26 years ago and the threat still hangs over some
Posted by Maman Poulet on 10 Sep 2008 at 11:07 pm | Tagged as: Feminism, Irish Politics, Religion
In 1982 Eileen Flynn lost her job. The reason for her dismissal was that she was pregnant, unmarried and the father of her child was a married man. Eileen was a teacher in a convent school in New Ross and the school asked her to resign and said it would given her 3 months pay. The news of her pregnancy had followed several months of whispering and vocal opposition to her relationship. She refused to resign and they sacked her.
She took them to an Employment Appeals Tribunal and she lost. The case then went to the High Court where it ruled that Flynn’s pregnancy and relationship “…was capable of damaging [the nuns’] efforts to foster in their pupils…religious tenets the school had been established to promote.”
Eileen eventually returned to teaching in Wexford some years ago having married her partner and it is with great sadness that I heard that she died yesterday at the age of only 56. She is survived by her husband and their five children.
Eilleen had the support of many trade unionists, women and human rights activists at the time. While I understand her reasons to remain private subsequently I do hope that someone brings together some of the archive material to document the case and pay a tribute to her memory and the battle she fought to reclaim her job.
It’s still possible to be sacked from your job if something about your private life might contravene the religious ethos of the workplace (school, hospital etc.). It’s been deemed to be constitutional – and I wonder if the voices of protest might be louder if it happened now.
Update: Irish Times report on Eileen’s death and includes some commentary from the time and a quote from an interview she gave in 1999.
Eileen Roche will be sadly missed in New Ross; not only for her teaching ability but for her warm nature and smiling eyes and she will be sadly missing from Roches on the quay for evermore. RIP
This is so sad and she was so (relatively)young. This scandal about sexual morality broke in New Ross, and I cannot but think about how the Church (which castigated her was knee-deep in small boys at the time).
I remember this case when I was a teenager in school. It was a very early ’speaking out’ (to use Nuala O’Faolain’s term about how non-normative women’s sexuality started to become publicly visible in fragmentary ways in contemporary Ireland). Before anyone rushes off to suggest that it ‘could never happen today’, we should note how consitutional/ legalised inequality in the education system continues to impact on the lives of educators. These appalling legislative norms allow hegemonic sexual norms to feed into other ways of policing sexuality, particularly behaviours of single heterosexual women, lesbians and gay men. Rumour and innuendo become able to operate as a sanction on people’s lives and ensure that only ‘respectable’ people teach ‘our’ children. Ironically, a good woman did teach our children all along: Eileen Flynn.
I would hesitate to suggest that in part the problem since is that we’ve not looked at what was really wrong. That messy, vague term ethos is at play again. And lots of organisations have a stated ethos. Is it ok for some but not for others to gather in a society that claims it allows for free association? After all, I doubt that organisations whose ethos was the geared to establishing what they viewed as greater equality would employ anyone that was homophobic or sexist. So is the contention that ethos should play no part in who works within and for such organisations? I don’t think so. But what is such an organisation has a de facto monopoly? Should we force it to work against it’s ethos or remove it from the scene?
My own view would be that a real solution should be that the religious should be thanked for the work they undoubtedly did do but noting the need for equality of access across the country to what are state funded services that schools and hospitals should be run by boards of management/governors to be drawn from the communities in which they work. Sure we can allow religious to sit on this boards if they are elected/selected by the parents in schools, but not as a matter of right. Primary schools should be accountable to and funded from local government. (though that’s another issue to be addressed)
The regrettable fact is that for too long ‘the people’ gave over their responsibility for running critical services like education and health to people who had an agenda. I think instead of substituting different people with perhaps a different agenda or even the same agenda but under a different guise that what should happen is ‘the people’ taking a more active interest in the running of such institutions. For all that it can’t possibly have prepared her for the Presidency, we don’t, for the most part, even have real functioning PTA’s, such as that Sarah Palin was involved with, in Ireland.
I always admired her courage in taking on those bloody Holy Faith nuns and by extension, the whole Catholic church
On a personal level she was a great character.
All through my teenage drinking years and beyond, she was a familiar face behind the bar of Richie’s pub on The Quay, New Ross.
The pub is usually a port of call for me whenever I’m back home to see the parents. A unique atmosphere, good music and a good buzz.
The place won’t be the same without her.
May she rest in peace.
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[...] 26 years ago and the threat still hangs over some | Maman Poulet (tags: Eileen.Flynn ireland politics feminism) [...]
How sad. I certainly remember the story, as I was one of the protesters at the time. It felt, then, as if the voices in support of her were loud and many, but I suppose from that position it would seem so. I daresay you’re right that it could still happen though, and while I’d like to believe that there would be even louder voices of protest, I have my doubts. But I hope you’re right.
Nice post.
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