The number of couples married in Ireland last year more than halved compared to previous years. New figures from the Department of Social Protection shows the trend is continuing into 2021 - with the number of couples who registered their intention to marry this year during January significantly down on previous years.
There were only 8,500 marriages last year, down from 19,071 in 2019 and 20,209 in 2018. A total of 451 marriages have been registered so far in 2021 compared to 581 in January of last year.
The amount of marriage notifications served so far this year has fallen by 26% compared to this month last year. Patrick and Cliona Lynch had a very different wedding than they had envisioned last summer but they have no regrets.