Ireland: Our model for divorce?

Almost a year ago, the Economic and Social Research Institute (Ireland) and the University College, Dublin published a study entitled Family Figures: Family Dynamics And Family Types In Ireland, 1986-2006.

This research states that “When the rate of marriage breakdown was examined by comparing previous census returns, the biggest increase was between 1986 and 1996, the decade before divorce was introduced, with a rate of increase of 65.2 per cent. This increase slowed to 24 per cent over the next six years and slowed again to only 3.3 per cent between 2002 and 2006” (page 47). This extract was taken up by the pro-divorce lobby in our country and concluded that “This represents a gradual reduction of around 62 per cent in the rate of failed marriages over the nine years following 1997” (Malta Today, August 25, 2010 and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando on Xarabank, October 1, 2010).

This statement gives the impression that marriages are failing 62 per cent less after the introduction of the divorce legislation. In fact, the rate of marriage breakdown remains still on the increase. The decrease is in the rate of growth. The researchers attribute this to “the reduction in the marriage rate and the decline in early marriage that occurred during the 1980s and much of the 1990s”. Further on, they warn: “It may yet emerge in the longer term that marital breakdown will return to an upward trend, perhaps in the form of a greater take-up of divorce. As yet, however, no clear signs of such an outcome have emerged.”

The researchers are also aware that “The general pattern in the western world in the second half of the 20th century is that the law on marital dissolution has been steadily liberalised and the incidence of marital breakdown has greatly increased” (page 38).

The research paper gives a lot of relevant information regarding the state of marriage and the family in Ireland following the introduction of divorce legislation in 1997. These are some quotes:

“The fourfold increase in cohabitation between 1996 and 2006 appears to have swept all sections of society along with it” (page x). “Although it may have been relatively uncommon in Ireland in 1996, the number of cohabiting couples grew fourfold between then and 2006, rising from 31,300 to 121,800 couples over that period… some 15 per cent of cohabitees are previously married persons who are in a second or subsequent relation­ship” (page 15).

“...over the period studied in this report, lone parenthood more than doubled, driven partly by a growth in births outside marriage and partly by increased marital breakdown. The latter half of the period, meanwhile, saw a very steep increase in the number of unmarried cohabiting couples, a sizeable proportion of whom have children. The growth in marital breakdown also produced a corresponding rise in the number of people in second partnerships, both remarried and not” (page 1).

When taking all this into consideration, this report about Ireland confirms the findings of the pro-family lobby and, specifically, the findings of a recent study conducted locally by the ProġettImpenn entitled For Worse Not for Better, which had concluded that: “The introduction of divorce legislation in other countries has not solved any of the problems which it was expected to solve (like cohabitation, out of wedlock births and marriage breakdown)” and that “divorce undermines the family and marriage”.

One can also consult other sources that may help to know the truth better. For example, the Courts Service Annual Report for 2008 states that Ireland has a marital breakdown rate of 27.5 per cent and that this is an increase of 15.6 per cent from 2001 (www.ionainstitute.org/index.php?id=836).

Post-divorce Ireland is being presented to us as a model. What problems has divorce legislation solved to the Irish society? Who would like to follow in these footsteps and in such social situations?