The other day sociologist Tony Fahey was interviewed on Today with Sean O’Rourke (Keelin Shanley standing in) about marriage in Ireland twenty years after the divorce referendum.

During that referendum there were the usual accusations and counter-accusations but in some respects both sides were wrong about what would happen.

The anti-divorce side warned that allowing divorce would open the way to British-style divorce levels with the big caveat that this would only happen over time and not overnight.

It’s true that it didn’t happen overnight, but so far it hasn’t happened at all. Twenty years on the rate of divorce in Ireland remains very low by Western standards.

The pro-divorce side said there was lots of pent-up demand for divorce. They were wrong as well. The fact that the divorce rate remains low shows that there wasn’t much pent-up demand for divorce.

On the other hand, and as Dr Fahey rightly pointed out, a lot of people in Ireland separate without getting divorced. This means that it is misleading to look at our divorce rate only when looking at the amount of marital breakdown in Ireland. We have to add the amount of separation to the amount of divorce to get the full picture.

Even when added together we still have a lower rate of marital breakdown than most Western countries. However, in absolute terms there are a lot of separated and divorced people in Ireland.

In 1986 the total stood at 40,000. By 2011 (the last Census), it stood at 240,000 people. There is a lot of heartache behind those figures.

(Go to this link http://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_seanorourke.xml and scroll down to find the Fahey interview)