Contraception curse

DURING the fight to change the law that made contraception illegal from 1935 to 1980, former president Mary Robinson says she was shocked at the visceral reaction she got for campaigning on the issue.

‘I completely underestimated the reaction. Suddenly I was a pariah,’ she says. ‘I was denounced by bishops on pulpits. Archbishop [John] McQuaid required a letter to be read out to say that this measure would be and would remain a curse upon the country.’

She believes the ‘severe Catholicism’ in the aftermath of Irish independence had the most negative impact for women. ‘Their place was in the home, child-rearing, playing that support role to the man. The laws that began to be introduced barred women from full citizenship.’