Abstract
Artificial birth control was largely condemned and unavailable in Northern Ireland until the late 1960s and prohibited in the Republic of Ireland until 1979. In both states the issue continued to be conflated with abortion and considered largely within the realm of morality rather than health care until the 1970s. This chapter examines the debates on the liberalisation of birth control in the 1960s and 1970s with a view to understanding the history of reproductive rights on the island. It explores how this reframing of the birth control issue contributed to a determination by well-organised conservative groups to ensure that Ireland did not witness a similar reform of abortion laws on the island.
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Notes
- 1.
See M. E. Daly , Sixties Ireland: Reshaping the Economy, State and Society, 1957–1973 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016); C. Holohan, Reframing Irish Youth in the Sixties (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2018).
- 2.
H. Burke, ‘Continuity and Change: The Life Cycle of Irish Women in the 1980s’, The Changing Family (Family Studies Unit, UCD, 1984), pp. 39–57, p. 44. This Family Studies Unit in UCD contributed a tremendous amount to our understanding of a changing society in the Republic of Ireland. It had no equivalent in Northern Ireland.
- 3.
R. Breen, A. F. Heath, and C. Whelan, ‘Inequality in Ireland, North and South’, in R. Breen, A. Health, and C. Whelan (eds), Ireland, North and South, Perspectives from Social Sciences (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 187–213, p. 195, p. 206.
- 4.
Urquhart, ‘Gender, Family and Sexuality in Ulster , 1800–2000’, pp. 246–59.
- 5.
P. Clancy, ‘Demographic Changes and the Irish Family’, The Changing Family (Family Studies Unit, UCD, 1984), pp. 1–38, p. 21.
- 6.
Urquhart, ‘Gender, Family and Sexuality’, p. 247.
- 7.
Clancy, ‘Demographic Changes and the Irish Family’, p. 12.
- 8.
Ibid., p. 31.
- 9.
A. J. Humphreys, New Dubliners : Urbanization and the Irish Family (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul PLC, 1966), p. 38.
- 10.
Ibid., p. 120.
- 11.
Ibid., p. 139.
- 12.
‘Majority are in favour of censorship’, Irish Press, 11 May 1967.
- 13.
B. Girvin, ‘Contraception , Moral Panic and Social Change in Ireland, 1969–79’, Irish Political Studies, 23: 4 (2008), pp. 555–76, p. 565.
- 14.
D. Rohan , Marriage Irish Style (Cork: Mercier Press, 1969), p. 92.
- 15.
P. McGarry , ‘How Humanae Vitae Crushed the Hopes of Millions of Catholics’, Irish Times , 28 July 2018.
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
McGarry , ‘How Humanae Vitae Crushed the Hopes of Millions of Catholics’.
- 18.
Rohan , Marriage Irish Style, p. 93.
- 19.
Ibid., p. 101.
- 20.
Ibid., p. 78.
- 21.
Ibid., p. 67.
- 22.
Ibid., pp. 37–38.
- 23.
L. Ryan, ‘Church and Politics’, Furrow, 30:1 (January 1979), pp. 3–18.
- 24.
Cited in A Team of Catholic Parents, Is Contraception the Answer? (February 1974), p. 2.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
Ibid, p. 5. This argument was repeated in 2018 by Catholic Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran, who used the phrase ‘contraceptive mentality ’ which he linked to support for same-sex marriage . C. Gleeson, ‘Principles of Contraceptive Ban ‘Ignored for Too Long’, Says Bishop’, Irish Times , 4 August 2018.
- 27.
A Team of Catholic Parents, Is Contraception the Answer? p. 2.
- 28.
McCormick, ‘The Scarlet Woman in Person’, p. 356.
- 29.
See, Holohan, Reframing Irish Youth in the Sixties.
- 30.
Hug, The Politics of Sexual Morality in Ireland, pp. 109–40. One of the best accounts of this second-wave movement is L. Connolly , The Irish Women’s Movement: From Revolution to Devolution (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, 2002).
- 31.
Connolly, The Irish Women’s Movement, p. 120.
- 32.
For analysis of the significance of this event and the wider movement see, Connolly, The Irish Women’s Movement, pp. 111–29.
- 33.
See, Mary McGee Plaintiff v. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL and THE REVENUE COMMISSIONERS Defendants [1971 No. 2314 P].
- 34.
Ibid.
- 35.
In 1965 in the Griswold v Connecticut case, the American Supreme Court ruled that a state’s ban on the use of contraceptives violated a couple’s right to marital privacy .
- 36.
M. Fox and T. Murphy, ‘Irish Abortion: Seeking Refuge in a Jurisprudence of Doubt and Delegation’, Journal of Law and Society, 19:4 (1992), pp. 454–66, p. 455.
- 37.
B. Girvin, ‘An Irish Solution to an Irish Problem: Catholicism, Contraception and Change, 1922–1979’, Contemporary European History, 27:1 (2018), pp. 1–22, p. 15.
- 38.
Editorial, Journal of the Irish Medical Association , 66 (March 1973), p. 140.
- 39.
Questions. Oral Answers. Family Planning Education. Dáil Éireann Debate, col. 1320, vol. 261, no. 8, 13 June 1973.
- 40.
Fianna Fáil was established when the Sinn Féin party split in 1926. The former quickly became one of the most important political parties in the state winning the first overall majority in parliament in 1933. The party remained in government for sixteen years between 1932 and 1948 and again between 1957 and 1973. See, J. Coakley, Fianna Fáil , S. J. Connolly (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Irish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 191–92. See also, R. Dunphy, The Making of Fianna Fáil : Power in Ireland, 1923–1948 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
- 41.
