Should a person celebrate getting a divorce? 

Unlike weddings or births, most people feel thoroughly miserable when they split up from their spouse and in no mood to celebrate.

Some, however, feel immense relief at starting a new chapter in their lives and want to mark it like they do other major events in their life.

“I’m going to have a Taylor Swift-themed divorce party,” divorcee Tracey told Lunchtime Live.

“Why not? I’m a huge fan [and] the girl knows how to sing about her exes.

“She gets a good few points across, there’s no better woman to sing us through the night.”

To begin with, Tracey was unsure if she wanted a party but was encouraged by her friends to recognise the end of what she describes as a “long process”.

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do,” she said.

“I knew I needed to do something because I was in such a lull for so long, then five minutes in front of the judge and it’s over and done.

“I felt something needed to be celebrated [because] you survived that.”

Tracey described divorce as a “toxic” process and feels people need a bit of cheering up at the end of it.

“It’s toxic, we had three years of it and even though it wasn’t contested, it’s still dragged out,” she said.

“So, when you come out the other side of that, you have to acknowledge what you’ve been through.

“You have to acknowledge that it’s okay to come out the other side and celebrate it.”

'Any excuse to party, no problem at all'

Catherine Kiveney founded DivorceParty.ie in 2016 and feels Tracey summed up the spirit of the company “perfectly”.

“It signifies a new chapter in your life, there’s a lot of emotion around,” she said.

Originally, Catherine only catered for hen and stag parties but that all changed after a call from one client.

“Someone contacted us and said, ‘I know you do packages for hen parties but do you do them for divorce parties?’

“She whispered and I said, ‘That’s okay, any excuse to party, no problem at all.’”

Another bridesmaid rang up and said the wedding had been called off but their friend still needed to have some fun anyway.

“We celebrate pretty much everything else in our lives, even death is celebrated in the form of a funeral,” she said.

“So, why don’t we mark this occasion? It’s momentous, it’s huge and it is about closing that chapter and then just moving on with your life.”

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Main image: Taylor Swift. Credit: Shanna Madison/Chicago Tribune/TNS/Alamy Live News