Irish talks on divorce

Press, 13 March 1986, Page 21

Irish talks on divorce

The Irish Premier, Garret FitzGerald, has asked the major churches in Ireland to discuss with him the introduction of civil divorce. The Irish constitution bans divorce and a referendum would be needed to remove this prohibition before new divorce legislation could be brought before Parliament, writes Mary Holland from Dublin. Fitz Gerald has come under increasing pressure from the liberal wing of his own Fine Gael party and from his partners in the coalition Government, the

Irish Labour Party, to hold a referendum. Last month an attempt by the Labour Party to introduce a divorce bill was defeated in the Dail. Fianna Fail, the main opposition party, abstained on the issue, but a number of FitzGerald’s own deputies joined with their Labour colleagues to support the bill. It was also supported by deputies in the new party, the Progressive Democrats, whose popularity in public opinion polls now poses a considerable threat to Fitz Gerald’s Fine Gael.

Although recent polls have shown a steadily climbing majority in favour of the introduction of divorce in some circumstances, Fitz Gerald is anxious to avoid a bruising confrontation with the Roman Catholic hierarchy on the issue. He fears a rerun of the bitterly divisive constitutional referendum on abortion in 1983. On that occasion, the Catholic Church was lined up on

one side, with the Protestant churches — flanked by liberal supporters — on the other. FitzGerald was caught unhappily in the middle.

Also a referendum taking place now would almost certainly be opposed by Fianna Fail, which has a healthy respect for the power of the Catholic bishops on such issues.

For these reasons, Fitz Gerald would like to broaden the debate from the emotive issue of divorce to the general problems of marital breakdown. Church and State are agreed that this must be dealt with in a country where thousands of couples are living in relationships which are second marriages in all but name. The children of such relationships are illegitimate and have virtually no legal rights because it is impossible for their parents to get divorced and remarry.

Copyright — London Observer Service.