#corkcitylibraries

Our library staff review books worth checking out

Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday

Reviewed by Aaron Hennessy, City Library

Lady Sings the Blues is a tell-all memoir, written with the help of William Dufty, sifting through Holiday’s life where she reportedly doesn’t tell all. It’s hard to believe she pulled any punches, given the honesty and detail of her addiction and the racism and persecution she suffers at seemingly every turn. She is kinder to others though. Her mother gets off lightly for long periods of neglect. Lester Young is another lifelong favourite.

You might turn to Lady Sings the Blues for facts, as a historical record of the 30s and 40s jazz scene in the States, which it is, but that isn’t the point. The point, of course, is the voice.

William Dufty nails what it must have been like to kick back with Holiday in a smoky room, share a few cocktails (apparently not champagne) and chat. If this book is anything to go by, she was not only her generation’s supreme stage performer, but she was also one its great talkers, and myth makers.

Reading this book, you get the impression that Holiday regaled William Dufty exhaustively with story after story and it was left to him to form a cohesive narrative. Which of course he does, and all without losing the voice of Holiday, which sings through the prose. Dufty may have shaped it, but this is undoubtedly Holiday’s book, Holiday’s voice, and that’s why it’s still read today. Why it should always be read: because she was one of the best to have ever done it, and I’m sure she had a say in the final edit – but perhaps I’m falling into the trap here of belittling Holiday’s contribution. Something which plagued her all through her music career.

She was always more than just a voice. Routinely denied writing credits on songs for both music and lyrics, not only was she the voice of a generation, famous for her phrasing and improvisation, but Holiday was also a natural arranger of music and a gifted lyricist. She was a real artist in ever sense of the term.

Her race and sex went against her, a strong tone of condescension in the label of ‘natural musician’ jars the modern reader. A practically lifelong dependence on drugs, and endless legal tangles with the FBI (she was banned from performing in her hometown of New York for most of her career), also make for tough reading. Never did this brutal treatment shake her belief in herself, though it did add a strong flavour of resentment.

It'll be no surprise then to learn that the book is also, wonderfully, full of slights and petty grievances. She has no qualms dishing on all who crossed her path throughout her career. This is the juiciest of indulgences to enjoy and a pleasure to read.

[Entries marked with an * need to be sown indoors or under cover first and then planted out.]

April is a fantastic month for the garden. I’ve lost count of the number of birds I’ve seen visiting our bird feeder and the buzzing of the bees is becoming an increasingly common sound. These are all signs that spring has well and truly arrived. Some of the seedlings I planted last month have started to grow, including my sweet peas, snap dragons and lettuce. The sweet peas have done so well that I’ve moved them outside into a lovely big pot where I've also planted lilies so that, as the sweet pea is fading in the autumn, the lilies should be in full bloom. Above is a non-exhaustive list of seeds that can be sown in April and below I’ll go through a couple that we have in stock in Hollyhill Library in a bit more detail.

Beetroot: these seeds love fertile soil so adding manure or compost prior to planting will give them the best chance of survival. Make sure the soil is free of clumps and weeds too. A beetroot seed is a cluster of up to five seeds so thinning the seedlings once they’ve germinated will definitely be necessary. Sow the seeds in rows 30 cm apart in drills 2 cm deep and if you can, feed them with a liquid feed at least once during the growing season. You can begin to harvest the beetroot once they are the size of golf balls, this can take between 8 – 10 weeks.

Radish: these seeds are ready to eat in a month, making them one of the quickest growing vegetables. Sow the seeds in rows 15 cm apart and 1 cm deep. Keep them watered and that’s it! You can also use radish tops in soup instead of chucking them in the bin.

Nasturtiums: these seeds are so easy to grow and produce such vibrant flowers that I would encourage even the most timid of growers to try them. Make sure the soil is free of lumps before you start. Sow the seeds around 1.5 cm deep and 10 cm apart and water well. Germination time is approximately 14 days. Once the plant has started flowering, deadhead to encourage more growth. Nasturtiums will self-seed so hopefully you will have wonderful displays of colour for years to come.

by Catherine Creedon

The more technologically advanced we become, the more serious consideration is given to what kinds of sentient life we may encounter in the wider universe. This is not that book. Rather, it is the book about what kind of people we will be when we meet other life forms. If, indeed, they consider us to be people. Galactically funny, this grand, kitsch extravaganza takes a look at the best and worst of humanity, with added lipstick, glitter and strobing lights. 

