Women in Politics

Description: On bringing contraception to Ireland.

Transcript: when I graduated from Trinity College in Lowell, I was fortunate enough to go to the Harvard Law School at a particularly interesting time. I’m the class of ’68, so I was there in 1967-68. And that was the time when young Americans were questioning the war in Vietnam. They were interested in civil rights programs in the South. Martin Luther King was assassinated that year, and Robert Kennedy just after I graduated. And I came back to Ireland imbued with that sense that young people can make a difference. And I was elected to the Irish Senate very shortly afterwards. And the first measure . . . bill in the Parliament that I introduced at the age of 25 was a bill to legalize family planning. It seemed to me to be very simple because married women were not allowed to have the contraceptive pill unless they had cycle regulation problems. And it must have been the weather, but there was a phenomenon of many married women having cycle regulation problems. And also you couldn’t buy or sell the pill. It was a criminal offense. But if you could manage to get a pill . . . or sorry, a condom . . . then you could use a condom, but not buy or sell it. And I felt, “This is something that just needs to be straightened out.” And I completely underestimated the grave offense and concern that I caused to a whole range of people. I was denounced by bishops and priests from the pulpit. I was denounced by newspapers. I was an outcast for a while, and it was a very troubling experience. I kind of wobbled, because I had been used to being more or less reasonably admired and liked. I was doing well, and suddenly I was actually a hate figure and got hate mail. And it was very good for me, because I learned a lesson that if you really believe that something is important and it’s true, then stick to it. Go through with it. Pay the price. Be unpopular. Don’t be arrogant, but sometimes you have to stick to your principles.

Recorded on: 7/25/07