About this book
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.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-title page
- Title page
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The âAnatomy of a Divorceâ
- 1 Divorce in Two Legislatures: Irish Divorce, 1701â1857
- 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 1857â1922: âLike Diamonds, Gambling, and Picture-Fancying, a Luxury of the Richâ
- 5 The Widening Definition of Marital Cruelty
- 6 Divorce in Court, 1857â1922
- 7 âAn Exotic in Very Ungenial Soilâ: Divorce in the Northern Ireland Parliament, 1921â1939
- 8 With as âLittle Provocation as Possibleâ: The Northern Ireland Move to Court
- 9 An âUnhappy Affairâ: Divorce in Independent Ireland, 1922â1950
- 10 Marriage Law âin This Country Is an Absolute Shamblesâ: The Reform Agenda
- 11 A âCuriosity [and] ⌠an Oddityâ: Referenda in 1986 and 1995
- 12 The âLast Stretch of a Long Roadâ: The Family (Divorce) Law Act of 1996
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index