Whether hostile or amicable, rapid or attritional, divorce in Ireland has become complicated by the financial realities of the housing crisis and a post-Covid world of changed expectations. It’s rarely, if ever, easyOn a perfectly curated wedding day, no couple thinks there might come a time when they will feel more like cell mates than soul mates.and 5,218 applications for divorce. Both figures were down from 2022 but may still bear hallmarks of the “Covid effect”.
“It’s just nice to have alleviated that for people, from a cost and an emotional perspective,” says Madigan, who had no idea at the time that she would be one of the thousands who would benefit. She and her husband, Finbarr Hayes, have since separated and are finalising their divorce. There are other fees in addition to the legal fees, Susan says, pointing to elements such as the cost of seeing a psychologist. She estimates that, allowing for other costs and restrictions, the entire process has cost her in the region of €100,000.
Marian lives in the family home with her child. Due to the cost of rent in the capital, her husband had to move in with his parents, in a different county. Marian’s child was suffering, she says, from not seeing his father as frequently as he needed to, so they made an agreement that she would rent out a room to someone else in the house and manage the bills, meaning her husband could afford to move back to Dublin.
Separation is hard, she says. A person can lose married friends, dreams and confidence. She says she feels stuck in limbo as she watches others move on with their lives. Marian says while her married friends can start to take things a little easier as they get older, she and her separated friends have to work even harder.Daniel says he and his ex-wife were just incompatible. They got married when he was in his early 20s and they had no children together.
While accepting the mental toll and financial costs were significant, he says getting divorced is the best decision he ever made.Vicky has been divorced twice. When she came out to her parents “it was still illegal to be gay”. Her father was “devastated” and worried about how his daughter would be treated. She moved abroad, where she married her first wife some years later. But Vicky says she struggled with intense grief following her father’s death, and the marriage broke down.
Irish people can be very judgmental, particularly when there’s a second divorce, Vicky believes. She says people looked at her like she “was a monster, for a while”. She also believes people reacted differently because they were same-sex marriages. “I felt very judged,” she says.Mark: ‘We did all our fighting at the separation stage’