This Wicklow wedding venue provides a picture-perfect backdrop to your big day
This Wicklow wedding venue provides a picture-perfect backdrop to your big day

IMAGE

Real Weddings: Leo and Deb’s cross-cultural Dublin wedding full of joy
Real Weddings: Leo and Deb’s cross-cultural Dublin wedding full of joy

Jennifer McShane

A stylist’s guide to silk scarves, this season’s ultimate styling hero
A stylist’s guide to silk scarves, this season’s ultimate styling hero

Sinead Keenan

6 ways to master the 2026 IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year Awards
6 ways to master the 2026 IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year Awards

Leonie Corcoran

WIN three pairs of sold out weekend tickets for WellFest 2026
WIN three pairs of sold out weekend tickets for WellFest 2026

IMAGE

How women in midlife can reset their relationship with their phones
How women in midlife can reset their relationship with their phones

Ciara Elliot

Siobhán McAuley on belonging, identity and raising a kinder Ireland
Siobhán McAuley on belonging, identity and raising a kinder Ireland

Roe McDermott

Ask Áine: What AI really means for work in 2026
Ask Áine: What AI really means for work in 2026

IMAGE

Inside this enchanting four-bedroom Wicklow cottage complete with a Shomera studio
Inside this enchanting four-bedroom Wicklow cottage complete with a Shomera studio

IMAGE

Inside this picture-perfect West Cork lake house
Inside this picture-perfect West Cork lake house

IMAGE

Image / Agenda
premium
AGENDA

How much will choosing to be single in Ireland cost you?


by Kate Demolder
05th Jan 2022

Unsplash, Caleb George

Being single in Ireland will cost you

Choosing to be single in Ireland will cost you - taxes, infrastructure, rent, unattainable mortgages and social stigma. The continued moralising of marriage as an institution, and the accompanying degradation of single life, not only affects a huge proportion of the population but is out of touch with this country’s cultural reality.

Jamie*, 38, has never felt pitied by couples when he tells them he’s single. It intrigues most, yes, but he’s comfortable in himself – caring less and less what people think as he gets older – and doesn’t find any stigma living as a bachelor in Ireland. But the lack of opportunity to meet people is awful, he said, “and I’ve felt this before Covid”. “We don’t do the random public approaches,” he shares, “like say the...

You have reached a premium article.

For unlimited digital access to the stories worth paying for, subscribe now to IMAGE from just €4.99 a month
Subscribe