Contraception, Moral Panic and Social Change in Ireland, 1969–79

Abstract

The controversy over contraception during the 1970s was the first episode in what became the Irish ‘cultural wars’ of the 1970s and 1980s. This article suggests that changes in attitudes among a minority of Irish citizens and the availability of oral contraceptives in the 1960s challenged the traditional prohibition on contraceptives contained in the Criminal Law Amendment Act. Liberals challenged this legislation but received very little support from either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael until the McGee Supreme Court decision in 1973. Even then, dissent over the issue led the Taoiseach to vote against his own government’s legislation in 1974. Legislation was eventually passed in 1979, though this was conceived in conservative and restrictive terms rather than as a liberal measure. This controversy marks the emergence of conservative grassroots movements in defence of traditional Catholic teaching and Fianna Fáil positioning itself on the conservative wing of Irish politics on these policy areas.

Acknowledgements

The research for this paper was facilitated by support from the Royal Society of Edinburgh which awarded the author a Research Fellowship for the period October to December 2006. Thanks also to Gary Murphy and Rona Fitzgerald for reading earlier versions of this article and for useful comments. The author appreciates the comments of the two anonymous readers.

Notes

1. National Archives Department of the Taoiseach (NADT) 99/6/364 for correspondence and files.

2. NADT: 96/6/364, 24 January 1969.

3. NADT: 2000/6/67, note by secretary, 7 February 1969.

4. NADT 2000/6/67. All quotations in the previous discussion are from this file.

5. NADT: 2000/6/67 broadcast transcript, 28 December 1969.

6. University College Dublin Archives (UCDA) Aiken Papers, P104/9958 (6) 1972.

7. Robinson was elected to the Senate in 1969 as Mary Burke. She subsequently married in December 1970 and took her husband’s name. I have used Robinson throughout this section as she is best known in that form.

8. This section is based on email correspondence and an interview with John Horgan, 25 October 2007.

9. The correspondence on contraception is the most extensive this author has seen in the files contained in the Taoiseach’s office on any issue.

10. Not all responses were as understanding of Robinson. She was the victim of a sustained hate campaign during this period, which included excrement being sent to her offices (personal correspondence from John Horgan).

11. NADT 2003/16/34 for correspondence in 1970; for an interview with the founder of Mná na h‐Eireann, Meena Cribbins (Sweetman, 1979: 204–215).

12. NADT 2003/16/34 Department of Justice memorandum 30 April 1971 which actually suggests the hierarchy was more severe than McQuaid.

13. UCDA: Aiken Papers, P104/9465.

14. UCDA Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party Minutes, P176/448, 31 March 1971.

15. UCDA Fianna Fáil National Executive Minutes, P176/350, 26 April and 26 July 1971; NADT 2002/8/458 for the correspondence.

16. DT 2002/8/458 D. Waldron‐Lynch to Jack Lynch, 7 March 1971, which includes other correspondence.

17. NADT 2003/16/34 ‘Contraceptives’ Department of Justice Memorandum, 19 April 1971.

18. NADT 2003/16/34, memorandum for cabinet, 26 April 1971.

19. NADT 2003/16/34, Minister for Lands to Taoiseach, 21 May 1971.

20. NADT 2003/16/453, Lynch to Mrs C. Rahill, 17 February 1972.

21. NADT 2003/16/34; Justice memorandum for the government, 30 May 1972; GC 13/187 Cabinet minutes, 12 June 1972; DT 2003/16/34, correspondence, 17 April 1973.

22. NADT 2004/21/461, for correspondence; DT 2005/7/348 for Statement of the Irish Episcopal Conference, 25 November 1973.

23. NADT 2005/7/618 for details.

24. National Archives Department of Justice (NADJ) 2004/27/12, memorandum, 14 August 1973; note on meeting with Monsignor Casaroli, 12 September 1973.

25. NADT 2005/7/345 Michael J. O’Higgins to Cosgrave, 27 January 1974; Tom Hyde Branch to Cosgrave, 10 February 1974; Glenn to Cosgrave, 12 February 1974.

26. NADT 2005/7/346 ‘Contraceptives’, 7 February 1974; Cosgrave to Rev. Father W. Hogan, 27 February 1974; Cabinet decision GC 14/94, 19 February 1974; the bill was titled The Control of Importation, Sale and Manufacture of Contraceptive Bill 1974.

27. UCDA: P176/448 Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party Minutes, 3 June 1974.

28. UCDA: O’Brien Papers, P82/196 (1) O’Brien to Arnold, 23 July 1974; this interpretation was confirmed by Dr Garret FitzGerald in an interview, 2 November 2007.