CivilCertificates.ie

Thursday, 27 July 2017

City Dwellers Are Less Likely to Tie the Knot - But Cycle More!

Deirdre Cullen - Central Statistics Office

Ireland's city dwellers are the least likely to settle down in marriage as new Census figures show almost two-thirds of those in Dublin and Cork are single.

The latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures analysed by the Irish Independent show a significant difference in relationship status of those living in urban settings in comparison to the suburbs and countryside.

The Census data released focused on Small Area Populations (SAPS) - of which there were more than 8,000 nationwide.

Statistics were also provided for settlements and towns as well as the 31 administrative counties - meaning Dublin was split into four, with Cork carved up into two sections.

The figures revealed that 64pc of men living within Cork city are single along with 62pc of women.
Similarly, in the capital, 64pc of both sexes in Dublin city are single.

However, this compares quite differently with Dublin's other administrative areas, as Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin are all around the mid-50s when it comes to single life.

They come in at 55pc, 57pc and 58pc respectively - highlighting the divide between city and suburban life.

Marriage
As far as marriage is concerned, it is people in Ireland's rural areas that are getting hitched the most regularly.

In counties Galway, Roscommon and Leitrim 45pc of women and 42pc of men are married.
Meanwhile, the top counties for divorce rates are mainly along the east coast, with Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow and Waterford having rates at 3pc.

The data also delves into the smallest areas in the country through an interactive map.

Senior statistician at the CSO Deirdre Cullen said: "Today's results are available for the full set of 18,641 small areas, each of which generally covers between 80-120 households.

"The results provide an in-depth picture of the social and economic conditions of every community in Ireland.

"This data is an important national resource and is easily accessible and freely available for all to use."

This particular in-depth local data also showed a sharp rise in cyclists in Dublin city centre.

The statistics revealed the number of cyclists making their way to work rose by some 43pc between 2011 and 2016.

The largest increase came around the Harold's Cross and Kimmage areas of Dublin.

CSO officials believe this is particularly down to a cycle route that was opened along the Grand Canal in Dublin. The route runs all the way from Portobello to Sheriff Street.

Meanwhile, the oldest mother to give birth in Ireland over the past decade was 54 years of age.

CSO figures have revealed the number of Irish mothers giving birth after the age of 45 has more than doubled over the past decade.

It shows an increasing number of Irish women are having babies after their 50th birthday, with the number going from just four in 2007 to 13 in 2016 although the highest number was 17 in 2015, according to the latest CSO figures.

Healthy

The trend for older motherhood is bolstered by people living longer and new advances in fertility treatments with Irish women able to use healthy donor eggs of women in their 20s from countries like the Czech Republic, Spain and Ukraine to have a safer pregnancy in their late 40s and even at the age of 50.

New CSO figures show a sharp rise in the number of Irish women over the age of 45 giving birth - from 118 in 2007 to 295 in 2016.

Out of the 670 patients from Ireland over the past six years, 43pc were aged between 41 and 45.

Ryan Nugent and Lynne Kelleher
July 21 2017
IRISH INDEPENDENT

New Legislation Slows Down Marriages of Convenience

A sharp reduction in the number of marriages in Ireland last year between EU citizens from outside Ireland and a non-EU citizen is being attributed to the introduction of legislation designed to crack down on marriages of convenience.

Figures published by the General Register Office show 426 couples involving two foreigners with one partner from outside the EU were married in the Republic in 2016. It compares to 860 in 2015 and 1,163 in 2014.

The office figures reveal that 41% of such couples who notified the Irish authorities of their intention to marry last year did not proceed with their wedding.

Only about 20% of couples in that category failed to go ahead with a marriage ceremony between 2012 and 2014. There has been a significant reduction in the number of citizens from Pakistan involved in such marriages — down from around 400 in 2014 and 2015 to 58 last year.

