The heady days of protests and proclamations when banners were raised and bras were burned were recalled at the Irish Writers' Centre in Dublin this week.
"We thought we were revolutionaries, that we were going to break the whole cycle of repression," said journalist and writer Nell McCafferty, at the launch of Changing the Times, a selection of articles by women journalists who worked in The Irish Times between 1969 and 1981 and edited by Elgy Gillespie.
"Now I look back on it," continued McCafferty, "I have to say how innocent we were, how decent, how sweet-minded we were, that all we wanted was that women should continue with their jobs after they got married, that we should have contraception, and that we get equal pay . . . Everything we asked for was absolutely right, and it was so small. For all that, we did well and I'm glad I was there."
According to Cork-based journalist and writer Mary Leland, "it was a good time. I feel this is a wonderful, timely collection but I also wonder now at the stories that we missed, like child sexual abuse. We simply had no idea but I wonder now: why? Where was I in the 1970s? Was it all so closed off that we weren't even curious?"
They were "tumultuous times", said Mary Maher, chairwoman of the Irish Executive Council of the National Union of Journalists and the first woman's editor at The Irish Times.
Some of those featured in the book, such as Maeve Binchy, Renagh Holohan, Caroline Walsh and Rose Doyle, were there in person. While others who have died such as Christina Murphy, Mary Cummins and Eileen O'Brien, were remembered by all.
Bríd Connolly, mother of author John Connolly, whose latest best-selling book, Bad Men, is out now, came along with her friend, Olive Morris.
Mary Banotti MEP was with her daughter, Tanya Banotti, who has just started as chief executive of a new organisation called Theatre Forum which will campaign for more money for the arts. Mary Higgins, chairwoman of The Homeless Agency, said the women journalists of the 1970s and 1980s "did a great job on focusing on women's issues and keeping them alive compared to now".