Housekeepers for priests were exploited: study

A STUDY on priests’ housekeepers’ lives presented for International Women’s Day found they were exploited, underpaid and worked from as young as 13.

The work, compiled by UCC graduate Noirin Deady, includes accounts from 14 women on their lives spent working in priest’s homes as far back as the 1950s.

She undertook the work to counteract “dull and unattractive” depictions of housekeepers in the media, including the character of Mrs Doyle in Father Ted.