50 February/March 2024 February/March 2024 51
T
wo amendments to the Constitution
of Ireland on the family will be put
to referendum on 8 March 2024.
The Thirty-ninth Amendment of
the Constitution (The Family) Bill
2023 extends the definition of family to
explicitly include durable relationships
outside marriage.
The Fortieth Amendment of the Constitution
(Care) Bill 2023 removes patriarchical
references to a woman’s “life within the home”
and “duties in the home”, and adds a new
Article on care within the family.
The articles proposed for amendment
needed reform. The Citizens Assembly
advised government what to do. The
government ignored the advice. While
eecting modest improvements, in both case
Village considers the lost opportunity is more
dramatic than the benefit oered. Vote no in
both cases.
The THIRTY-NINTH AMENDMENT would amend
two provisions of the Constitution.
Article 41.1.1° would be amended by the
addition of the text in bold:
The State recognises the Family, whether
founded on marriage or on other durable
relationships, 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.
This proposed amendment seems fine,
recognising that the ritual of marriage should
not determine important family rights.
In passing we should note that it is nonsense
for the government, per Minister Roderic
O’Gorman, to say that throuples, long-term
Vote No. Twice.
Guide to referendums, 2024
Unfortunately the wording is ineptly
drafted, selling short children and
parents in non-marital families and
carers, both non-family who won’t
be Constitutionally protected and
family who’ll be recognised as carers
whether or not they want to be
By Jenny Duffy
bigamous marriages etc are not durable
relationships. Whether they are — and
whether they deserve protection — will
depend on the circumstances.
His wife, Emma Hamilton, and her lover
Admiral Horatio Nelson, were in a ménage à
trois from 1799 until Nelson’s death in 1805.
The political philosopher Friedrich Engels
lived in a similar ménage with his mistress
Mary Burns and her sister Lizzie. Psychologist
Carl Jung lived with Toni Wol, as well as his
wife Emma Jung, for several decades.
And indeed it is questionable whether a
Constitution needs to elevate anything as
“the natural primary and fundamental unit
group of Society”.
It is legitimate to suggest that this unduly
discriminates against people who do not find
themselves in families whether by choice or
misfortune.
Article 41.3.1° would be amended by the
deletion of the text in bold:
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.
It is a deficiency in the Thirty-Ninth
Amendment that the state will not pledge
itself to guard other durable relationships of
the Family such as the parent-child bond if it
is formed outside marriage. The amendment
will create a disparity between the
constitutional protection of children in
Marriage and that of children in other durable
relationships
The Citizens
Assembly
advised
government
what to
do. The
government
ignored the
advice.
OPINION