Limerick Leader: more than half of city births are to "unmarried"

sceptre

I'm not going to turn this place into a "sceptre posts articles" board but I did think this one was interesting, Limerick being the only place in the country where more than half of births are "out of wedlock" (quaint phrase that)

Limerick Leader Aug 9

MORE than half of all Limerick City births are now out of wedlock.

The figure for County Limerick is 24 per cent.

That's the same as for County Cork.

Clare and Kerry are both over the 30 per cent mark.

North Tipp is at 32 and Tipp South is 38.

The Central Statistic Office report has shown that Limerick City is the only place in Ireland where over half of all births are out of wedlock.

Responding to the city figures, local politician, Councillor Diarmuid Scully, Lynwood Park, said that while it is a dubious honour, the issue must be tackled with sensitivity.

"It's not a title we'd want to have in Limerick, but the key thing is not to demonise unmarried mothers.

"What the survey doesn't show - and this would be much more revealing - is how many of those children were born into stable loving relationships," he said.

The CSO survey puts Limerick County Borough (the City Council jurisdiction) at the very top of the list at 51 percent. Dublin City and Cork City follow closely behind at 48 and 45 percent respectively.

Cllr Scully explained that there are several possible reasons for Limerick's high percentage of births out of wedlock.

"I'd imagine that one of the reasons is because we've so many young people in the city and we've got local employers like Dell as well as UL attracting even more young people to work and study here," he said.

Another reason Cllr Scully felt might account for Limerick's position in the survey is the fact that it has such a large concentration of local authority housing. Mr Scully's own electoral ward includes his own Lynwood Park and the other City Council-built estates of Carew and O'Malley parks.

"It's not that people form local authority estates are more likely to have children out of wedlock, it's the other way around. People who have children out of wedlock are more likely to find themselves in local authority housing," he said.

"Lone parents are more likely to live below the poverty line and to be socially excluded. There's a much wider geographical range of local authority housing in Dublin and Cork, but here in Limerick, because our boundary is so small, we've got high concentrations in our city centre," he concluded.

bucks73

Its a good point about the city boundaries though. Places like Dooradoyle, Raheen, Caherdavin, Ashbrook, Castletroy are all in the county.

You can see why the corporation are always wanting to extend its boundaries.

sceptre

It is a good point about the boundary (of course the boundary runs less than 100 yards from Scully's front door so there would be something wrong if he hadn't noticed). I thought it was interesting - personally I'm not worried if the figure keeps climbing with all those hip youngsters not wanting to get married these days either. It's not just under-educated people trapped on council estates that are having babies without taking a trip to get wed beforehand.

echomadman

speaking as a limerick person born out of wedlock back when it was frowned upon a lot more ....

I know a good few people who are unwed and are raising children, marraige isnt seen as a major priority to a lot of people these days, as the catholic churchs stranglehold on society weakens and religious opinon is detached from state policy and law,
Most of the people i know who are married or about to be married did so purely for tax/insurance or other financial reasons,

as has been already pointed out the city boundries stop just before the "upper/middle class" sprawl of raheen/dooradoyle, a bastion of "happy, god fearing" families if ever there was one