Whilst the beings on a small, watery, excitable planet called Earth were going about their business in blissful ignorance, a massive intergalactic civil war, called the Sentience Wars, raged across space and time. In the aftermath, it was decided that a marginally less destructive way was needed to determine which species made the cut in the ultimate question: Which of us are people and which of us are meat? Thus was created the Metagalactic Grand Prix. For slightly higher stakes than a mere douze points, all viable species gather together to compete in the ultimate musical performance; and now that humanity has come to the attention of everyone else, they too have to prove that they are capable of playing nicely in the sandbox of interstellar life. 

Once humanity is brought up to speed, we are given a list of potential contestants by the friendly intermediary Esca; unfortunately, all but one are dead or incapacitated. Enter Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros, a washed-up glam rock band that is our last, forlorn hope. The Zeros are the archetype of rock 'n' roll, every garage-playing wannabe teenager who, in the face of all common sense and good taste, actually managed to achieve brief stardom. Of course all the usual music industry tropes befall them, amidst the success, there is excess and tragedy, and they end up, like many the band before them, in either suburban obscurity or facedown in puddles of their own regret. Nevertheless, the band, in the good old tradition, must get back together again and, if not win the contest, then at least try not to come last. 

This is the Eurovision set in space, so over-the-top it is almost exhausting, filled with outrageous images of different aliens and debatable dress sense, but it also manages to discuss what it means to be human, the importance of art, and the nature of life itself . And Valente does it all with the funniest, best-written prose since Jerome K. Jerome. She acknowledges herself that it is an homage to Douglas Adams but, in my opinion, she far outstrips The Hitchhikers Guide. Admittedly, she may be tad light on plot and character development, but there really isn't room, with the richness and depth of her comic segues. The difficulty for the reviewer is in picking quotes because, honestly, nearly every sentence is a jewel, and every reader will have their own favourites. It is possibly too rich for the tastes of some, but if you like your comic prose with incredible depth and perfect juxtaposition, then you will repeatedly return to Space Opera, to savour and to treasure a magnificent addition to the very small cannon of truly classic humorous writing.

by Michael Barrett with translations by Tom Malone

Bhíomar ar oileán beag insan fharraige t-Sín Theas, ag baint le baiste ár iníon , Regina. We were on a small island, in the South China Sea, for our daughter Regina’s baptism. Lá mór go deimhin, lá an bhaiste dúinn ar fad, for all of us, sin féin agus na gaolta, do réir an traidisiún.

Rud aisteach, a curious thing – níl aon ainm ar an oilean é féin! Ach tá trí bhaile ann: Oribi – an baile go dtagann mo bhean chéile Maria as, Dammay – áit ina bhfuil scata gaolta aici ann, agus Puro – áit ina bhfuil a thuilleadh gaolta aici. Mar gheall ar sin, we knew that a big crowd would travel by boat, go dtí an séipéal ar an mórthír – to the church on the mainland.

Ar a h-ocht a chlog ar maidin, our flotilla of colourful small boats left Oribi, ag tabhairt aghaidh ar an mórthír. We were heading towards the mainland. Bhí an t-ádh dearg orainn, mar bhí an fharraige ana chiúin an maidin sin. Bhíomar ábalta dul díreach treasna go dtí ár gceann scríbe – to our destination – an baile beag darb ainm Santa. So the journey didn’t take very long. Níor thóg an turas an iomad san ama. Ní minic a tharlaíonn sé chomh fuirist seo!

