By Paddy Clancy

WEDDED bliss has Irish couples ignoring the seven-year itch, according to the report of a special survey commissioned by Accord, the Catholic marriage support service.

The survey, which examined the married life of 712 couples nationwide who wed between 1999 and 2005, found most were very happy with their lot and intend to remain married for the rest of their lives.

The survey also found that most couples lived together for an average three years before exchanging marital vows.

Almost nine in 10 couples surveyed were Catholics. The rest were mainly Protestants, Muslims and atheists.

Accord said, “There is little evidence of a seven-year itch in our research.” The agency found that the ‘honeymoon period’ appeared to extend throughout the first seven years of marriage.

But the survey admitted that there appeared to be a slight decline in reported happiness by length of marriage. Four out of five couples married in 2005 declared themselves to be very happy, compared with 64% who married in 1999, an annual drop in bliss of two per cent.

Dr. Willie Walsh, bishop of Killaloe and president of Accord, said the finding that more than three out of four couples are very happy with their marriage was “good news.”

“It reassures us that the deeply felt human need for a life-long loving relationship which is marriage is alive and well,” he said.

Dr. Walsh acknowledged there was a “tension” between the Church’s teaching on sex before marriage and the numbers of people cohabiting, but he did not express support for reform of Church teaching in this area.

The research analyzed attitudes underpinning courtship, cohabitation, relationships, marriage and family, family size, money, overall happiness, and the role of the church and state in supporting recently married couples.

The pollsters said they accepted that there could be an in-built bias in the survey; that couples who are happier in their relationships may have been more likely to give interviews about their marriage.

When couples were asked if they ever considered divorce or separation just seven per cent said they did, but the figure shot up to 63% when they were asked whether other couples they knew had experienced divorce or separation.

Key surprise findings included the details that the average marriage age is 32; 73% strongly believe that fathers are as important as mothers in development of children; 93% of the children were born after marriage; and joint decision-making is seen as the major disadvantage of marriage.