Dublin and Irish birth control activism in the 1970s

The twentieth-century history of men and women’s attempts to gain access to reproductive health services in the Republic of Ireland has been significantly shaped by Ireland’s social and religious context. Unlike other European states such as Germany, Italy and France, where birth control bans were part of wider pro-natalist social policies, in Ireland, the moral argument was central to legislation. The Censorship of Publications Act (1929) prohibited the selling, publication and distribution of literature relating to contraception and from 1935 until 1979, under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the sale, importation and advertising of contraceptive appliances and substances was banned in Ireland. After 1935, the city of Dublin became a centre for black markets for the sale of contraceptives, with newspaper reports and court records highlighting contemporary fears about the corrupting nature of the city. In the 1970s, Dublin would also emerge as a centre for feminist activism in Ireland. Research by historians on the women’s movement has shown the integral role of feminist groups in debates on women’s reproductive rights worldwide while Connolly has shown how contraception was viewed by Irish feminist groups as being ‘a cardinal issue for women’s liberation’. This paper examines how Dublin became a centre for feminist campaigns and the influence of feminist groups in debates surrounding contraception. Utilising the contemporary press and publications, I seek to illuminate how the city of Dublin became a centre for feminist mobilisation and for the organisation of social justice in relation to the contraception question in Ireland.