Irish Eyes Are Crying

DUBLIN: Divorce, with a lot of strings attached, became legal in Ireland Thursday. Despite official sanction, breaking up is still hard to do more than a year after after foes narrowly lost a bitterly contested referendum but succeeded in writing the laws so that divorce will be a cumbersome bureaucratic procedure for the country's estimated 90,000 separated couples. To end a marriage, couples must first assemble a mass of sworn statements on finances, pension rights, health care benefits and child welfare before a court hearing date can be set. Next step: meeting the eligibility requirements. According to the constitutional amendment, contested divorces are allowed if the couple has been separated four of the past five years and if there is no "reasonable prospect of a reconciliation." With no-contest divorces ringing in at around $3100, expense could also present a sizeable deterrent, says TIME's Tony Connelly. A court system struggling to get up to speed on divorce law could be another. Irish courts received one new judge, but no new staff to handle divorce claims and the yelps from clerical workers submerged in paperwork are already audible, notes Connelly. "There's going to be a huge backlog of cases."