I don’t remember it as a bad place to live to be honest. I do remember though the terror that you might knock somebody up and the shame that might bring to the respective families, coupled with the near impossibility of obtaining contraceptives. I also remember bringing the laundry to the Good Shepherd convent end not thinking there was anything particularly unusual in that.
You should bear in mind that there’s things going on today, that we take for granted or turn a blind eye to that you will turn around in 30 years time and say how the fuck did we let that go on under our noses. Direct provision for refugees is my guess as the most likely, but it could be anything.
Also of note in the case is the Joanne Hayes’s aunt was Bridie Fuller who was one of the Republican clan Fullers and there was a strong sense among the republican community that the Gardai were not about to pass an opportunity to put a republican behind bars for whatever reason.
Separately but around this time as well, there was the case of a teacher in New Ross, Eileen Flynn, who was removed from her post as a teacher by the nuns because she was living with and had a child by a separated man. She took a case for unfair dismissal to the High Court and lost.
In retrospect while everything looked rosey for the Church in the days of the Popes visit in 1979, the seeds of its own destruction were in open view (Father Cleary and Bishop Casey doing the stand up routine in Galway). A forty year moral civil war ensued, starting with the Abortion referendum in 1983. The Church has fought tooth and nail every inch of the way, but when the Eighth Amendment is repealed, that will be the end of it.
Sadly, if Nell was still a voice on th airwaves today she would be a lock for the shortlist of COTY*every year, she was great entertainment.
*When can we expect the 2017 list?
Contraceptives were illegal until 1980. From 1980 to 1985 you could only get them with a prescription. From 1985 to 1992 you could only get them in a chemist. A lot of chemists didn’t stock them on moral grounds. Virgin Megastore was prosecuted for selling condoms. It was only in 1992 that they went on general sale.
There was an AIDS epidemic raging at this time by the way.