A very specific question which may need relocating

[AfterAte]

Hi
I don't know where to post this hence the above. I recently moved to rural Ireland and have been getting to know the country and culture. I've been here before but only to visit. It has always struck me the high number of single as in never married bachelors (some spinsters too but fewer). To an extent this happens in any agricultural rural areas hence those hunky farmer calendars. But I reckon there is something else going on here as well. The Catholic Church's teaching against sexuality, social pressure to reduce the population after the Famine and a kind of institutionalised fear of the opposite sex have all been mentioned. I'm just very curious.

Don't know about relocating, but a title which gives more clue as to your question, eg something like 'Do the Irish have an aversion to relationships?' - or whatever - will draw more posters to click on it I'm sure

Do you feel comfortable and settled there?

Maybe relocate this to Craicnet and ask Irish posters what they think?

Honestly whatever way you put the statement it is stereotyping. I don’t see how you can ask a question like “do the Irish have aversions to relationships” or anything like it. What kind of cliched nonsense is that. It reads like a bad version of a Maeve Binchy novel set in the 1950s. One where priests ban local dances.

It’s a modern country. You are probably meeting gay and lesbian people.

.......Have all been mentioned

Mentioned by who exactly?

Lots of men run farms in Ireland. Very hard to meet women within that community as farming is 24/7. I too live in rural Ireland but dont see this. There is historically reasons for Irish farmers marrying late, oldest son inherits farm so lives at home until parents die. Not sure if that answers your question.
They could be gay.
Lots of single women too, me included.
The role of the church has been decimated and suggesting it still has an influence of fear of the opposite sex is ridiculous.
As for the post famine comment, that's risible in its historical inaccuracy and suggestion.

Also living in rural areas bring aware of everyone's relationship status is easier, you could be in an urban area and not know who is single or not.

Irekand is a very family based society. Being married is considered the norm, as are most societies.

They could be divorced.

@DramaAlpaca yeh but

OP I think you're missing something here or what exactly are you thinking?
You've lost me

eh?

When I was in University a million years ago “Ireland the land of Saints, Scholars and Schizophrenics” was THE book on the topic.

anthropology.berkeley.edu/news/“-devastation-people”-interview-nancy-scheper-hughes
This article touches on some policy oval changes to farming which had knock on effects and NellyDean’s points about inheritance are also key.

You’ve asked a very clunky and slightly loaded question. A straightforward “why are there so many older bachelors in rural Ireland?” in Craicnet would have given you some thoughtful responses.

Who ‘mentioned’ these hopelessly ill-informed ‘reasons’, and why did you move to a country of which you apparently know nothing? Why on earth would there have been any ‘social pressure’ (from whom?) to reduce the population post-Famine? I mean, you get how the population actually reduced, don’t you?

I suggest you look up sex-based and rural-urban emigration patterns, land ownership in Ireland between the 1840s and independence, and farm inheritance and its effect on marriage, and stop inventing baseless theories.