Carlow’s divorce rate is higher than Dublin

While Monaghan has lowest rate

COUNTY Carlow was the divorce capital of Ireland in 2015, according to the latest figures on marital breakdown from the Courts Service.

There were 68 divorce applications in the county last year, which was enough to give Carlow the highest rate in the Republic in 2015, at 125 applications per 100,000 people.

Less surprising was the fact that Dublin was in second place, with 1,552 applications for divorce last year, or one third of the national total (a rate of 122 applications per 100,000).

Next highest were Galway and Waterford, the only other two counties with a rate of divorce application higher than 100.

The rate of applications for divorce in counties such as Carlow and Dublin is almost three times higher than in those counties with the lowest rates. The figures showed that Monaghan and Donegal had the happiest marriages last year, with 42 and 49 applications for divorce per 100,000 people respectively. In some of the smaller counties, the number of applications could be counted on the fingers of both hands, with just eight in Longford last year and six in Leitrim.

Overall, there were 4,290 divorce applications last year with 3,264 cases granted, according to records compiled by the Courts Service.

Also recorded in the figures was the break-up of 75 civil partnerships – the effective precursor to same-sex marriage, which was introduced just five years ago.

Another 33 people applied for ‘nullity,’ according to the figures, which is a declaration that their marriage was null and void and effectively had never happened.

Although divorce has been available for two decades, many couples still choose to end their marriage by way of judicial separation. Last year, 1,384 couples went down this road.