Ag Séipéal St. Catherine of Alexandria i Santa, bhí daoine bailithe, gaolta agus cairde ón mórthír . San phobal cruinithe bhi cairdeas chríost Regina, seacht duine deag acu! Seventeen godparents! Ins na Philippines is cairdeas chríost slí chun clainn a thabhairt le cheile. Ba duine de chairdeas chríost maor de Bhardas Santa. And the mayor arrived with four bodyguards! Agus gunnaí móra Kalashnikov acu!

by Michael Lenihan

Lithograph by William Held

One of the very few witch trials ever to take place in Ireland was held in Cork Courthouse on 11 September 1661. This was the trial of Florence Newton, a Youghal native who was accused of witchcraft. The court case concerning these alleged supernatural events was presided over by judge Sir William Ashton. Unfortunately, the original trial records no longer exist, but we are fortunate that an edited version exists which was published in a rare pamphlet entitled Saducismus Triumphatus. This pamphlet, subtitled Full and Plain evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions in two Parts, was written by John Glanvil and printed in London in 1681. According to a witness for the prosecution namely, Mary Langdon, this strange story began during Christmas 1660 at the house of John Pyne in Youghal. The accused Florence Newton asked Langdon for a piece of beef which was being cooked at the time and which she duly refused. A week later things came to a head when Florence kissed Mary Langdon violently and said Mary,” I pray thee, let thee and I be Friends. 

One month later, Mary started seeing apparitions and she endured fits and trances which resulted in her vomiting up needles, pins, horse-nails, stubs, wool and straw. She also claimed that small stones would hit her on the head, shoulders and arms and fall to the ground and vanish. Sometimes she would be transported to the top of the house and laid on a board between 2 beams. It was also recorded that when Florence Newton was committed to prison Mary’s fits stopped. Another witness Nicholas Stout was called to give evidence and the thorny question of a witch being unable to recite the Lord’s Prayer was raised. Newton was unable to say all the prayer especially the words "and forgive us our trespasses”. She was asked why, and she said that she was old and had a bad memory. 

John Pyne the householder also gave evidence that his servant Mary Langdon fell into the most violent of fits, especially, if reading her bible. The bible would be struck out of her hand and thrown into the middle of the room. During the trial Florence Newton implicated others such as Goody Halfpenny and Goody Dod but she quickly withdrew these allegations when threatened with torture using the water experiment. Many other witnesses were called, and the evidence became more extreme as she was also indicted for bewitching to death one David Jones by kissing his hand through the prison gate. This trial demonstrates that Florence Newton had little hope of being declared innocent as the local community had rallied against her. 

by Michael Lenihan

It is widely accepted that the Christian church decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianise” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated on February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. The Catholic Church recognises at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. John Sprat was an Irish Carmelite Friar and well-known preacher.  He visited Rome, where he received a relic of Saint Valentine from Pope Gregory XVI, and Sprat brought the Reliquary containing the relics to his Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin where it remains to this day.

In France and England February 14 was assumed to be the beginning of the birds mating season, which added to the idea that Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance. The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules,” writing, “For this was Seynt on Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.” Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, although written Valentines didn’t begin to appear until around 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence  was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.

In America the exchanging of hand-made valentines became very popular in the early 1700s and some wonderful early English examples exist in the Victoria & Albert Museum. By the middle of the 1800s, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace handwritten letters due to advances in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. An explosion of  affection in the form of Valentine cards made its way through the postal system thanks to the introduction of the penny post by Rowland Hill on 10 January1840.

Corkonians were quick to respond to cupid’s arrow and some Victorian advertisements by W. Wheeler Junior give us examples of his high-class stock of Valentine’s Day gifts. Valentines in boxes, from 3d. to £1 15s 03d containing solid silver jewellery, perfume, bottles, cards, cigar, and cigarette cases could be had from his premises at 4 & 5 Patrick Street. Another advertiser proclaimed that there was no charge for love notes to purchasers of Valentines at sixpence and upwards. Valentine novelties such as hummingbird Valentines were very popular shop window displays. W.J. Murray of George’s Street (now Oliver Plunkett Street) was doing a brisk trade in Valentine cards including those of the sentimental, poetic, refined and comic variety which could be posted nationwide post free.

