Irish Divorce
A History

Spanning the island of Ireland over three centuries, this first history of Irish divorce focuses on the human experience of marriage breakdown.

Diane Urquhart (Author)

9781108493093, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 February 2020

294 pages, 2 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

Irish Divorce: A History contributes a comprehensive look at a fraught social issue through exhaustive research and careful contextualisation.' Kate Costello-Sullivan, Electronic Journal of the Spanish Association for Irish Studies

This is the first history of Irish divorce. Spanning the island of Ireland over three centuries, it places the human experience of marriage breakdown centre stage to explore the impact of a highly restrictive and gendered law and its reform. It considers the accessibility of Irish divorce as it moved from a parliamentary process in Westminster, the Irish parliament and the Northern Ireland parliament to a court-based process. This socio-legal approach allows changing definitions of gendered marital roles and marital cruelty to be assessed. In charting the exceptionalism of Ireland's divorce provision in a European and imperial framework, the study uncovers governmental reluctance to reform Irish divorce law which spans jurisdictions and centuries. This was therefore not only a law dictated by religious strictures but also by a long-lived moral conservatism.

Introduction. The 'anatomy of a divorce'
1. Divorce in two legislatures: Irish divorce, 1701–1857
2. The failings of the law: the cases of Talbot and Westmeath
3. A non-inclusive reform: Ireland and the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857
4. Divorce in the post-reform era of 1857–1922: 'Like diamonds, gambling, and picture-fancying, a luxury of the rich'?
5. The widening definition of marital cruelty
6. Divorce in court, 1857–1922
7. 'An exotic in very ungenial soil': divorce in the Northern Ireland parliament, 1921–1939
8. With as 'little provocative as possible': the Northern Ireland move to court
9. An 'unhappy affair': divorce in independent Ireland, 1922–1950
10. Marriage law 'in this country is an absolute shambles': the reform agenda
11. A 'curiosity [and]…an oddity': referenda in 1986 and 1995
12. The 'last stretch of a long road': the Family (Divorce) Law Act of 1996
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]