Inventing Divorce

As recently as fifteen years ago Ireland was the only country in the European Union in which divorce was still illegal. But the ban was overturned by the slenderest of majorities when the country voted in a referendum. In a previous vote in 1986, the result had been a thundering 'no'. In rural areas it was 8 to 1 against. Divorce had not only been illegal in Ireland but sternly frowned upon. Olivia O Leary tells the story of the fight to get the constitution amended and asks whether divorce is now accepted as part of modern life.