The bard himself William Shakespeare mentions Saint Valentine's Day in A Midsummer Night's Dream (4.1.145) and in Hamlet, where he alludes to the superstition that if two single people meet on the morning of Saint Valentine's Day they will likely get married:

Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day

All in the morning betime

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.

by Deirdre Swain

2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Mairéad Ní Ghráda, playwright, broadcaster, teacher and Irish language advocate. She is best known for her Irish-language play, An Triail. Mairéad was born in Knockadangan, Kilmaley in Co. Clare on 23 December 1896. She was surrounded by Irish growing up. Her father, a farmer, was a native speaker of Irish, and her love of Irish and her life-long commitment to the revival of the language stemmed from his influence. He was immersed in the oral tradition, and he would often recite the poem, The Midnight Court by Brian Merriman. Mairéad was in despair about the state of the Irish language. She once said that she was happy that she was not in the generation that would lose the Irish language forever.

Her parents wanted her to terminate her education at the end of primary school so that she could work on the farm. This did not happen; instead, she went to secondary school in Ennis. She won several prizes as a student, and she was also awarded a County Council scholarship to University College Dublin (UCD), where she did a BA in Irish, French and English and an MA in Irish. While there, she was in Cumann na mBan and Conradh na Gaeilge. She was once put in prison for selling republican flags on Grafton Street, and she used to joke about this fifty years later. She worked as a teacher and then as private secretary to Ernest Blythe, who was a Cumann na nGael TD in the first Dáil of the new Irish Free State, and she continued to work for him during the Civil War when he was Minister for Finance. She married Richard Kissane, a senior Garda, in 1923, and they had two sons, Séamas and Brian. In 1926, Ireland’s first radio station, 2RN, which later became Radio Éireann, went on air. Ní Ghráda was employed as women’s organiser, compiling programmes for women and children. She became the station’s principal announcer in 1929. She was the first female radio announcer in Ireland, Britain and possibly in Europe, working as a broadcaster for nine years.

Ní Ghráda collaborated with Pádraig Ó Siochrú (better known as An Seabhac) at the Educational Council of Ireland school book section. She wrote many educational texts, including Progress in Irish. She became editor for the school textbooks publisher Brown and Nolan. She reviewed De Bhaldraithe’s Irish dictionary for the benefit of teachers. Such was her dedication that she continued to record work for school books when she was sick in hospital.

She took a great interest in children’s educational needs and had a great understanding of the minds of young people, as is evident from her plays. She wrote school drama texts based on mythology, the Bible, Aesop’s fables and the stories of the Fianna. She translated Peter Pan into Irish (Tír na Deo). She also wrote beautiful Irish versions of Ladybird fairytale stories including Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Na trí Bhéar), Sleeping Beauty (Codladh Céad Bliain), Cinderella (Luaithríona), Beauty and the Beast (Áille agus Brúid), Rapunzel (Rápúnzell) and Jack and the Beanstalk (Seán agus an Gas Pónaire), thereby promoting literacy in the Irish language.

Ní Ghráda’s great passion was theatre. Irish language theatre was in decline when she started producing plays, but she transformed this; her work generated an interest from people who did not even speak much Irish. She was bringing the language to people in an enjoyable way through the theatre. Her enormous contribution to Irish language theatre includes eleven original plays, which is more than that of any other playwright in Irish. Her play, Mícheál, based on Tolstoy’s story, Michael, won an Abbey Theatre award in 1933. She wrote her first original play Uacht for her students while working as a teacher in Kilmacud Cookery College. She never intended for this to be performed in a theatre, but when Mícheál MacLiammóir discovered it, he decided to produce it in the Gate Theatre.

Ní Ghráda wrote powerful plays that spoke the truth about Irish society at the time, discussing modern problems through the medium of Irish. She was very skilled at giving women, particularly young women, main character roles, something which very few playwrights did, apart from Seán O’Casey. Her plays made many people uncomfortable, because they discussed taboo subjects and contained themes that people were afraid to face, such as corrupt politicians and the cruel treatment of unmarried mothers in Ireland. She was completely ahead of her time in this regard.

 Ní Ghráda’s best-known play is An Triail. It ranks with Brendan Behan’s An Giall as one of the most successful plays in the Irish language. This play is very relevant in the year that the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes was published and at a time when the injustices against and rights of adopted people and their natural mothers are being discussed. It is thought to have been based on an incident which happened during Ní Ghráda’s childhood, when a girl who became pregnant was victimised while the father of her child escaped condemnation. Ní Ghráda rewrote part of An Triail, including the ending, under the guidance of Tomás MacAnna, the play’s director.