The Registrar General Kieran Feely said the problem of marriages of convenience, as a means of circumventing immigration controls, became more acute following a ruling by the European Court of Justice in the Matock case in 2008.

It allowed the non-EU spouse of an EU citizen to move and reside with their partner within the EU without having previously been lawfully resident in a member state.

The judgement did not apply to a non-EU spouse married to an Irish citizen.

Mr Feely said: “Non-EU nationals marrying Irish nationals are not entitled to EU Treaty rights in Ireland, so there is much less of an incentive to contract a marriage of convenience with an Irish citizen.”

The Registrar General said the number of notices of intention to marry involving non-Irish EU and non-EU couples had grown “fairly dramatically” in recent years. They rose from 883 in 2012 to 1,584 in 2015 — an 80% increase.

In his annual report to the Department of Social Protection, Mr Keely said there had been an equally dramatic fall last year when the numbers fell by 56% to 702. “The introduction of the measures contained in section 18 of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014 has obviously had a significant impact,” said Mr Keely.

The legislation which came into effect in January 2016 allows for a marriage that is determined to be a marriage of convenience to be declared invalid.

It permits a registrar to consider certain matters where a notice of intention to marry is received from a foreigner. In suspicious cases, the registrar is obliged to make a report to a superintendent registrar who decides the matter as well as providing a copy of all records and information to the minister for justice.

The decision of the superintendent registrar can be appealed to the circuit court.

Mr Keely said the success of the legislation has also been assisted significantly by co-o
peration between the Department of Justice and the Garda National Immigration Bureau.

Friday, July 21, 2017

Seán McCárthaigh

SOURCE: IRISHEXAMINER.COM

Saturday, 25 March 2017

Bruce Springsteen's Irish Roots - The Boss Is One of Our Own

Sure, Bruce was Born in the USA –

But The Boss Has Roots that Extend all the Way Back to Ireland.

On 8th November 1853, three Irish sisters stepped off the Arctic S.S. in the Port of New York. Ann Gerrity, the eldest, was 14 years old, Catherine was 12 and Eliza was 10. They were on their way to re-join their father and brothers in Freeport, Monmouth, New Jersey.

A few years earlier ca. 1849, Christy Gerrity and his sons took ship for Canada. At that time it was cheaper and involved less paper-work to arrive in Canada, than in any of the American ports.

At some time in 1850 Christy Gerrity slipped across the Canada/U.S. border, and settled in Monmouth, NJ.

On September 14 1853, Christy Geritry petitioned for naturalisation and in 1856 became an American citizen. He couldn’t write, and made an ‘X’ by his name, recorded by the clerk.

The Gerrity/Geraghty family had overcome many obstacles and travelled a long way to begin their new life. Originally from the parish of Rathangan, county Kildare, the earliest evidence we have for them, records that in October 1823 a young Christopher Gerrity was incarcerated in Naas Jail under the Insurrection Act.[1]

The Insurrection Act was passed to stem the spread of political unrest, as Famine, fever and poverty led to a rise in agrarian protest, against evictions, rent and tithe demands.

On 6th February 1827 Christopher Gerrity and Catherine Kelly married in the parish of Rathangan and Kildare. They settled in Mountprospect (southwest of the main town of Rathangan), where they reared their children.

Their children were baptised:

James, February 25 1828
John, May 16, 1830
Michael, January 13, 1833
Ann, December 2, 1838
Elizabeth, November 6, 1843
Thomas, Dec. 25, 1847

Evidence in the historical documents proved there were at least two other Gerrity children.

Christy, born ca. 1834/35 [from Rathangan National School registers]
Catherine, born ca. 1841 [from the U.S. Census

There’s nothing certain in life, but death and taxes. Using the land-tax records we found the Gerrity family home in Mountprospect townland. The annual tax charged on the house was 10 shillings, indicating a small house, one-storey with probably no more than 2 rooms.

Such a low tax rate, tells us the house was built of ‘perishable material’ – probably cob, i.e. clay mixed with straw or rushes, with a thatched roof. The house would have had an earthen floor.

