Two-thirds now favour divorce

FOR THE first time a poll has shown that a majority of the Irish people are in favour of the legalisation of divorce in certain circumstances. And the size." of the majority is amazingly high(two' thirds) especially as compared with previous polls which at no stage showed a clear majority in favour yet alone such a decisive one.

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The survey was commissioned exclusively by Magill publications Ltd. and was conducted by MRBI Ltd. on a national basis on September 22 and 23, 1977. The statistical sample of 623 is represenntative of the adult population of the Republic aged 18 and upwards (1.89 million) in terms of area, community, sex, age, marital status and class. Interrlocking controls, using in-home interrviews, based on sixty randomly drawn sampling points, were applied.
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The change of attitude on divorce is almost certainly linked to new atttitudes in the Catholic Church towards the break-down of marriage. As the law stands at present in the Republic, the State is more rigid on maintaining the marriage contract than is the Church which liberally recognises nullities.

Predictably the younger age groups, the higher social classes and the urban dwellers favour change in this area more than their counterparts but surprisingly women are more in favour of the leggalisation of divorce than are men a reversal of the usual pattern of men being more radical than women.

The poll shows that a similar majjority-64%~ are in faviur of legalising the sale of contraceptives but only 21 % are in favour of legalising the sale for all adults.  

The new Fianna Fail Government is committed to introducing new legislattion on the sale of contraceptives but it has consistently refused to divulge the nature of their proposals until consult attation has taken place with "the apppropriate interests". However it seems likely that the sale will be restricted to married people only- and the outtlets will probably be Health Boards, rather than the chemist shops as propposed in the Coalition Bill introduced in the Dail in 1975.

The Government seems however to have ruled out any consideration of a change in the constitutional prohibbition on divorce- this was indicated

in the Dail a few weeks ago by the Taoiseach. However once the Law Refform commission reports on family law , new legislation may be introuced to liberalise the nullity arrangements in accordance with the developments that have taken place within the Catholic Church.

The Labour Party is the only party committed to change in both areas. Fine Gael while ostensibly committed to changing the laws on the sale of contraceptives, has not committted ittself on the divorce issue and the cons-

ervative forces within the party seem to have asserted themselves recently with the questioning by Dr. Garret FitzGerald of divorce being a civil right.

The poll sample used was the sarne as that used used in the pre-election polls and these predicted the election result to a percentage point. The statistical accuracy of the sample is estimated at plus or minus approximately 4.5% so that even allowing for minus 4.5% in the divorce poll there is still an overwhelming majority in favour of change in certain circumstances.

Do you feel that the sale of contraceptives should be legalised?-----

      Should be     Legalised for   Should not be   No       
      legalised     married only   legalised   opinion     
TOTAL   623     %       %     %   %       
  100%     21       43     23   13       

COMMUNITY                         
Urban   325     28       40     22   10       
Rural   298     14       45     25   16       

SEX                           
Male   302     26       38     21   15       
Female   321     17       47     25   11       

AGE                           
18 - 24   108     37       35     13   15     
25 - 34   119     31       46     16   7     
35 - 54   197     17       47     27   9     
55 +   189     10       37     34   19     

S/E CLASS                           
ABC1   175     26       45     19   10     
C2DE   268     26       40     22   12     
F1/F2   180     10       39     28   23     

If there was a referendum today on the question of divorce, what way would you vote?             
     

Should not be     Should be   No       
      legalised       legalised   Opinion     

TOTAL     623     %       .%     %       
  100%     26       65     9       

COMMUNITY                           
Urban     325     22       71     7       
Rural     298     31       59     10       

SEX                           
Male     302     25       63     12     I   
Female     321     27       67     6     I   
                        I.   
AGE                           
18 - 24     118     13       78     9     1   
25 - 34     119     19       77     4     I   
35 - 54     197     28       63     9     ~   
55 +     189     37       52     11     ~   

S/E CLASS                           
ABC1     175     26       69     5     0   
C2DE     268     23       65     12     1   
FI/F2     180     32·       59     9     1  

Sample: 623 Adults aged 18 upwards: Republic of Ireland.       I