<< Article 40 | Constitution of Ireland | Article 42 >>
- The State recognises the Family as the natural
primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and
as a moral institution possessing inalienable and
imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to
all positive law.
- The State, therefore, guarantees to protect the
Family in its constitution and authority, as the
necessary basis of social order and as indispensable
to the welfare of the Nation and the State.
- In particular, the State recognises that by her
life within the home, woman gives to the State a
support without which the common good cannot
be achieved.
- The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure
that mothers shall not be obliged by economic
necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their
duties in the home.
- The State pledges itself to guard with special
care the institution of Marriage, on which the
Family is founded, and to protect it against attack.
- A Court designated by law may grant a
dissolution of marriage where, but only where, it
is satisfied that -
- 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,
- there is no reasonable prospect of a reconciliation
between the spouses,
- 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
- any further conditions prescribed by law
are complied with.
- No person whose marriage has been dissolved
under the civil law of any other State but is a
subsisting valid marriage under the law for the time
being in force within the jurisdiction of the
Government and Parliament established by this
Constitution shall be capable of contracting a valid
marriage within that jurisdiction during the lifetime
of the other party to the marriage so dissolved.
<< Article 40 | Constitution of Ireland | Article 42 >> | 