An Triail chronicles the treatment of a young girl, Máire, who has an affair with a married man, resulting in pregnancy. She is rejected by her mother and her two brothers. Her mother cares more about what the neighbours will think than she does for the welfare of her daughter and grandchild-to-be. Máire is rejected by society at large, and the only two characters who are sympathetic towards her are Mailí, who offers her and her baby refuge, and one of the lawyers at her trial. Everyone else judges and condemns her, and the father of the baby does not even want to meet his newborn daughter. In the end, she kills herself and her baby, whom it is clear she loves dearly. Máire claims that she killed her child because she was a girl; that by releasing her from life, she had freed her from the misery of being a female. The play revolves around this theme; Máire is heard voicing it at the very start of the play and again at the end. The question posed throughout is, “Why do things like this happen in Ireland?” Tomás MacAnna, the play’s director, praised An Triail as the precursor of women’s liberation. In a way, Ní Ghráda was putting Ireland on trial. Harold Hobson from the London Times newspaper gave it a very positive review, even though he did not speak Irish.

An Triail premiered at the Damer Theatre during the 1964 Dublin Theatre Festival. Shortly after this, Ní Ghráda translated it into English, and in 1965, the English version, On Trial, was performed in the Eblana Theatre. An Triail was adapted for TV, and it was entered in the 1965 Berlin TV festival. It was very rare for Irish-language plays to be made into TV programmes. The English version was published in 1966.  

The play received favourable reviews, but it was very controversial when it was first performed. The idea that everyone was guilty of what happened to Máire and her baby because of a lack of Christianity and compassion upset people. Many were shocked by what they saw as an “immoral” play. The first performance of An Triail took place on 22 September 1964, just three days after the final instalment of Michael Viney’s series of articles in the Irish Times, collectively titled “No birthright”. This series was a critical investigation of the treatment of unmarried mothers in Ireland. In one article, Viney quotes an Irish mother who said “Tell my daughter never to set foot in Ireland again and that she has disgraced her family and her country”. In a second article, he mentions another unmarried girl who says that, on telling her mother that she’s pregnant, “it didn’t take long, I’m afraid, to think of what the neighbours would say”. Although it is difficult to imagine in today’s society, these quotes demonstrate that An Triail accurately reflected the prejudiced and cruel attitudes towards unmarried mothers at that time, and people’s preoccupation with neighbours’ opinions.

Mairéad Ní Ghráda spent the last two years of her life in hospital. She died on 13 June 1971.

The Reference Library holds a copy of the English-language version of the play, On Trial. It also houses a book about Mairéad Ní Ghráda and other Irish-language playwrights entitled An underground theatre: major playwrights in the Irish language, 1930-80 by Philip O’Leary. These can be viewed once the Reference Library re-opens.

References

Books

-Breathnach, D. and Ní Mhurchú, M. (1986). 1882-1982: Beathaisnéis a haon. Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar Tta.

-Ní, Ghráda, M. (c1978). An Triail/Breithiúnas: Dhá Dhráma. Baile Átha Cliath: Oifig an tSoláthair.

-Ní Mhurchú, M. and Breathnach, D. (1999). 1782-1881: Beathaisnéis [Maille le Forlíonadh le 1882-1982 Beathaisnéis agus le hInnéacs (1782-1999)]. Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar Tta.

-Titley, A. (2010). Scríbhneoirí faoi chaibidil. Baile Átha Cliath: Cois Life Teoranta.

Website articles

-Clare County Library (2021). Mairéad Ní Ghráda (1896-1971). 5 March. Available at: https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/nighrada.htm (Accessed: 5 March 2021).

-Irish Theatre Institute (2021). Ócáid Chomórtha: A Celebration of Máiréad Ní Ghráda: Mairéad Ní Ghráda – Biography. 5 March. Available at: https://www.irishtheatreinstitute.ie/event.aspx?t=mir%C3%A9ad_n%C3%AD_ghrda&contentid=9289&subpagecontentid=9297 (Accessed: 5 March 2021).

