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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...

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