The end of the Irish marriage bar

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Until 1973, married women in Ireland were banned from working in state jobs.

It was one of the longest lasting marriage bars in the world.

Rachel Naylor speaks to Bernie Flynn, who postponed her wedding and became one of the first married women in the civil service.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: A couple on their wedding day. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before this BBC podcast kicks off I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy.
0:05.0	My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC.
0:08.0	It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs, moments and movements,
0:14.7	stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous.
0:19.2	And the BBC's position at the heart of British music means we can tell those stories like no one else.
0:24.5	We were, are and always will be right there at the center of the narrative.
0:28.6	So whether you want an insightful take on music right now or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and
0:34.4	infamous moments in music check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds.
0:40.9	BBC World Service and now the Witness History Podcast with me Rachel Naylor.
0:48.0	I'm taking you back to the end of the marriage bar in Ireland which banned married women from working in state jobs.
0:55.0	It was one of the longest lasting in the world.
0:58.0	I've been speaking to a woman who postponed her wedding and became one of the first married women in the civil service.
1:07.0	It's the 8th of December 1972 and were in Sligo a town in the northwest of Ireland.
1:15.1	Bernie Hart, a 22 year old clerical officer at the council, has just got engaged to her
1:19.9	boyfriend Jimmy Flynn. This would normally be caused the celebration. But for a lot of women
1:25.7	in 1970s Ireland, there was a catch.
1:28.8	If we got married, you had to leave your job. You tendered your resignation and you were paid what was termed a marriage
1:36.4	gratuity, which was in fact one month's salary for every year of service that you had. It was part and parcel of our
1:46.2	contract that we signed when we joined the service, so while people didn't like it,
1:52.2	you know that was the way life was. There were a lot of things
1:55.3	we might have liked to have changed, but the possibility for change wasn't huge at that particular
2:00.5	time. You heard right. Thanks to the marriage bar, female civil servants were forced to resign
	...

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