Do you remember ‘The Snapper’? Roddy Doyle’s classic second book of the Barrytown Trilogy, published in 1990, revolves around the Rabbitte family and the teenage pregnancy of Sharon Rabbitte.
Written in the late 1980s, it is a familiar tale about a family dealing with a teenage pregnancy and how the birth of the Snapper itself brings the family closer.
When I was a teenager, teen pregnancies were the stuff of growing up, like drinking in fields, 12-inch singles and smoking your first Major.
In 1990, 6pc of all mothers in Ireland were under 20. On our road in suburban Dublin, when an unmarried girl became pregnant, it was treated as if the sky had fallen in. News always travelled fast. Initially, particularly amongst the sanctimonious, there’d be all sorts of gossip and chatter about the girl as if a girl could get pregnant on her own. A mate of mine’s mother used to warn us boys as we headed out the door on a Saturday night, “Remember now lads, they can’t get half-pregnant”!
Back then, I didn’t really know what she meant. I was a bit slow. Now I get it. The truth is that all data show that teenage pregnancies are hard on the mother, the family and the baby. Over the years, teenage pregnancy has been an accurate indicator of relative poverty because obviously it is very difficult for a young mother to build a career or stay in education if she has a baby to look after.
And the evidence from the US (where they have the most relevant data) shows that your mid-twenties are very important in terms of building a solid career foundation. For example, people who are not working for long periods in their twenties never recover financially. They still earn less than the average by the time they are 40 and 50. So these years are crucial economically and, if you are looking after a young baby or child in these critical years, it is hard to catch up financially.
The good news is that teenage pregnancy has fallen in Ireland to the lowest level on record and is still falling every year.
This year, fewer than 2pc of babies will be born to mothers under 20. Teenage pregnancy in Ireland is disappearing fast, despite the fact that the age at which Irish teenagers lose their virginity is also falling rapidly. A recent Unicef report found that Irish girls are more likely than boys to have lost their virginity by their mid-teens; 22pc of Irish girls had sex at the age of 15 or younger, with the figure for boys at 19pc. Four out of 10 respondents to the Unicef survey lost their virginity after drinking alcohol – no surprise there.
Yet in the past decade, from 2003 to 2013, there has been a staggering 51pc fall in the numbers of babies born to women under 20. This is a phenomenal change in behaviour.
Obviously use of contraception is the major reason for the fall in pregnancy. It is hard to believe that contraception was illegal in this country not so long ago.
However, the falling trend in teenage pregnancy is not unique to Ireland; we are seeing similar patterns in the UK and the US. In the US, some economists have argued that popular TV programmes such as MTV’s hugely successful ’16 and Pregnant’ – which was initially criticised for glamorizing teenage pregnancy – has actually had the opposite effect. The show started in 2009 and since then there has been a 10pc fall in the number of teenage girls in the US having children. Researchers wanted to know why. By mapping the online reaction to the show via Twitter, Facebook and online Google searches, they saw a spike in searches for words like “contraception” and “abortion” coincident with the show. Meanwhile on Twitter, hashtags such as “don’t forget your pill” or “remember birth control” accompanied comments on the show.
When presented with the reality of teenage motherhood, including arguments with the boyfriend, not having enough money or not being able to go out partying with the mates, many teenagers have reacted with caution rather than abandon.
Whatever the reasons – be they social, scientific or anecdotal – teenage pregnancy is disappearing fast. Meanwhile, the number of older women having babies is increasing rapidly. In Ireland in the past 10 years, the number of women over 40 having babies has increased by a staggering 78pc.
In 2003, 2,250 mothers were over 40; by 2013, that figure had risen to 4,004 and it is rising progressively every year.
So we now have the oldest Irish mothers on record. Look at the chart. It shows the trend in the average age of the Irish mother since 1955. Having fallen rapidly until the 1980s, Irish mothers have been getting older. Even the average age of the first-time mother has increased from 28 to 30 in the past 10 years. These differences may seem small, but they are revolutionary because they reveal a significant change in the place of women in Irish society and in the Irish economy over the past 10 years. Nothing more underscores the freedom of women than the freedom to choose when they want to have children. We see this all over the world. The single best indicator of the equality of the sexes and economic development in societies is family size. Poor countries have big families and vice versa, and poor countries are also those societies where women are least equal.
In Ireland, girls are now outperforming boys in all academic league tables. From the Leaving Cert results to university degrees, women are doing better than men. Certain professions that used to be the preserve of the successful man, such as the law and the medical profession, are being gradually feminised. This is resulting in Irish women having fewer babies but having them later in life. Their daughters, seeing this trend and maybe, even subconsciously, taking it on board, are not getting pregnant when they are teenagers despite having more sex, younger than their mothers.
These are profound changes; they are permanent and are rooted in changed expectations and aspirations on the part of Irish women. They have deep ramifications for education, child-care, housing and taxation policies in the country. At this time of the year, when we speak of nativity plays and their meanings, the one with the most resonance – economically at least – is the nativity drama playing out in every Irish family before our very eyes.
