‘It was one up for the women’: Mary ‘May’ McGee's family to celebrate her life at funeral
Mary 'May' McGee and Seámus McGee on their wedding day.
It is entirely fitting that the relatives of Mary ‘May’ McGee, who has died aged 81, have asked people to wear bright colours to the service celebrating her life at Dardistown Crematorium in Dublin on Saturday morning.
She was bright and radiant herself, her newly dyed purple hair the perfect complement to the vivid colours in the mosaic by artist Helen McLean which was unveiled just two short months ago in recognition of the landmark case she and her husband took in 1973 to challenge the State’s ban on contraception.
There is some consolation in knowing that the woman whose courage opened the way for free access to contraception in Ireland was honoured in her own lifetime — and in her own hometown of Skerries.
The artwork was commissioned by Skerries Tidy Towns, with financial support from several local organisations and a government department and, mercifully, May McGee got to stand in front of it in Floraville Park and get a flavour of the tributes that continue to pour in following her death on Tuesday.
The inscription on its plinth says it all: “A bold and determined woman who challenged tradition and prevailed. Supported by her lifelong partner Seámus.”
May McGee didn’t think she had done anything exceptional in standing up to the Irish State when, in the early 1970s, it threatened her and her husband with a fine or jail after customs officials seized the spermicidal jelly she had ordered from the UK on the advice of a doctor.
“I was livid that somebody in government could tell us how to live our lives. I wasn’t going to back down,” she said many years later.
She didn’t, however, see herself as a feminist activist or a woman’s libber, to use the phrase of the time. Indeed, when her GP, Dr Loughran, first suggested she take contraception after her difficult first pregnancy, she refused, thinking that God might punish her.
It was the late 1960s and May McGee was just an ordinary, newly married young woman living in a deeply conservative, Catholic country. What happened next, though, was anything but ordinary.
In the first instance, the couple had four children in 23 months, between December 1968 and November 1970, which was exceptional even in a country where frequent pregnancy was common given the ban on selling, advertising or importing contraceptives.
In several interviews, the couple looked back on that time with great humour.
May used to say: “All he had to do was look at me and I got pregnant,” while Seamus added: “I was a fisherman and we used to say that all I had to do was take off my rubber boots and I’d be driving her to the Coombe [maternity hospital].”
But they also spoke about how difficult it was for May who was so ill following the birth of her first child Martin two months prematurely on December 15, 1968, that she didn’t get to hold him until he was six weeks and two days old.
She also got shingles. “You’d think I had 10 rounds with Mike Tyson, I was that bad,” she said with characteristic good humour, but she had little time to recover because shortly afterwards she was pregnant again.
During that pregnancy she had a stroke and was rushed to hospital where she gave birth to her second son, Gerard, on January 2, 1970.
The experience changed her attitude to contraception and just as the couple were ready to try it, May discovered she was pregnant again — with twin girls Sharon and Sylvia who were born on November 15, 1970.
Given what had gone before, it was not surprising that the McGees were spurred into action when Customs intercepted the spermicidal jelly as it made its way from the UK.
But Ireland was starting to change and, encouraged by their local GP, they took action.
Their solicitor Dudley Potter enlisted the support of Donal Barrington and Seán MacBride who lodged a case in the High Court — McGee v Attorney General and the Revenue Commissioners — to argue that the prohibition on contraception was an infringement of May’s personal rights and on the rights of her family and, therefore, unconstitutional.
In recent days, much has been written about the case, its failure and the subsequent Supreme Court appeal which was successful. In December 1973, four of the five judges ruled in May McGee’s favour, saying contraception was a matter for husband and wife and it should be free of interference from the State.
It is not an exaggeration to say that what the McGees did in the early 1970s opened the way for radical change — in attitudes and in Ireland’s approach to women’s reproductive health.
May McGee made little of what she had done yet she admitted how scary it was to be in court and be asked questions “about six different ways” about her personal life.
She had a hearing impairment since childhood and relied on lip-reading. Even though she found the experience intimidating, she made a point of looking directly at the judge, Andreas O’Keeffe, then President of the High Court, when asked if she thought she and her husband should live as brother and sister for the rest of their lives.
She replied: “We are only human. Religion is important, but I still think we have a right to live as human beings. We are husband and wife, and we cannot live as brother and sister.”
When her husband took the stand, he was asked if he liked the idea of his wife using contraceptives. He gave this much-quoted response:
Their joint courage in challenging the prevailing mores of the time shows that ordinary people can truly make a difference.
It is heartening to read the flood of tributes to May McGee in the days following her death but, if she were alive, she would certainly say that she was not in it alone. She and her husband, who died in 2024, were an unshakable team who faced everything together.
They would finish each others sentences if you called to see them in their home in Skerries which was bought soon after the case with the help of a £500 win in the Mater pools.
It was a place of laughter and the warmest of welcomes. Tea, biscuits and sandwiches would appear as soon as a visitor passed the threshold.
Two more children arrived much later, Darren in 1980 and Andrea in 1981. Speaking on on RTÉ Radio 1 on Wednesday, Darren said he didn’t know what his parents had done until he saw a photo of himself in a newspaper among the papers kept in a family scrapbook.
In recent years, prompted by requests for interviews, the couple revisited that time, speaking about it with great humour and compassion.
“I don’t think I did something great,” May said in 2022, “but I’m glad if it helped. It was one up for the women, though, and we still have to fight our corner all the time.”
It was inspiring to hear her say she still got so mad when she saw the injustices faced by women all around the world.
Let us give the last word to one of her grandchildren, politics graduate Aisling McGee, who posted this tribute: She was “not only my inspiration but also my crazy nana who couldn’t say no to a late night hot chocolate or a good true crime show.
• Mary ‘May’ McGee is survived by her children Martin, Gerard, Sylvia, Sharon, Darren and Andrea, grandchildren Aisling, Rónán, Megan, Kira, Jessica, Aaron, Saoirse, Katelyn, Patrick, Logan, Michael, Fraser and Charlotte, daughters-in-law Paula and Carol, sons-in-law Tom and John, brothers Tony, Fintan and Brendan, sister Liz, nieces, nephews, relatives, extended family and a large circle of friends.
• Full details of May McGee's funeral can be found here, on RIP.ie.
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