There was probably an open-hearth in the main-room, where all the cooking was done.

School-days
In October of 1841 the teacher at Rathangan National School noted enrolment of brothers James (13), John (11) and Michael Gerrity of Mountprospect. Their father’s occupation was given as ‘carrier’, i.e. earning a living by transporting people, goods and live-stock.

The registers prove that the three Gerrity boys remained in school until September 1845, leaving to enter the work-place.

Between November 1846 and June 1847 Michael Gerrity re-entered the school, along with a younger brother Christy Gerrity (11 years) now enrolled for the first time.

The Gerrity boys were recorded as living in Mount Prospect, their father’s occupation was still ‘Carrier’. By June 1847 the school-master recorded the Gerrity brothers were ‘sent to another S.[chool]’.

The year 1847 has passed down as ‘Black 47 - one of the worst years of the Famine in Ireland. If Christy Gerrity Sr. kept his sons at school even as the worst of the Famine unfolded around them, it suggests that he saw a good education as the best way to secure his sons’ future.

Monmouth, New Jersey
By 1850 Christy Gerrity and his sons arrived in the United States, via Canada. In 1853 his daughters arrived in the U.S. and made their way to New Jersey. The family lived near each other for the rest of their lives. It is apparent that when Christopher Gerrity arrived in the United States he wasn't trying to escape his old life. He was trying to create a better life for his entire family. Imagining the stress and heartache when the family first separated to begin their voyage to America, it's easy to see that when they were finally reunited, they made a point of staying together.

Sources
All records used in this research are available on www.findmypast.com

National School Registers

RC Parish Registers

Griffith’s Valuation – the only definitive version of this key source is on
findmypast

[1] Source: 1824 (174) Ireland, Insurrection Act. Returns… dated 6^th Feby. 1824, … of the names of all persons committed under the Insurrection Act, 1^st Jany. 1823 to 1^stFeby. 1824 in each county. … Kildare.

SOURCE: THE IRISH FAMILY HISTORY CENTRE

Saturday, 25 February 2017

One Bridesmaid's Story from the Battlefront of Weddings......

The joys of being a bridesmaid are far-and-few between....

Sure, helping your best friend prepare for her special day can be great, but to be honest, the hours are long, the expenses are brutal and the promise of good-looking groomsmen? Little to none. Sure it's her special day, but what about the poor bridesmaid following the beautiful, white train down the aisle?

Well, as the old saying goes, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and that's exactly what one bridesmaid did when she joined the bride and groom in a romantic wedding photo (not exactly what we had in mind).

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Janessa James, a "perpetually single" bridesmaid" according to BRIDES, was granted a very important task during her best friend's bridal shoot in Sundance, Utah.

She was asked to toss the veil into the air, and then hurry out of the picture — an attempt to create a natural, windblown look.

"After a while, the photographer realized that I wasn't getting far enough out of the shot to properly cut me out, so I dove, and she caught the best moment ever," James told Brides.

"This is how I am currently feeling about Wedding and engagement season coming up... {Yes,

this is an actual photo of me (extremely single) helping my best friend with the bridals. The

photographer asked me to throw her train up and then dive out of the shot, and so I did.

Very theatrically}," James captioned her Reddit post.

While this wasn't her first time as a bridesmaid — James revealed she's worn about a dozen

bridesmaid dresses before this — it seems this was her first time upstaging a bride in her

own wedding photos (whoops!).

"Being a bridesmaid so many times has made me really good at smiling through the pain,"

she added. Her post has racked up 722 points on Reddit since it was uploaded five days ago.

And it's pretty clear everyone now loves her as she's proven she's the best friend anyone could

have. "You're an amazing friend! I hope everyone has someone as dedicated as you!"

one person commented on her photo. We couldn't agree more!

SOURCE: Caroline Alkire, Good Housekeeping