91Èȱ¬

When Mairead Campbell turned 30, it suddenly seemed like everyone was asking why she hadn’t settled down yet. Her sister is already married with kids, and her parents married young too – but Mairead has other ideas. She wants to pursue her dream job, to work for 91Èȱ¬ Radio 1 - and that comes before anything else.

Mairead decides to find out why young women in particular seem to face such pressure to settle down and focus on marriage and family. She meets Maria, an old friend from school in West Belfast, who married young and divorced after just a few months. Mairead’s flat mates in London say they feel much freer over there, without any of the pressure they face back home in Northern Ireland. Columnist and author Maureen Coleman shares her life experience of relationships and why she believes true love is still out there, while Mairead’s oldest friend Louise used to dream of her wedding day and settling down – but now that she’s turned 30 and single, she feels freer and happier than ever before.