Love and Marriage in Ireland - Moment of Truth #1
Audio monologue - Let's talk about the broader picture of Marriage in Ireland, following a promising report on a rise in Catholic marriage prep participants
Transcript from the Audio
This moment of truth, love, marriage and divorce. a new report from the Catholic Marriage Care Organization. Accord says, attendance at marriage preparation courses in Ireland has jumped by 16%, that means thousands of couples have chosen to get married in the Catholic church, they’re choosing church weddings. That’s good news. Genuinely good news. But the will how many of these couples actually remain married? because if you zoom out from the encouraging statistic, the broader picture shifts in 2010.
Ireland recorded about 22,000 marriages and roughly 4,100 divorce applications
by 2024, it was over 20,000 marriages and over 5,000 divorces closer to one divorce. For every four marriages. so even as fewer people are marrying, a larger share of marriages are ending,
it reflects a deeper shift in Irish culture that deserves some focus.
Ireland was one of the most unmistakably Catholic nations on Earth. Yet, over the past few decades, referendum after referendum, legalizing same-sex marriage, legalizing abortion, and shortening the separation period required for divorce. Has signaled something deeper. Catholicism for many has shifted from a lived faith and a core conviction into more of a cultural inheritance, more of a tradition than a governing conviction. So yes, it’s encouraging to see more couples than entering Catholic marriage prep. If a church wedding is just a ceremonial milestone rather than a sacramental commitment, then we have to ask, what’s the point in cheering?
Where’s the hope in that? Are we going to see an increase in Catholic baptisms at the parish level in Ireland? That’ll be part of the real test.
The real measure won’t be attendance numbers at Catholic marriage prep. the real tests will be whether these marriages endure or, whether they follow the same trajectory that Irish marriages civil or religious have traced over the past decade.