Trust the Americans to find a neat label for an aspect of human nature that everyone else has been observing for years. Muriel Walls, a family law solicitor with McCann Fitzgerald in Dublin and a member of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, first came across "parental alienation syndrome" in a British family law journal in May 1998. Like many practitioners, she was almost relieved to finally have a term to describe the behaviour of parents using their children as pawns.
"The phrase is new, but the problem is not," she says. "It can be as simple as unco-operativeness and bloody-mindedness and all the variations on that theme.
"I've come across people who were so hurt at how they had been treated by their partner, that they were incapable of speaking a good word about the other partner and that can have a hugely negative effect on the children," she says.
It is rare, however, for an Irish parent to be so vindictive as to fabricate malicious stories aimed at undermining the other partner's claim on custody rights. But there is a growing awareness in court that fabrication can occur, making the court more wary of accepting one parent's allegations against the other of physical, sexual or emotional abuse. With this in mind, Walls advises clients to immediately inform a doctor the moment they suspect that something unacceptable has occurred during the other partner's custody of the children. There is also statutory provision for the children to be assessed independently by a psychologist or psychiatrist who can accurately and objectively report to the court concerning the children's relationships with their parents.
Parental alienation syndrome also comes to light when children display behaviour problems and are referred by family doctors or health board community care services to psychiatrists for assessment. Dr Paul McQuaid, psychiatrist with the Mater Hospital Child Guidance Clinic in Dublin, had not heard the term parental alienation syndrome, but was well aware of its symptoms. "Everybody working in this area would meet these phenomena," he says. The nature of the child's behaviour problems depend on the child's age and sex, and the distress usually occurs long before the formal break-up.
"When peace breaks out and the hatchet is buried, it gives children a chance to develop in a healthy way," he says. It is rare for one parent to concoct damaging, false allegations against the other, although it happens, particularly in the context of bitter financial disputes, says Dr McQuaid. Teenagers, aged 12-18, may feel so angry at their father who has left the family home, that they do not need anyone inducing hatred - they've got anger enough, says Claire Missen, director of Teen Between, a counselling programme for the adolescent children of separated parents, which is offered by Marriage and Relationship Counselling Services in Dublin. Sorting out their feelings about their parents' split is essential to their own ability to have healthy relationships in the future, she adds.