TV: We're through

A NEW RTE documentary series plans to lift the lid on marriage breakdown in Ireland.

For Better or Worse? interviews couples whose marriages have failed and examines why so many couples in modern Ireland are finding their marriage vows hard to keep.

The break up of marriages and families is one of those aspects of Irish life that has remained hidden for decades.

Old Catholic guilt and the stigma of a failed union had succeeded in keeping the issue out of the public domain.

Everything changed six years ago when the Irish public finally voted to allow divorce, albeit in fairly limited circumstances.

Despite the introduction of divorce, last year a record number of marriages took place in the state. In fact, 40,000 people decided to walk down the aisle and promised to take each other "for better or worse".

But as record numbers decide to take those vows, an increasing number are finding them impossible to keep.

This new four-part series examines those couples who, for one reason or another, have found themselves in a broken marriage.

The films and their brave participants introduce viewers to a world that is all too rarely spoken about and explore the human stories of family break-up as it is experienced in Ireland today.

Over the next four weeks viewers will, for the first time on Irish television, get to see how it really was for people who have gone through a break-up.

The participants tell it like it is - frankly and honestly. Each has a different perspective but all share the pain, heartache and sense of failure that defines the ending of a marriage.

The film makers aim to shine a light in a darkened corner of Irish society.

An RTE spokesperson said: "For so long in Ireland these experiences have been shrouded behind a legal requirement of secrecy and personal desire for privacy which has stunted our ability as a community to share the pain and support families in break-up in a consistent way.

"In 2003 it's time to take stock and with the courage to speak out - the women and men telling their stories in the series help to break one last taboo by sharing openly with us their different journeys through marriage, break-up, separation and divorce and what the future holds."

The series is likely to be criticised by those in Ireland who would rather pretend that marriage breakdown is not a problem in Ireland.

Others will try to use the programme to further their political ends and claim it is proof that the introduction of divorce was a horrible mistake.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of those arguments, this series is not a political story, but a human one.

All the participants in this programme deserve credit for having the courage to tell their stories in a country full of sectional interests that will only be too willing to use their stories to advance their own political agenda.

For Better or Worse? is a snapshot of a growing problem in modern Ireland and is sure to inspire controversy and debate.

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