More than 200,000 people are divorced or separated in Ireland, it has emerged.

Census figures showed 87,770 people were divorced last April, a 150% rise since 2002, the first count after divorce was legalised in 1997.

Elsewhere, the amount of people separated stood at 116,194.

However, more Irish couples have also married in recent years, with 143,588 more people wed in 2011 than five years earlier.

Of the 1.18 million families, 143,600 were comprised of cohabiting couples. There were also 215,300 families headed by lone parents and 4,042 same-sex couples living together - 2,321 men and 1,721 women.

Labels: cohabitation, demographics, divorce, gay couples, immigration, Ireland, Marriage, single parenting

VOTE

ONE in three babies is now born out of wedlock in this country.

The percentage of babies born outside of marriage rose to 33.8pc nationwide in the third quarter of last year -- an increase of 2.3pc over the same period in 2005, new Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures reveal.

The figures also reveal striking variations between the number of babies born to unmarried parents in urban and rural locations.

City dwellers are far more likely to have a child outside of wedlock than their rural counterparts.

Labels: children, Europe, Ireland, out-of-wedlock births

VOTE

I am not a big believer in people making arguments on the back of who or what they happen to be. When I last made the case in these pages against gay marriage, about a year ago, I didn’t feel the need to mention that I am gay myself. Arguments stand on their own two feet, or don’t, but not on the strength of who happens to be making them. Nor, I don’t mind adding, did I particularly want to drag my own life into what is often a bad-tempered debate. But I am concerned enough about the way things are going to make an exception.

Explaining that you oppose gay marriage as a gay man tends to get a baffled response at first. This is understandable given how quickly the debate on gay marriage can collapse into allegations of homophobia. The message, explicit or implicit, is often that being anti-gay marriage means being in some way anti-gay. ...

Actually, gay people should defend the traditional understanding of marriage as strongly as everyone else. Given that it is being undermined in the name of gay people, with consequences for future generations, it is all the more important that gay people who are opposed to gay marriage speak up.

This week sees the first civil partnerships between same-sex couples becoming official under legislation passed last year. That provides gay couples with nearly all necessary legal provisions. Many of us know people who are benefitting from this, or may well in the future. To borrow a cliché, this would be a good time to declare victory and go home.

Instead, the demand now is for gay marriage on top of this, which the Programme for Government commits to exploring. This is not only unnecessary, but verges on selfishness.

The support and status that marriage entails is not a societal bonus for falling in love and agreeing to make a relationship lasting. That is not, of course, to say that love and romance are not an important part of marriage. But they are not the reason it has special status. If romance were the reason for supporting marriage, there would be no grounds for differentiating which relationships should be included and which should not. But that is not and never has been the nature of marriage.

Labels: gay marriage, Ireland, Marriage

VOTE

Couples are facing tougher requirements before they get the green light to marry in a Catholic church.

Irish Bishops have agreed new regulations to vet people more rigorously and ensure they are committed to their faith.

They are aimed at improving the quality of pre-marriage preparation.

Labels: Catholic Church, Ireland, Marriage, marriage counseling, religion

VOTE

Ireland had the highest fertility rate of the 27 EU member states in 2007, followed by France and the UK. ...

New data released today by the Central Statistics Office also reveals that 44% of all first births in Ireland in 2007 took place outside marriage.

Up to 28% of second births were outside marriage and 22% of third births.

Labels: demographics, Europe, Ireland, Marriage, out-of-wedlock births

VOTE

An Irish doctor is facing possible disciplinary action because he declined to provide fertility treatment for an unmarried couple. Dr. Phil Boyle, who practices in a Catholic hospital, was questioned by the Fitness to Practice Committee about an apparent violation of the Equal Status Act, which bars discrimination based on marital status. The law offers no "conscience clause" protection. Although no action ws taken against Dr. Boyle, the couple who protested his policy may raise the issue in another legal forum.

Labels: Ireland, marital status discrimination, Marriage, out-of-wedlock births, religious liberty

VOTE

The Irish Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a gay man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple should be permitted to see his 3-year-old son regularly -- in part because Ireland's constitution doesn't recognize the lesbians as a valid family unit. ...

In her written judgment, Supreme Court Justice Susan Denham said the lesbian couple provide a loving, stable home for their son - but that the constitution defines parents as a married man and woman, and gays are not permitted to marry in Ireland.

She said Irish law does identify the sperm donor as the father, and he therefore had a right to have a relationship with his son.

"There is benefit to a child, in general, to have the society of his father," Denham wrote. "I am satisfied that the learned High Court judge gave insufficient weight to this factor."

Labels: donor conception, Fathers, gay parenting, Ireland

VOTE

To be pro-marriage these days is to be dismissed as an eccentric at best or a bigot at worst. You think I'm exaggerating? Then take heed of the following.

This week, new CSO figures revealed that the number of births taking place outside marriage keeps on rising. It is now one birth in every three and among 20-24 year olds it is the majority. But if you point out that this is a cause for alarm, you will be accused of victimising single parents.

Or if you point out that same-sex marriage or civil partnerships are a bad idea, and they are, you are accused of homophobia. If you suggest that the 500pc increase in marital breakdown that has occurred since 1986 is a bad thing, you're stigmatising divorced people.

As for cohabitation, well, it's up 400pc in only 10 years. But on your peril try pointing out that cohabiting couples are more likely to divorce than couples who don't first cohabit, or that cohabiting parents are twice as likely as married parents to split before their children are grown up. Again, you're offending people.

The pro-marriage argument is exceedingly simple. It is based on the indisputable fact that it is best, in general, for a child to be raised by a loving mother and father who are married. All counter-arguments must deny this. All counter-arguments must say that there is no special advantage in a child having a loving, married mum and dad.

But in fact, the argument rarely gets this far because it is short-circuited by accusations of judgmentalism, prejudice and even bigotry. Therefore, most people are now scared to defend marriage, scared to say it's best for a child to have a loving mother and father, scared of being labelled.

Labels: culture, Ireland, Marriage

VOTE