That's men for you:I have always thought this to be a high-risk time of year for relationship break-ups.
Meeting three or four times a week to have fun is one thing: spending two or three weeks on holiday with somebody is a very different matter. That's when irritating little habits that were hardly noticed before become screamingly obvious.
The result? Two sullen people land back at the airport and hardly ever talk to each other again. But what if the person whom you discover you can't stand, or who has discovered that they can't stand you, is someone to whom you're engaged?
What about all those little pressies you gave to each other when you were deeply in love? What about the toasters and kettles and sets of china that you may have been given by family and friends to sustain you through a long marriage?
Fortunately, a government agency, which appears to take the same pessimistic view of summer holidays as myself, has applied itself to these questions and has just published the results on the internet. The Citizens Information Board has an extraordinary website at www.citizensinformation.ie which can tell you more or less anything you ever wanted to know about State services and an awful lot that you might want to know about the law.
It is the Republic's official information junkie and it has been around in one form or another since the 1970s. There are people who are paying hundreds to solicitors for information that they could get for nothing on this website.
Back to broken hearts. Remember the white Merc wrapped in a red ribbon that you left outside her front door for her birthday?
If you were already engaged when you gave it to her, you can look for it back. And if you don't mind being driven over by an enraged ex-fiance, go right ahead.
And what about the decking she paid for in your back garden so you could both sit and sip a romantic Chardonnay as you watch the sun go down on yet another glorious Irish summer evening? Yes, she just might have a case for looking for it back. And here's the really scary bit: if the decking stays, her brother who installed it for nothing might have a case for being paid for his work now that the marriage isn't going ahead.
There is, apparently, a legal presumption that the presents people give to each other when they are engaged will be given back if the engagement ends.
I don't know whether you can send her a bill for dinners, fine wines and other consumables but you could look for the return of the CDs and DVDs and all the other rubbish you gave her when you were engaged.
You have kept the receipts haven't you, you romantic sod?
Needless to say, the engagement ring is also returnable - if you really want to get an engagement ring shoved down your throat.
What I like about all this is that you have to be a mean, rotten wretch to look for your presents back and yet the law provides for this sort of thing. And in a touch of genius, the law allows you three years to launch proceedings. That gives you or your ex-lovebird enough time to get over the shock, do the grieving and plan revenge.
As regards presents from other people, there is a presumption made that wedding gifts will be returned if the marriage doesn't go ahead. This is upsetting for those who themselves have got rid of an unwanted gift by giving it to the happy couple but the law is the law.
If the two of you own property together, the same rules apply as if you were married and are separating or divorcing.
All of this, it seems to me, provides a powerful incentive to put up with the faults of your fiance even if she has driven you mad on holiday, if you can manage it at all.
Diamonds may not be for ever but the court case could drag on for eternity.
Padraig O'Morain is a counsellor and his blog is at www.justlikeaman.blogspot.com