-Irish Theatre Institute (2021). Ócáid Chomórtha: A Celebration of Máiréad Ní Ghráda: Production History. 5 March. Available at: https://www.irishtheatreinstitute.ie/event.aspx?t=an_triail_|_on_trial___production_history&contentid=9289&subpagecontentid=9302 (Accessed: 5 March 2021).

by Deirdre Swain

The Cork City Reference Library holds a large collection of books about feminism, particularly Irish feminism. BorrowBox also possesses a range of eBooks on feminism that were published in the last 7 years. In this article, I will discuss Betty Friedan, a well-known American feminist who was born in February 1921, and the second-wave feminist movement in Ireland. I will then introduce a reading list of books on feminism which are available on BorrowBox. I will also provide a reading list of books on feminism which will be available in the Reference Library once it re-opens to the public.

Betty Friedan and Second Wave Feminism in the USA

The recent TV drama, Mrs. America depicts the struggle to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the USA in the 1970s. The popularity of this TV series demonstrates a renewed interest in the women’s liberation movement and certain prominent and influential American feminists, namely Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug.

February 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Betty Friedan, one of these second wave feminists and author of the seminal feminist text, The Feminine Mystique. She was born Bettye Naomi Goldstein to a Jewish family in Peoria, Illinois on 4 February 1921. Her mother, Miriam Horwitz, was an unhappy housewife whose parents, Hungarian Jewish immigrants, did not allow her to go to university. Miriam encouraged Betty to do the opposite, and she strongly supported her daughter’s education. Betty went to university in Smith College, graduating in 1942. She then studied Psychology in the University of California, Berkeley, for a year. Thereafter, she worked as a journalist in New York, writing about the Jim Crow laws and anti-Semitism. Later, she worked as a women’s magazine writer. In 1949, she married Carl Friedman (later Friedan), and they had 3 children. They got divorced in 1969.

In 1957, Betty attended the 15th anniversary of her graduation from Smith College. At this reunion, she conducted a survey on her former fellow students (females) to explore the direction of their lives since graduation. She was perturbed by the amount of discontent among them. This revelation about the lives of her peers led to the writing of her book, The Feminine Mystique. This publication recounts the dilemma of suburban housewives, who are expected to spend all of their time on domestic duties and the rearing of children. They are overshadowed constantly by the thought, “Is this it?” They feel guilty for not being satisfied with their role, but they cannot deny the fact that they are unfulfilled. The “feminine mystique” of the book’s title is the societal assumption that household duties and motherhood alone will give women a sense of achievement. Friedan coined the phrase “the problem with no name” to describe women’s unhappiness with and inability to live up to this feminine mystique. She contended that women could have a successful career as well as a family.

The book sold three million copies and resonated with many suburban women because it showed them that they were not alone in their feelings of dissatisfaction. It was also strongly criticised for its homophobic language and for excluding Black and working class women. It spoke from a standpoint where every American housewife was white and middle class. Her solution to the problem of “the feminine mystique” (delegating housework) were also criticised for being inadequate and for failing to tackle the problem fully.

Friedan was aware of some of the shortcomings of The Feminine Mystique, and she wrote a second book to tackle some of the problems not resolved in the first one, including the double enslavement of working women who still had to do all the housework. The title of this book is The Second Stage. She also wrote numerous other books, including It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women’s Movement, which was published in 1976 and Beyond Gender: the New Politics of Family and Work, which was published in 1998.

Betty Friedan was a women’s activist and fought for reproductive rights, equal pay, equal representation and equality in hiring. She co-founded the National Organisation for Women (NOW) in 1966. In 1969, she launched the National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL Pro-Choice America). She co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) with Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug and several other women in 1971. The NWPC is a US organisation which supports and trains women who seek elected and appointed offices in all levels of government. Betty was quick-tempered, and she tended to lash out at people, including other feminists such as Gloria Steinem, even though they had similar aspirations for women. She was also quite disparaging in her treatment of lesbian women, referring to them as “the lavender menace”.

Later in her life, Friedan became a Zionist and fought to expose Anti-Semitism in the women’s movement. She received the Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Award in 1989 and was awarded honorary degrees by the State University of New York and Columbia University. She died on her birthday, 4 February, in Washington DC in 2006, aged 85.

What advances for women were taking place in Ireland during the time of Betty Friedan’s activism in the United States?

