FROM THE ARCHIVES:A lot of political time was taken up in the 1970s and 1980s with the question of legalising contraceptives, providing ammunition for John Healy in this Sounding Off column at a time when condoms could only be bought on prescription by married couples. – JOE JOYCE
One of the more significant social statistics which impinged on me last week was the fact that over the last year we have imported seven million condoms into the Republic. The news didn't even rate a snotty letter to The Irish Timesbut then French letters are very passe when you have good juicy subjects like the South African rugby tour and Opus Dei on the boil.
God be with the days of “Catholic Mother of Ten” – if she were alive today she’d be in like a ton of bricks on that news item. Seven million French letters flooding the country – and not a meg out of anyone. You’d take a mighty oath it was seven million packets of chewing gum.
Of course, no-one is using them. If you don’t believe me, just ask around. None of your friends use them. During the controversy in the Dáil – and we had more than one – our friends were very liberal; although they would never dream of using them, yes, they thought, they should be available for those whose conscience allowed them to practise contraception.
I remember after the famous [Liam] Cosgrave walk-through with Jack Lynch in the “Níl” lobby in Leinster House , with Dick Burke and Oliver J [Flanagan] behind him, there was produced a new socio-sexual map of Ireland. East of the Shannon, a majority of deputies were for contraceptives; west of the Shannon, they were “agin” them. The country split neatly in two.
So, if the West is “agin” the use of contraceptives, that leaves the East. But not every county east of the Shannon favours the use or sale of contraceptives. Take Laois-Offaly, Oliver Flanagan-land. Definitely out. The conclusion must be that they are city things, used only by Dubliners. But even that you can’t say with complete safety. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown’s leading parliamentarian, Mr Liam Cosgrave, the constituency’s poll-topper, was obviously reflecting the majority when he voted against Paddy Cooney’s Bill.
So the question is: where are seven million gone and who is using them for what? Is it another case of dumping? With something like 2,500,0000 unemployed in Britain and time heavy on their hands, you’d think they could do with extras for the rest of the recession there.
We have only 120,000 out of work here – and if you take the chronically unemployable out of that, you’d have a true figure of about 75,000 able-bodied walking around looking for something to do.
This is all in very bad taste, of course, and no one knows it better than myself. I’d have His Grace the Archbishop trying to put horns on the Editor in the hope that he, in turn, would put horns on me, 10 or 15 years ago, for a piece like this.
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