10 - Marriage Law ‘in This Country Is an Absolute Shambles’: The Reform Agenda

Summary

Irish divorce reform began in the recognition of foreign divorces which produced convoluted case law from the time of the 1937 Irish constitution. The balance of these rulings pivoted on domicile, the intention to reside in a country permanently, which was challenging to test and still dictated by a husband’s domicile. Reform in foreign divorce and domicile was forthcoming from the 1980s and was part of a broader process of Irish family law reform which reflected changing social mores including those relating to the central position of the Catholic church in the Irish state. Some more liberal Irish priests emerged in the 1960s yet, more effective in prompting a reassessment of the position of the Catholic church was Vatican II, which recognised democracy and liberalism. The level of martial breakdown in independent Ireland was also becoming clearer and harder to ignore. A key recommendation of the New Ireland Forum of the mid-1980s was therefore the separation of church and state but divorce reform still provoked antagonistic and often religiously-charged debate.