MARITAL DESERTION IN DUBLIN: An Exploratory Study. BROADSHEET No. 9, May 1974

O’HIGGINS, Kathleen (1974) MARITAL DESERTION IN DUBLIN: An Exploratory Study. BROADSHEET No. 9, May 1974. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

The study which follows is an attempt to examine a social problem, that of marital desertion, never previously considered in Ireland in this particular way. It has as its objectives (i) the study of the marital breakdown situation which led some men to choose this solution, and (it) the aetiology of breakdown. The difficulties in fully achieving these objectives were many and we would agree with the lawyer, Eckelaar, that "... examination of sociological material does not provide evidence of causes of marital breakdown. Sociologists and psychiatrists can do no more than provide information about the kinds of factors which arc commonly associated with separation and divorce.’’l This study is of an exploratory nature. It is not based oh a representative sample of deserted wives simply because no sampling frame was available. No register or record exists of all desertions in Ireland. A minimum number--namely, those on a mean’s tested statutory benefit from the Department of Social Welfare, can be given for the country as a whole, and that is in the region of 2,900. From the 1971 Census of Population the number of married men in the country was 514,927 and the number of married women was 523,075--a difference of 8,148. This figure seems surprisingly small when it is considered that it has to take account of husbands temporarily absent from the country. As it is derived from the difference between two large totals (approximately half-a-million each) one must be statistically distrustful of the difference between two large magnitudes. Still some interest attaches to the differences in previous Census years--1966-- 11,254; 1961--14,625; 1951--15,286; 1946--26,386. It will be seen that the difference was much greater in previous years so that the present small total may be associated with the decline in immigration....

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