11 - A ‘Curiosity [and] … an Oddity’: Referenda in 1986 and 1995

Summary

The period from 1969 to 1984 saw divorce reform in the majority of Western countries, but Ireland remained in the unique position with no provision for divorce, finding an ally only further afield in Malta. The establishment of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Marital Breakdown in 1985 was, however, an admission by the state that increasing numbers of marriages ended before the death of a spouse and laid the foundations for the first referendum to remove the constitutional ban on divorce in the following year. Social activism, clerical and political attitudes towards divorce reform as well as the cause of the defeat of the referendum are explored. Despite the referendum defeat, a significant and overdue era of Irish family law reform followed which laid the foundations for a second divorce referendum and ultimately the removal of the constitutional ban in the second divorce referendum of 1995. Keenly and often antagonistically fought, the result was so close that a recount was held. This left Ireland with the challenge of introducing legislation on divorce, an issue long-held as the pinnacle of liberalism where many remained resistant to reform