Fine Gael was founded in 1923 as Cumann na nGaedheal and led the Irish Free State through its first ten years of existence. However, after this point the party struggled to gain power unless in a coalition government with other smaller parties. See, J. Coakley, ‘Fine Gael ’, in Connolly (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Irish History, pp. 194–95. See also, C. Meehan, A Just Society for Ireland?1964–1987 (London : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
- 42.
Control of Importation, Sale and Manufacture of Contraceptives Bill, 1974: Second Stage (resumed). Dáil Éireann Debate, col. 919, vol. 274, no. 6, 11 July 1974. On Fianna Fáil’s position , see Hug, The Politics of Sexual Morality , pp. 105–7.
- 43.
Control of Importation, Sale and Manufacture of Contraceptives Bill, 1974, col. 943, vol. 274, no. 6 (11 July 1974).
- 44.
Connolly, The Irish Women’s Movement, p. 90. Interestingly, many women involved in IWU and CAP went on to prominence in the Women’s Right to Choose organisation and other pro-choice groups.
- 45.
‘Contraception Bill Reaches Final Stages’, Irish Times , 13 July 1979.
- 46.
See, Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979, Section 4 (4), http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1979/act/20/enacted/en/html.
- 47.
It is important to note that many doctors were not happy about being put in this position.
- 48.
G. Hussey , Health and Family Planning Bill, 1978: Second Stage (resumed). Seanad Éireann Debate, col. 736, vol. 92, no. 9 (4 July 1979).
- 49.
‘Risk of Pregnancy’: Patients’ Postbox, Woman’s Way , 8 July 1983, p. 51.
- 50.
M. Foley, ‘Group Defies Family Planning’, Irish Times , 3 November 1980.
- 51.
Labour Councillor Mary Freehill cited in Michael Foley, ‘Group Defies Family Planning’, Irish Times , 3 November 1980.
- 52.
N. McCafferty , A Woman to Blame: The Kerry Babies Case (Dublin: Attic Press, 1985), p. 31.
- 53.
M. Nic Ghiolla Phádraig, ‘Social and Cultural Factors in Family Planning’, The Changing Family (Dublin: Family Studies Unit, UCD, 1984), pp. 58–97, p. 68.
- 54.
Ibid., p. 81.
- 55.
Ibid., p. 93.
- 56.
Under Section 2 of the 1979 Act, the minister was responsible for providing ‘orderly organization of family planning services’, and the provision of ‘comprehensive natural family planning services’.
- 57.
Earner-Byrne, ‘Twixt God and Geography: The Development of Maternity Services in Twentieth-Century Ireland’, p. 112.
- 58.
See, Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act, 1992, http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1992/act/20/section/8/enacted/en/html#sec8.
- 59.
Urquhart, ‘Gender, Family and Sexuality’, pp. 246–59, p. 254.
- 60.
Cited in McCormick, ‘The Scarlet Woman’, pp. 346, 348. For figures, see ibid., p. 353.
- 61.
Ibid., p. 352.
- 62.
Script of BBC ‘Inquiry Programme’, 14 January 1966. Cited in McCormick, Regulating Sexuality, p. 186.
- 63.
Minutes of NIFPA, 1 March and 6 December 1966, PRONI, D3543/2/2.
- 64.
Belfast Telegraph , 12 November 1965.
- 65.
MP Harry Diamond cited in McCormick, ‘The Scarlet Woman’, p. 351.
- 66.
Belfast Telegraph , 22 March 1965. Board members of the NIFPA were, however, disappointed by the level of publicity and BBC coverage generated by their first meeting with the latter refusing to advertise ‘a controversial cause’. See Minutes of NIFPA, 22 November 1965, PRONI, D3543/2/2. Patients paid for contraceptive devices with 15/1 estimated as the cost of a first visit. But, fees would be waived if referred for medical reasons or for ‘those patients whose husbands are unemployed or who have large families and cannot afford to pay’, Minutes of NIFPA, 1965, PRONI, D3543/2/1.
- 67.
Belfast Telegraph , 22 March 1965.
- 68.
McCormick, ‘The Scarlet Woman’, p. 354.
- 69.
Ibid., pp. 346, 353.
- 70.
Minutes of NIFPA, 1965, PRONI, D3543/2/1. For example, McCormick charts the difficulties faced in establishing family planning clinics in Derry. McCormick, ‘The Scarlet Woman’, pp. 354–55.
- 71.
40 new members of NIFPA were also recorded. NIFPA annual report, 1967, PRONI, D3543/2/2.
- 72.
J. F. O’Sullivan, ‘The History of Obstetrics in Northern Ireland, 1921–1992’, UMJ, 70:2 (November 2001), pp. 95–101, p. 99.
- 73.
NIFPA ceased operations in 1977.
- 74.
Community Health, Infant Mortality, Northern Ireland Department of Health and Social Services , 1978–1979, PRONI, HSS/13/35/46.
- 75.
L. Edgerton , ‘Examination of the Role of Northern Irish Women in Their Domestic, Social and Political Life, 1967–1977’ (unpublished BA thesis, QUB, 1977), p. 11
- 76.
Ibid.
- 77.
Ibid., p. 26.
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Earner-Byrne, L., Urquhart, D. (2019). Contraceptive Mentalities, 1960s–1980s. In: The Irish Abortion Journey, 1920–2018. Genders and Sexualities in History. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03855-7_4
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