The Commission on Emigration and Other Population Problems, on which there was a large clerical presence, reported in 1954, six years after it had been set up. This extract from The Irish Timesreport of its findings concentrated on its views on the low, and late, marriage rate. – JOE JOYCE
IN A special section, the report said Ireland’s low marriage rate “has had an unfavourable effect on the outlook of young people, and has contributed to discontent, unsettlement and emigration. Unmarried people, having fewer ties or responsibilities than married people, can more easily leave their surroundings, and they respond more readily to the attractions (including the more favourable marriage prospects) of other countries, or, if they live in rural areas, the more favourable marriage prospects of towns.
“In rural areas, and especially in the congested areas in the West, girls find few opportunities for remunerative employment. The men have little prospect of employment either, but in each farming family, responsibility for his parents prevents one son at least from emigrating, even though he may consider the holding insufficient to support a home. In such a setting girls are attracted towards emigration. They may not realise that the poor marriage prospects enter deeply into their decision to emigrate, but it is the opinion of the Commission that, until men can find employment which can support homes, even those girls who could find employment locally will continue to emigrate.
“On the other hand, both men and women, even from an early age, often have the intention to emigrate, and this militates against early marriage. In short, a low marriage rate contributes to emigration and the intention to emigrate tends to keep the marriage rate low.”
It went on: “A man may be considered to be no more than reasonably prudent if, before entering upon marriage, he seeks a regular job adequately remunerated so as to provide a home and support for a wife and family. The conditions of life in rural Ireland over the past 100 years have been such that this requirement could not be met easily, if at all, until a relatively late age. This economic obstacle has been responsible for creating an attitude towards marriage which may be described as one of undue caution, or even of reluctance, and which, having persisted for so long, has now led the country to accept as normal a high degree of bachelordom . . . and a late age for marriage.
“There is a fairly widespread belief that our poor marriage background is partly attributable to the fact that, since the great majority of the people of Ireland are Catholic, marriage is to them an indissoluble contract, and family limitation by contraception is against the moral law. It is said the indissolubility of marriage and, in the absence of contraception, the fear of large families, deter many from marriage altogether, and others until a relatively advanced age. No convincing evidence has been put before us in support of this view.”
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