Madam, - I met my wife 35 years ago when she was working in the south of Ireland. I persuaded her to move to Dublin where she got a job at management level in the Civil Service. Three years later, when we got married, she was fired from her job as the State did not approve of married women working. (I think the idea was that they should be tied to the kitchen sink and preferably pregnant).
She was given her notice and came to live on a small farm in north county Dublin. She has managed the house, garden, farm, animals reared two children and cared for my retired father. Money was tight in the early years so she took on part-time work as a market surveyor and enumerator.
When the children went to school she re-educated and having qualified with a Master's degree spent many years working as a free-lance professional. Following the death of my father she got a permanent, full-time job back in the Civil Service in Dublin.
Now the wheel has come full-circle, she is to be centralised back to the south of Ireland - no objections tolerated.
"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away". - Yours, etc.,
J.F. KING, Ballyboughal, Co Dublin.