The Battle to Control Female Fertility in Modern Ireland

The battle for legal contraception challenged key tenets of Irish identity: Catholicism, large families, traditional gender roles, and sexual puritanism.

Mary E. Daly (Author)

9781009314879, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 May 2023

348 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.8 cm, 0.51 kg

'Daly's monograph provides an encyclopaedic magisterial account of the ways in which fertility control became the crucial litmus test for evaluating the strength of Catholic adherence in Ireland and, more broadly, the endurance of a distinctive Irish Catholic identity in the context of global social, demographic and cultural change. Daly demonstrates her expertise in historical research alongside her vibrant writing skills to bring the story of Ireland's family planning journey to life for the reader. This text is essential reading for scholars of religion, sex, and family planning, and especially those studying the intersection of all three.' Kristin Hay, Social History

The Irish battle for legal contraception was a contest over Irish exceptionalism: the belief that Ireland could resist global trends despite the impact of second-wave feminism, falling fertility, and a growing number of women travelling for abortion. It became so lengthy and so divisive because it challenged key tenets of Irish identity: Catholicism, large families, traditional gender roles, and sexual puritanism. The Catholic Church argued that legalising contraception would destroy this way of life, and many citizens agreed. The Battle to Control Female Fertility in Modern Ireland provides new insights on Irish masculinity and fertility control. It highlights women's activism in both liberal and conservative camps, and the consensus between the Catholic and Protestant churches views on contraception for single people. It also shows how contraception and the Pro-Life Amendment campaign affected policy towards Northern Ireland, and it examines the role of health professionals, showing how hospital governance prevented female sterilisation. It is a story of gender, religion, social change, and failing efforts to reaffirm Irish moral exceptionalism.

Introduction
1. Late marriages and large families: 'the enigma of the modern world'
2. The pill, the Pope and a changing Ireland
3. 'A bitter blow: humanae vitae and Irish society, 1968–1973
4. Contraception, access and opposition, 1973–80
5. 'Against sin': an Irish family planning bill, 1973–79
6. The 1983 Pro-Life Amendment
7. 'Bona-Fide family planning': the 1980s and 1990s
Conclusions.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]