In Ireland, historically and in the current era, the family has been a central concern for society and the State. This article provides a descriptive: Understanding Families and Societies Essay, UOG, Ireland

In Ireland, historically and in the current era, the family has been a central concern for society and the State. This article provides a descriptive overview of family life in Ireland and of major family-related changes over the past 40 years. It presents a general framework of analysis within which these changes can be understood, considers the general nature of change and continuity in the family in Ireland, and proposes some implications for research and policy in the early part of this century.

Although its exceptionalism is a matter for debate, there is no doubt that family1 in Ireland has had enormous historical significance and that it retains a central position in the major social and policy discourses of the current era.  What family is, what family does, and how it does it are ongoing questions for Irish society and its government. It is fair to say that in the first 50 years of the modern Irish State, answers to these questions were provided by a State that took its lead from the Catholic Church. Yet, in spite of a more recent period of autonomy from the church, the State has been slow to articulate any overarching statement on family, only doing so in the 1998 Commission on the Family report.

The Commission provided an account of family and the role of the State in relation to it, setting out six principles by which family policy development would be guided and elaborating an overall objective of family wellbeing as the focus of policy. Yet, in its wake, Irish family policy remains elusive, with no strong coherence across the diversity of policy positions and measures that have an impact on it, or consistency in how the family is treated.

A more recent statement of the position of the family in Ireland is provided in the report by the Irish State legislature on the family in the context of an ongoing consideration of the constitution. The document is notable insofar as it demonstrates the extent of difference within Irish society on how the family should be defined, concluding that extending the definition in the constitution to include nonmarital families “would cause deep and long-lasting division in our society” and that if brought to a referendum such a proposal would not necessarily pass.

In this context of a still emerging policy framework for family, and given the contestation of understandings and approaches to the family just presented, it is useful to take stock and reflect on the current state of the family in Ireland, the pathways leading to it, and its future possibilities. Therefore, the goal of this article is threefold. First, it provides a descriptive outline of key changes in family life in Ireland, locating them historically and in relation to the experience of other countries.

Second, it presents a general framework of analysis against which these changes can be considered, and, third, in conclusion, it considers the nature of change and continuity in families in Ireland and proposes some implications for families in the early part of this century and some key questions for policymakers and researchers to pursue