SINCE Ireland voted in favour of legalising divorce twenty years ago today, the country has dispelled fears that there would be a national marriage crisis.
On November 24, 1995, the people of Ireland voted by a small margin to allow divorce for the first time since the nation gained independence from Britain in 1922.
It was through a countrywide referendum that those in favour of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution achieved a 0.6 per cent victory.
Today, Ireland has the lowest divorce rate in the European Union, at 0.6 per 1,000 inhabitants, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical body.
Since 1997, when divorce became legal in Ireland, a total of 50,204 divorce orders have been granted, whilst 18,778 separation orders were awarded.
In contrast, there were 114,720 divorces in England and Wales in 2013 alone, a decrease of 2.9 per cent since the previous year, when there were 118,140 divorces.
Divorce in Ireland in numbers:
93 – divorces granted within the first year after it became legal
2007 – the year that divorce orders in Ireland peaked
50.3 – the percentage of Irish people who voted in favour of legalising divorce in 1997
20 – the number of years since Ireland amended its divorce law
50,204 - the total number of divorces granted since 1997
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