Irish Left Archive: Divorce, Vote Yes, Socialist Workers Party, 1995

Many thanks to the person who forwarded this to the Archive, a welcome addition to materials from the Socialist Workers Party, from 1995 and a poster for the referendum on the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which sought to delete the prohibition on the dissolution of marriage and replace it with the following:

A Court designated by law may grant a dissolution of marriage where, but only where, it is satisfied that – i. at the date of the institution of the proceedings, the spouses have lived apart from one another for a period of, or periods amounting to, at least four years during the previous five years, ii. there is no reasonable prospect of a reconciliation between the spouses, iii. such provision as the Court considers proper having regard to the circumstances exists or will be made for the spouses, any children of either or both of them and any other person prescribed by law, and iv. any further conditions prescribed by law are complied with.

The result was a remarkably close 818,842 votes (50.28%) to 809,728 (49.72%) in favour of the amendment.

The poster as can be seen has a photograph of Eamonn Casey who resigned as bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh in 1992 following the revelation that he had had an affair and a son with US citizen, Annie Murphy.

An interesting aspect of the SWP was that it was in 1995 that it changed its name from the Socialist Workers Movement to Socialist Workers Party.