The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1995 (previously bill no. 15 of 1995) is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which removed the constitutional prohibition on divorce, and allowed for the dissolution of a marriage provided specified conditions were satisfied. It was approved by referendum on 24 November 1995 and signed into law on 17 June 1996.
Background
In pre-independence Ireland, divorce was only possible via the passage of a private act by Parliament; it was only available in case of adultery, and if a woman was applying, divorce was only granted if the adultery was accompanied by life-threatening cruelty. This was an expensive process, so only the very wealthy were able to get such Acts passed. Most of Ireland achieved independence in 1922 as the Irish Free State. Per the 1926 Census, 93% of the population were Catholics, and the Catholic Church forbade its members from divorce.
In 1925, the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) altered its Standing Orders to say that divorce bills would not be heard, and thus it would be impossible to get a divorce. This was strenuously opposed by Senator W. B. Yeats, who said "If you show that this country, Southern Ireland, is going to be governed by Catholic ideas and by Catholic ideas alone, you will never get the North. You will create an impassable barrier between South and North, and you will pass more and more Catholic laws, while the North will, gradually, assimilate its divorce and other laws to those of England."
The Constitution of Ireland adopted in 1937 included a ban on divorce. An attempt by the Fine Gael–Labour Party government in 1986 to amend this provision was rejected in a referendum by 63.5% to 36.5%.
The Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act 1989 allowed Irish courts to recognize legal separation. The government made other legislative changes to address the issues identified in that referendum campaign, including the social welfare and pension rights of divorced spouses, which were copper fastened, and the abolition of the status of illegitimacy to remove any distinction between the rights of the children of first and subsequent unions.
Shortly before its collapse, the 1989–1992 government published a white paper on marriage breakdown, which proposed "to have a referendum on divorce after a full debate on the complex issues involved and following the enactment of other legislative proposals in the area of family law".
thumb|upright|Taoiseach John Bruton, who led the coalition that proposed the amendment and referendum
In 1995, the Fine Gael–Labour Party–Democratic Left government of John Bruton proposed a new amendment to allow for divorce in specified circumstances.
Changes to the text
The Fifteenth Amendment deleted the following Article 41.3.2° of the Constitution:
and substituted that subsection with the following:
Oireachtas Debate
The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution (No. 2) Bill 1995 was proposed in the Dáil on 27 October 1995 by Minister for Equality and Law Reform Mervyn Taylor. An amendment was proposed by Helen Keogh on behalf of the Progressive Democrats which would have allowed for legislation generally, without the restrictions proposed in the government's proposal:
This amendment was rejected and the Bill passed final stages by the Dáil without division on 11 October. It was passed by the Seanad on 18 October and proceed to a referendum on 24 November 1995.
Campaign
The Catholic Church was strongly against the amendment, but stated that Catholics could vote for the amendment in good conscience, and that it would not be a sin to do so.
In the run-up to the vote the No Campaign used the now-infamous slogan "Hello Divorce, Bye Bye Daddy" which was criticised for being manipulative and irresponsible.
Justin Barrett was the spokesman for the Youth Against Divorce campaign. In later years, Barrett himself sought a divorce in 2016.
Opinion polling
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-datatable collapsible" style="text-align:center;font-size:90%;line-height:14px;"
|-
! rowspan="2" |Last date of polling
! rowspan="2" |Commissioner
! rowspan="2" |Polling firm
! class="unsortable" style="width:50px;" rowspan="2"| Sources
! class="unsortable" style="width:50px;" | 20px
! class="unsortable" style="width:50px;" | 20px
! class="unsortable" style="width:50px;" | Undecided
|-
! style="color:inherit;background:#008000;" |
! style="color:inherit;background:#D53030;" |
! style="color:inherit;background:#BABABA;" |
|- style="background:#EFEFEF;"
|24 November
|Referendum results
|—
|
|style="background:#C8FFC8"|50.3%
|49.7%
|—
|-
|24 November
|The Irish Times
|MRBI
|
| for = 818842
| valid = 1628570
| against = 809728
| electorate = 2628834
| invalid = 5372
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|+Results by constituency
According to The Irish Times, "the polls taken at the time showed that, if anything, the end of the advertising campaign coincided with a halt in the slide of support for divorce". and signed into law on 27 November 1996. This gave effect in primary legislation to the new Constitutional provisions. Although this act, the Family Law (Divorce) Act, 1996, specified its own commencement date as 27 February 1997, the first divorce was granted on 17 January 1997, based solely on the constitutional amendment, to a dying man who wanted urgently to marry his new partner.
The Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland was approved in a referendum held in May 2019, and removed the constitutional requirement for parties to be living apart before a divorce. It also altered the provisions in Article 41.3.3° on the recognition of foreign divorce.
References
Further reading
External links
- Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1995
- Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act 1989
- Family Law Act 1995
- Family Law (Divorce) Act 1996
- Full text of the Constitution of Ireland
- Oireachtas debates on the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution (No. 2) Bill 1995