pay O’Sullivan was to leave him his house so he would have somewhere to live when he goes. However, O’Sullivan knew that would mean a huge tax bill and the house would have to be sold to pay it. The idea to get married came when Murphy was chatting a friend down the country in Cashel, Co Tipperary, and she jokingly said they should get married.

O’Sullivan, a father of three, told the Irish Mirror: "I’ve known Matty for 30 years. We became very friendly after my second relationship broke up. I have been bringing Matt out in my car to various parties and all that kind of thing. He became friends with all my friends, they all loved him."

Each man went through some tough times, with O’Sullivan becoming homeless and Murphy suffering from giant cell arteritis, which affects the optic nerve.

"I stayed over with him for a while and eventually Matt said ‘Why don’t you come and stay here?’ I would go over and stay with him the odd time but never full time."

O'Sullivan continued: "Then one night he turned around and said it to me and I said I would marry him."

O’Sullivan was previously married to a woman but this is Murphy’s first marriage. The couple got married in a former hospital on Dublin’s Grand Canal Street, followed by a meal for five at the nearby Gasworks bar.

O’Sullivan paid tribute to Ireland’s LGBT community, saying: "The equality gay and lesbian people did for this country, that they fought hard for, they were discriminated against for most of their lives, they got equality for themselves but also for everybody else."

During the wedding ceremony O’Sullivan spoke of his husband’s great kindness while Murphy sang Willie Nelson’s Let the World Go By: "With someone like you, a pal good and true / I’d like to leave it all behind and go and find / A place that’s known to God alone."

O’Sullivan said after the ceremony: "I love Matt and he loves me, as friends."

Watch the video below.