Divorce defeat | Socialist Action 1983

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sion.

jority for divorce rights.

struggle. deprived of family support.

The main bogey weight given form of land. rather than the traditional religious ones.

the Irish constitution. to the Six Counties. BY THE time the result of the 26 June divorce referendum in the South of Ireland was announced its outcome was a foregone conciuThe anti-divorce campaigners won a massive 63 per cent of the poll, with Dublin the only area of the country to return a maThis result has to be registered as a serious defeat, both for women and for the Irish national One of the reasons for the defeat of the proposed amendment was that it was not accompanied by legislation to cover allocation of property and alimony payments. This allowed anti-divorce campaigners to undermine support for the amendment among women who feared that liberalisation of divorce without this could lead to them being of the anti-divorce campaigners was that the absence of such legislation would undermine rights of inheritance — the abili• ty to hand on the "patrimony intact is of enormous agricuitura economy, with family wealth existing largely in the The weakness of the constitutional divorce amendment allowed this campaign to build up a head of steam. The farming lobby cynically whippea wo women s Justned concer on almolly as c cover for their aim of maintaining full property rights over their land. Indeed it is striking that even the Catholic Church largely used this economic argument in its campaign against the change, As a result the defeat on divorce compounds the defeat women suffered in 1983 with the passing of the abortion amendment, outlawing abortion in This will also have a profound impact on the national struggle in the North of Ireland. Every move to shore up the domination of the Catholic Church over secular matters in the South becomes part of the argument against a united Ireland in the North. The Unionists like Paisley are of cours total hypocrits. because while they proclaim that this proves the Pope rules Ireland, they also oppos ed divorce and abortion legislation being extended However the impact will be the same, proving yet again that the Catholic Church in the South is one of the chief props of British rule in the North.