All You need is love?
A Red C Poll, for the Irish Examiner Newspaper, has shown that nearly a quarter of Irish Adults have cheated on their partners.
Adultery is something that has risen to prominence over the last 15 years. In some ways it’s seen as a badge of honour. We revel in the stories in the newspapers about those who cheat and look upon with great interest the kiss and tell stories to be found in the tabloids.
Chelsea footballer Frank Lampard has recently been featured in the papers with ‘exclusives’ as to his supposed cheating, not once but twice, on his fiancée in the last year. Pete Doherty is alleged to have cheated on numerous occasions while in a relationship with Kate Moss.
However it is not just ‘celebrities’ and sportsmen’s activities that are thrust into the spotlight and examined with great interest, sometimes admiration.
“I’ve looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me.”
Jimmy Carter, Former President of the United States
Bill Clinton’s legacy as President of the United States will be remembered for the amount of women he had relations with, while married to Hillary Clinton. Closer to home, the late Charles J Haughey was revealed, in 1999, to have had a 27 year extra marital affair with Gossip Columnist Terry Keane.
So can we be really surprised by the findings in the Red C Poll when all cheating seems to be a standard practice in modern society?
Any kind of relationship is hard to maintain. The logic being that if it’s worth being in one you have to work hard at it. The benefits will always outweigh the negatives in a loving relationship and it’s the hope that when two people get married they understand what they are undertaking.
There are many reasons for affairs but isolation and loneliness can play a huge role in a married person’s decision to seek love elsewhere. Ireland has one of the longest working weeks in Europe and that can cause a strain on marriage.
Because of this issues that need to be discussed quite plainly are not, which may bring about arguments that could’ve been prevented.
Affairs can be exciting fleeting moments that bring about the passion that is missing in a person’s relationship. It can be too easy in a marriage to be content and complacent and forget the reasons that brought the two people together in the first place.
Some couples do survive and thrive in their relationships after an affair has been disclosed but it is very difficult. There is a lot of anger and mistrust that can be very hard to deal with.
In this Red C poll, 30% of over 50’s surveyed admitted to having sex outside marriage, while 22% of 18-50 year olds have cheated while married.
With those statistics ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’ seems to be the commandment that is being shunned by people in Ireland. With the exception of being a sin adultery is not punished in Western Society. The same can not be said for other parts of the world.
Iranian Officials recently announced that a man was, last week, stoned to death for committing adultery. Jafar Kiani’s death, in the Northwestern province of Qazvin, is the first confirmation of this punishment in five years and has brought about widespread anger from many other countries. Measures are being taken to try and prevent the stoning of Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, the woman who Kiani was living with.
Thursday, July 12th, 2007 and is filed under Love Thy Neighbour.
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