The Irish Women’s Liberation Movement

In the summer of 1970, five women met in Bewley’s café in Dublin and decided that it was time for some drastic changes in Irish women’s lives; time to fight for equal rights. That day, these women held what was to be the first meeting of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement (IWLM) group, the first radical women’s liberation group in Ireland. Although the group lasted little more than seven months, its legacy changed women’s lives significantly and positively. As proof of the success of the IWLM, the two injustices that this group fought hardest against – the marriage bar, which was abolished in 1973, and the illegality of contraception – are unimaginable in today’s world.

Margaret Gaj owned the restaurant, Gaj’s, on Baggot Street, where the IWLM would meet every Monday night. Margaret Gaj was passionate about women’s rights. Her circle of friends included Sinn Féin official Máirín de Búrca, journalist Mary Maher, who was interested in socialist issues, Máirín Johnston, who was a member of the Communist Party and who was also active in the Labour Party and Dr. Moira Woods, who was in an organisation called Irish Voice on Vietnam, which protested against the war in Vietnam. These five women started the IWLM group that day in the summer of 1970 in Bewley’s café, but around a dozen women were actively involved in the founding of this women’s organisation, the majority of them journalists. Nell McCafferty and Mary Kenny, both journalists, were two prominent founders of the IWLM.

Chains or Change was the title of the IWLM charter. It was put together in the form of a booklet which detailed the goals and ideals that the IWLM strove for. There were 6 demands: equal pay; an end to the marriage bar that kept women from working after they got married; equal rights in law; justice for widows, deserted wives and “unmarried mothers”; equal education opportunities; and the legalisation of contraception. Neither abortion nor divorce were mentioned at all in Chains or Change. When the most basic civil rights for women were being fought for, abortion and divorce did not even arise because they were not considered to be a priority. The booklet was a milestone in the history of women’s rights in Ireland, because it was the first time that anyone had published a comprehensive list of the injustices that church, state and social code perpetuated against women.

Nell McCafferty

Nell McCafferty was born in Derry. She got her degree from Queen’s University in Belfast and trained as a teacher, but she could not get a job in Derry, because the Protestant schools knew she was Catholic, and the Catholic schools did not think she was a real Catholic but, rather, a communist. She moved to Dublin to work as a journalist for the Irish Times. Nell writes in her autobiography of an incident from when she first moved to Dublin; she wanted to buy a record player on hire purchase but was told that no woman could sign an agreement without the co-signature of a male guarantor. A male stranger signed for her because she did not know any men in Dublin. This man was unemployed, and her own earnings amounted to five times more than his welfare entitlements.

Nell was a founding member of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement (IWLM). In the IWLM, Nell was someone who could be depended upon to put forward forceful arguments that were backed up by accurate facts, and she could convey them both in writing and in person.          

Nell’s journalism was objective, and she used it to bear witness to the struggles of the oppressed. She did not even have to give her opinion; her writing style and her description of what she observed in society were enough to expose hypocrisy and injustice without her having to comment on the issues herself. As well as being a feminist activist, Nell was also a civil rights activist on issues in Northern Ireland. When she started to work at the Irish Times, she joined the “women’s page” staff. Initially, she was fearful that this would involve writing about fashion, cooking and babies, but it actually enabled her to write on issues regarding women’s liberation and women’s rights.                    

The Contraceptive Train

In May 1971, the IWLM founders organised what became known as the “contraceptive train”, which was a protest against the fact that contraceptives were illegal in the Republic of Ireland. Nell McCafferty said that she had got the idea for the contraceptive train when she was in Northern Ireland at a civil rights march. The march went from North to South, and at the border, a student activist called Cyril Tallman held up a copy of Edna O’Brien’s novel Country Girls in one hand and a Durex condom in the other, saying that both were banned in the South. Nell was initially indignant about the condom, but the following year when the IWLM was talking about contraceptives, Nell got the idea of reversing the journey from Dublin to the North.

There was a ban on contraception in the Republic of Ireland, which was enshrined in the 1935 Criminal Law Act. This made the importation, distribution and sale of contraceptive devices a criminal offence. Advertising contraceptives was also illegal. The contraceptive pill was available in Ireland only on prescription, as a “menstrual cycle regulator”.

