This book critically analyses how the law has facilitated, or hindered, the recognition of same-sex family formations in Ireland, and how it might be reformed to provide greater parental rights for same-sex couples. The book covers four key issues facing same-sex couples: - Civil partnerships: the first chapter analyses the pragmatic and symbolic effects of registered civil partnership, and compares Ireland's decision to discontinue this alternative form of relationship recognition with the UK's recent move towards extending civil partnership laws. - Cohabitation: chapter 2 assesses whether the cohabitation model introduced in Ireland might be effective in other jurisdictions where there are calls for cohabitation law reform. - Marriage equality: chapter 3 explores the initial move to prohibit marriage equality in Ireland, and critiques the subsequent route towards the 2015 referendum, with comparison to the more recent move towards marriage equality in Australia. - Parental rights: the fourth chapter focuses on the legal position of same-sex couples who are parenting children born via Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ARTs), such as donor-assisted human reproduction and surrogacy. In particular, it explores shortcomings in the existing legislation and proposes a viable method of regulating these ARTs via future legislation, partly based on models in operation elsewhere. The book concludes by assessing the impact, or lack thereof, of the European Convention on Human Rights on same-sex relationship recognition, same-sex parenting, and marriage equality, in order to determine whether it could promote increased legal recognition for same-sex families in Ireland.

Squeak Bartholomew is a small-town handyman who needs some quick cash to save his niece from jail. Martin Oals is an out of work Hollywood actor branching into some very dangerous areas. Joel Opatkin is a movie studio vice-president who is about to be fired and face financial ruin. Henry Voght is a corrupt LAPD officer, freelancing by shaking down drug dealers. And they are all interested in a million-dollar crop of marijuana. Brian Tobin's previous novel, The Ransom, was called, "stunning in its portrayal of career outlaws," by Booklist. The New York Times Book Review wrote of The Missing Person, 'He keeps us in suspense until the last page, where the final surprise, and perhaps the most unexpected, is how deeply he has tapped our emotions." With Below the Line, he continues to rivet readers. Praise for Brian Tobin: THE RANSOM "The Ransom is a first novel that races through the boroughs of New York like an A train." - The Chicago Tribune "Tobin's outstanding first novel is a rereadable, memorable mystery-a knockout, a spellbinder." - The Drood Review of Mystery "{A} tidy, zippy novel." - Kirkus Review THE MISSING PERSON "In an unusual mystery without a conventional hero or villain, Tobin movingly depicts the lives of ordinary people who suddenly find themselves in extraordinary circumstances... Tobin makes the most of plot, character and the warmly evoked Hudson Valley setting in this satisfying, atypical mystery." - Publishers Weekly "Tobin's grasp of the characters is so sure that the suspense doesn't let up..." - Kirkus Review "There is a mystery here..but the novel is really about love, separation, longing, and the pain of never knowing the fate of a loved one. Tobin, whose debut novel, The Ransom, was stunning in its portrayal of career outlaws, is equally at home with good people coping with awful circumstances... A complex, thoughtful novel." - Booklist "It delivers the suspense most mysteries only promise." - Wilson Library Bulletin "With expert narration that moves easily back and forth in time, Mr. Tobin lures us into the grip of a well-built, fast-paced story with both a tantalizing mystery and a love story at its core. The tight and complicated plot never seems forced because it grows out of the motivations and actions of strong, believable characters... He keeps us in suspense until the last page, where the final surprise, and perhaps the most unexpected, is how deeply he has tapped our emotions." - The New York Times Book Review

Duane Greenleaf once put a man into a coma with just his fists, and he spent eight years in prison for it. Sean Keays thinks he's about to embark on an illicit lark, an adventure... a victimless crime. He plans to steal a lot of money and just disappear. And Jenny Howell once made a terrible mistake-she went out on a date with Justin Henly, and now she lives in fear. Inexorably, their lives intersect, and as they do, the suspense builds. Praise for Brian Tobin: THE RANSOM "The Ransom is a first novel that races through the boroughs of New York like an A train." - The Chicago Tribune "Tobin's outstanding first novel is a rereadable, memorable mystery-a knockout, a spellbinder." - The Drood Review of Mystery "{A} tidy, zippy novel." - Kirkus Review THE MISSING PERSON "In an unusual mystery without a conventional hero or villain, Tobin movingly depicts the lives of ordinary people who suddenly find themselves in extraordinary circumstances... Tobin makes the most of plot, character and the warmly evoked Hudson Valley setting in this satisfying, atypical mystery." - Publishers Weekly "Tobin's grasp of the characters is so sure that the suspense doesn't let up..." - Kirkus Review "There is a mystery here..but the novel is really about love, separation, longing, and the pain of never knowing the fate of a loved one. Tobin, whose debut novel, The Ransom, was stunning in its portrayal of career outlaws, is equally at home with good people coping with awful circumstances... A complex, thoughtful novel." - Booklist "It delivers the suspense most mysteries only promise." - Wilson Library Bulletin "With expert narration that moves easily back and forth in time, Mr. Tobin lures us into the grip of a well-built, fast-paced story with both a tantalizing mystery and a love story at its core. The tight and complicated plot never seems forced because it grow out of the motivations and actions of strong, believable characters... He keeps us in suspense until the last page, where the final surprise, and perhaps the most unexpected, is how deeply he has tapped our emotions." - The New York Times Book Review