Tributes following the death of Mary McGee, who helped end Ireland’s contraceptive ban Ireland

Tributes poured in from the other side Ireland following the death of Mary McGee, a woman credited with the “social revolution” that paved the way for the legalization of contraceptives in the country.

McGee, who was known as May, and her husband Seamus hit the headlines in 1972 after the couple launched a landmark legal challenge against a decades-old law banning the sale or importation of contraceptives in Ireland.

The couple had four children at the time. McGee’s second and third pregnancies had been complicated by health problems. At one point she almost died and suffered a stroke. A doctor said future pregnancies could be fatal and recommended she take contraceptives.

However, a ban on the sale and import of contraceptives in 1935 made it almost impossible for her to follow the doctor’s instructions.

The couple turned to the United Kingdom and ordered a diaphragm and spermicide jelly. according to the Irish Times. The package was confiscated by customs and they were told that if they tried to order contraceptives from abroad again they would face fines or prison sentences.

McGee refused to back down. “I was angry that someone in government could tell us how to live our lives. I wasn’t going to back down.” she told the Irish Examiner in 2022.

The couple took their case to the High Court, where Seamus, who called himself Shay, explained exactly what was at stake. “I would rather see her use contraceptives than put flowers on her grave,” he said at a 1972 hearing.

After their lawsuit was dismissed, the couple appealed to the Supreme Court. Four of the five justices ruled in their favor, holding that contraception was a private matter for married couples and that the decision should be free from government interference.

Their victory was well received across Ireland and around the world, with the couple receiving congratulatory messages from around the world Health Organization and even from Hawaii.

They were later met with anger from some quarters Media tells about how they had left their parish and never returned after the priest suggested they had brought the church into disrepute.

The couple’s legal dispute remains the court’s single most important decision in terms of its political and social consequences, Supreme Court Justice Gerard Hogan later noted.

It was the “legal equivalent of the moon landing” because it forced the government to gradually change its stance on contraception, Hogan said at a 2023 conference examining the McGee case and its legacy Irish Times comments.

The decision “shows how one courageous woman single-handedly changed the course of Irish social history,” he said, leading to “a social revolution whose consequences are still emerging.”

As was announced on Wednesday that May died peacefully At a hospital in Berlin, tributes poured in on social media as people remembered her bravery and celebrated her as a hero to the women of Ireland.

The author and film director Paul Duane wrote on Bluesky: “How far we have come. Now Irish religious conservatism is limited to a few thousand lost votes and a lot of airtime.” [Irish public broadcaster] RTE. But the country is no longer listening to them, thanks to brave women like May McGee.”

The writer Fintan O’Toole she greeted as “one of the heroines of modern Ireland”.

Laura Kelly, historian of medicine and gender in modern Ireland and professor at the University of Strathclyde, wrote on Bluesky: “May McGee was such a brave woman and had a huge influence.”

Shay McGee died in January 2024.