There were 47 founders and members of the IWLM on the contraceptive train on 22 May 1971, just enough to fill two carriages. However, when Nell McCafferty asked for a packet of contraceptive pills in a Belfast pharmacy, she was asked for a prescription, and the same happened when she asked for a coil, loop and Dutch cap. It turned out that the only contraceptives that were available in Belfast without prescription were condoms and spermicidal jelly. Nell was not happy with the prospect of taking a stand at Dublin customs with just condoms and spermicidal jelly, so it was decided that packets of aspirins would be bought, since they were similar enough in appearance to contraceptive pills that it was hoped they would pass for same! When the women arrived at customs in Dublin, the customs officers told them they were breaking the law, but let them through, because arresting them was not an option for them. The contraceptive train accomplished what it set out to do; the state refused to lift the ban on contraceptives, but it also failed to enforce it. The IWLM exposed this hypocrisy and proved that women would be free to import contraceptives from the North into the Republic from then on without any interference from law enforcement officials. Nell McCafferty made a statement at the train station, and two of the women went on the Late Late Show on TV to talk about the experience.

Mary Robinson failed in March and May of 1971 to get the Senate to add her Contraceptive Bill to its order paper. Despite Mary Robinson’s and the IWLM’s efforts to legalise contraceptives, it was not until 1979 that the government passed the Family Planning Act. This Act allowed solely married couples to get access to contraceptive devices other than the pill with a prescription. Family Planning clinics were already selling condoms, but the government was turning a blind eye to this because they were accepting “donations” in exchange for the condoms. In 1990, the Irish Family Planning Association was fined £500 for selling condoms in the Virgin Megastore in Dublin. Finally, in 1992, the government extended legislation to allow supermarkets and retail stores to sell condoms. The contraceptive train literally set the wheels in motion regarding the legalisation of contraceptives, but it took a long time before the law was changed for the benefit of women.

References

-Code, L., ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories. London: Routledge.

-Parry, M. (2010). ‘Betty Friedan: Feminist Icon and Founder of the National Organization for Women’, American Journal of Public Health, 100 (9), pp. 1584-1585.

-Shteir, R. (2021). ‘Why We Can’t Stop Talking about Betty Friedan’, New York Times, 3 February. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/us/betty-friedan-feminism-legacy.html (Accessed: 9 February 2021).

McCafferty, N. (2004). Nell: a Disorderly Woman. Dublin: Penguin Ireland.

Stopper, A. (2006). Mondays at Gaj’s: The Story of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement. Dublin: The Liffey Press.

Reading list of books on feminism

Available on BorrowBox:

-Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (published in 2017): https://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/productDetail.html?productId=HCU_469861&fromPage=1&b2bSite=4813

-Feminist Fight Club, by Jessica Bennett (published in 2016): https://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/productDetail.html?productId=PRU_398091&fromPage=1&b2bSite=4813

-Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (And Other Lies), by Scarlett Curtis (published in 2018): https://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/productDetail.html?productId=PRU_574840&fromPage=1&b2bSite=4813

-Give Birth Like a Feminist, by Milli Hill (published in 2019): https://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/productDetail.html?productId=HCU_655895&fromPage=1&b2bSite=4813

-We Should All Be Feminists, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (published in 2014): https://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/productDetail.html?productId=HCP_402800&fromPage=1&b2bSite=4813

Available in the Reference Library, Grand Parade

-Code, L., ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories. London: Routledge.

-McCafferty, N. (1984). The best of Nell: a selection of writings over fourteen years. Dublin: Attic Press.

- Stopper, A. (2006). Mondays at Gaj’s: The Story of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement. Dublin: The Liffey Press.

-Pierse, Mary S. (ed.) (2010). Irish Feminisms, 1810-1930. Abingdon: Edition Synapse/Routledge (5 volumes).

-Owens, R. (2005). A social history of women in Ireland, 1870-1970. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.

-Connolly, L. and O’Toole, T. (2005). Documenting Irish Feminisms: the Second Wave. Dublin: The Woodfield Press.

-Connolly, L. (2002). The Irish women’s movement: from revolution to devolution. Dublin: Lilliput Press.