Family life is changing in many ways. It’s also rapidly disappearing as a normal social construct. Looking at the current rates, if you line up 1000 unmarried people of average marrying age (mid ’30s), about 500 will ever marry. Of the 500 who do, about 160 (one third) will divorce. With co-habitation separation rates at something like 90% within 5 years, the whole ‘pairing up’ thing (however you want to describe it) seems to be increasingly unnecessary. In north American and western european countries, if you include only those born in the country (pretty much irrespective of race), the number… Read more »
Georgie bleedin’ Burgess!
Holy shit. “pairing up unnecessary”?? Wow, you have it totally wrong. It is in fact more necessary now than ever. Think of anyone, absolutely anyone, that you know who lives alone and tell me if you admire or pity them or their lives? Those who live alone end up being selfish, hateful, bitter, lonely, obnoxious miserable people with shorter life spans and less friends. Think of the crazy cat lady in your local. More common than you think. They dont do as well financially and suffer more mental health problems. I come from a city where I knew many many… Read more »
@David McWilliams -> “WHATEVER THE REASONS”
HERE IS A RABBIT HOLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fo5jLdJlgI
Happy New Year David
Many thanks for all your articles during the year and I hope you will continue to do many more and you deserve everything you have achieved.
Also thank you for putting up with me and my offside opinions .
Regards,
John ALLEN
Hi,
Wouldn’t it be great from Sud’s perspective if we could get Irish women to stop having babies at all? Imagine all the extra money which would be available for transfer to international banks if we xcould
Hi,
This article offers excellent insight into the voting patterns of the reproductive systems of Irish based women.
Considering that the three worsts years for emigration out of Ireland are this one and the last 2 i am just wondering are there any stats available for what all these Irish girls are deciding to do with their respective reproductive systems in the countries they emmigrate to?
Wasn’t Mary the mother of Jesus married at 14 or so? why aren’t the priests pushing such early marriage? Surely the best way to prevent the sin of pre-marital sex is to have people marry at the time of sexual maturity, as in the time of Jesus. Modern society has gone seriously wrong by separatin sexual maturity and marriage. This bad habit puts young people in serious moral jeopardy, does it not? Look at what happens as a result: women get ambitious and put their superior intelligence to work instead of staying home and having babies. The Church needs to… Read more »
Very good article, just got to reading it now. Best one for months.
A very good article. 1. The increase in single mother births coincided in Ireland with the referenda on abortion. Rather than pass legislation on abortion, governments instead brought on the “Single Mother’s/Parents’s” allowance. ie Don’t have an abortion, have the baby and the state (that’s you taxpayer) will pick up the tab for your little frolic in the hay. This allowance was over and above the usual allowances, it was an extra and clouded in mis-information. Single widowed Mother’s for example were not treated equally. I could go on but enough said. It was an expensive approach in both financial… Read more »
People like David and his forum, allow people, who otherwise would be fomenting rebellion, to vent their angst.
I’m on to you David – Keep up the good work.
Happy New Year to All – Keep up the good work too.
Happy New Year
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a32858/drugging-of-the-american-boy-0414/ 20% of all boys on Ritalin to quiet them down. Boys can no longer be boys but have to act as girls. Denigration causes under achievement and so it may be said that the noted performance of girls academically could be more the result of under achievement by the boys. The unsettling affects of the drugs may result in violent outbursts of rage leading to the mass shootings of teachers and students we have witnessed in the recent past. Society is in decay and breaking up. Take care of yourself and your family, and if all did, the world… Read more »
Interesting analogy re- nativity scene.
I hear NAMA has taken ownership of the stables and that the three wise men Fitzpatrick, Goggin and Sheedy have ridden off into the sunset on the camels and their bags full of gold
………with the Irish citizens getting the HUMP……
p.s. not sure if that was one hump or two haha…..Happy new year all from Mr sarcasm here in Perth WA.
Banks are no longer viewed as a service..Banks have steered themselves over many years into the position of infallibility , a position of great power where governments and heads of State genuflect to their perceived wisdom and control. Where the Wisdom is that Banking is needed for citizens the same as air, water,& food. It is a illusion , but they have been very successful in convincing the masses they cannot be done without. Many Banks have faced inquiries , tribunals , and fines across the World but..this is nothing to worry about. Banks must be seen to be punished… Read more »
The Snapper is the only book of Doyle’s I have read (a few years ago, in German translation) and I wasn’t disappointed. It wasn’t very good. It relies too much on humour. I’m the last man to condemn a book for having houmour (I’m reading Don Quixote at the moment and it is very amusing) but Doyle uses it to sugar his sentimental and politically correct views. The villain is Burgess, a mature neighbour and a married man. I can’t remember now exactly how he was made to be a creep but this is what he is. Let’s guess. He… Read more »
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.