Divorce: the seven year itch

Colette Keane looks at the effects of divorce and also gets the views of Professor Patricia Casey, who was at the forefront of the debate.

THEY said daddies would leave. They said it would open the floodgates and 80,000 people would swamp the courts leaving a trail of broken homes in their wake. They said the country would become a place for "wife-swapping sodomites". But has it?

On February 27, 2004 it will be seven years since divorce officially became a legal option for the thousands of people whose marriages break down beyond repair. At first glance the dire consequences predicted by the anti-divorce lobby seem archaic, but have they come true?