A pre-marriage course for one sounds like a contradiction in terms, but that's exactly what is now being sought by some immigrants in Dublin.
Accord, the Catholic marriage counselling service, has received many requests in recent months from foreign nationals whose partners have not moved to Ireland with them. They want to do the pre-marriage course here while their other half does the course in their native country.
The requests have come mainly from people from Poland, Lithuania and India and most of them are planning to get married in their own country. However, they cannot do this until they have completed their pre-marriage course. A pre-marriage certificate from Accord will be accepted by priests in those countries.
"It's a sign of the times, I suppose," said Mary Quinn, director of marriage education at Accord. She said it would be unfair to expect these people to take part in a course with 20 other happy couples when they are separated from their partners, so Accord has decided to provide the course on a one-to-one basis. It is now looking at ways of providing marriage preparation material in other languages.
Ms Quinn said some cultural differences were obvious between the Irish and their overseas counterparts when they took part in the the courses. "Some of them wouldn't have as much knowledge about their partners as Irish people have," she said. "We might ask how would your partner feel about something and they might not know."
Meanwhile, anyone getting engaged today and hoping to get married soon in Dublin will have to book their pre-marriage course quickly, as there is nearly a six-month waiting list for the Accord courses.
Hundreds of couples have signed up for the course held in 11 different centres around the Dublin archdiocese and the waiting list is growing. "Accord just wouldn't be in a position to service all the couples getting married," Ms Quinn said. "We've seen a huge increase in people from other countries getting married here, or getting married to Irish people here."
Accord has launched a new website www.gettingmarried.ie
