We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
AS 49 IRISH women were making their way from Belfast to Dublin on what would become known as the contraceptive train of 1971 – customs officers from the docks were being sent to Connolly Station in anticipation of their arrival.
The women, who were part of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement, changed the social landscape of Ireland when they brought condoms down from Northern Ireland, while contraception was illegal in the Republic.
John O’Connor was one of the customs officers at Connolly Station on the day the contraceptive train came in.
He told TheJournal.ie, “I was 19 at the time and I was only a couple of weeks on the job.”
He said he had been on the ships at the port until that morning when it was announced that they were going to the railway station. “You were trained on the job at that time.
“There was a big crowd I remember. We went through a barrier and then all of a sudden there were no people at all.
I was told to stand at a table and I asked, ‘What are we looking for?’ I was told we were seizing condoms and I said, ‘What are they?’
O’Connor said his colleague just responded by saying, ‘Not another one’.
I was told, ‘Just stand there and look intelligent’. I hadn’t a clue what was going on.
The women couldn’t get their hands on the pill in Belfast without a prescription so they brought back aspirin tablets and swallowed them publicly at the train station - knowing customs officials wouldn’t immediately know the difference.
O’Connor said he didn’t take part in the searches. “It was my first time dealing with passengers.
I was also told to smile because there were cameras on us so I just smiled like a cheshire cat.
At the time the story made news all over the world and in recent years it has been brought to the stage in the form of a musical, The Train.
An element of O’Connor’s story has now been incorporated into the revival of the show this year.
The Train is opening at The Abbey Theatre tonight and runs until Saturday April 15, before going to The Mac in Belfast from April 19 – 23. www.roughmagic.ie.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I am o,d enough to remember this strange and febrile days.
Contraception was predicted to bring the birth rate to zero or to drive men into becoming homosexual. ( I did not understand it either.)
Divorce meant that Irish men would abandon their wives and there would be no fathers left.
Decriminalising homosexuality meant that Irish men would turn to each other and give up women.
Now we are left with the last vestige, the weird and dogmatic Eight Amendment which has supposedly “saved” millions of lives in Ireland.
Getting rid of the Eight Amendment will rid us of this last bit of fundamentalism of the old days.
For some reason, none of the predicted flood gates this, flood gates that and the final end of Irish society never happens.
@Tony Daly: your post is slightly exaggerated my friend. I’m atheist and I don’t believe abortion should be available in Ireland. Shock horror!!!!
@Sara Elia López: What exactly is he exaggerating? And no shock and no horror. Both intelligent and dumb as hay atheists exist. İf anyone is exaggerating then it’s you.
@Ian Phillip Creaner: I think the line about Irish men giving up on women if homosexuality was legalised is nonsense, I doubt at the time anyone said that. The OP just used that line to fit his narrative.
@Sara Elia López: you think? So you’re not sure? You’re not sure whereas Tony remembers.
@Sara Elia López: I think you underestimate how stupid right wing nuts are.
No glove No love.
@Jamie Jj Tobin: just the tip?
@Hello there friend: half… half… whole
Condoms were still not freely available in the 26 counties until 1994. They were not in supermarkets til 12 years later & even locked in cabinets on shelves. How many stds & unwanted pregnancies were caused by embarrassing young people. Even when they were only available in chemists the chemist may not approve of you as you were not “married” as you needed a prescription for it.There were & still are very expensive in this country while other countries even give some out to young couples for free. The government tax these as luxuries even though there are essential to public health this day and age.
@Abcd: You could buy condoms in 24hr peteol stations around 2000-2004 on the way home for the ride. So they were surely in supermarkets!!
@Lord Clanricarde: an empty Tayto pack was also an option.
It was a vicious and vindictive place back then. Probably I wouldnt have had the courage to remain back then either as a woman or as the gay man I am. Uncivilised society.
@Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan: it was an awful time and place to be other than white, straight, Roman Catholic and dogmatic.
@Tony Daly: well said
@Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan:
May i remind you the UK only decriminalised homosexuality in the 1960′s. Let’s not pretend that Ireland was the only place with a problem back them. It was the times.
@Fred Jensen: Indeed, some 30 years before this mean spirited state under its Catholic Taliban. Lets not pretend like you are tolerant about gay rights.
@Fred Jensen: the Wolfendon Report in the U.K. recommended decriminalisation and then in 1967 this was given effect to even though the Roman Catholic Church in Britain fought tooth and nail against that.
It was not until 1993, 26 years later, that Ireland was forced by the European Court of Human Rights and the challenge by David Norris to decriminalise homosexuality in Ireland.
@Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan:
Let’s not pretend that you’re not a bit of a drama queen ;-)
@Fred Jensen: your sexuality may be straight but your mind is warped.
@Fred Jensen: I see that you have a troll Facebook account.
@Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan: comparing the Catholic Church to the Taliban? Get off your high horse
@Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan: Sean you should enter yourself in the Oppression Olympics.
@Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan: Ireland was backward but to be fair Sean, the British were much worse. They may have decriminalised homosexuality long before Ireland, but not before they done alot of physical damage to young men, brutal in fact. Alan Turing for example, a war hero if ever there was one. Nobody was treated like that in Ireland.
Great to see how Ireland has changed all the same!
@Fred Jensen: and the pill was only invented in the 60s
@Sara Elia López: actuall sara he’s not far off. What kind of atheist(if you even are one as claimed)defends religion?
@Sara Elia López: You’re right Sara, the Catholic Church is far more insidious than the Taliban could ever hope to be.
A stark reminder of the hell people had to endure under conservative rule. These women will forever be heroes to us all.
@Grainne Abdulaziz: the women drive Charly Haughey, Pee Flynn and the others incandescent with rage.
@Tony Daly: The past is a different country as the saying goes Tony!
@Grainne Abdulaziz: very true!
@Grainne Abdulaziz:
Are you joking, women were the greatest enforcers of social conservatism in ireland. Do you think if a young girl got pregnant her mother, aunts, sisters, female friends and acquaintances would go easy on her?
@Fred Jensen: Hmm, I don’t see where I said they weren’t. Sounds like you have some pent up issues there Fred, let it out.
@Grainne Abdulaziz: Not quite yet different enough Grainne. As Tony reminds us above, the 8th Amendment remains as a vestige of that era. I would add a right to secular education as a right still to be won for many parts of Ireland.
@Terry McClatchey: I agree 100% Terry, many victories have been won by liberals in this country that we can now all enjoy, but complete separation of church and State and Repeal of the 8th are big hurdles to still overcome.
@Grainne Abdulaziz: Legal homocide is not a hurdle we should ever overcome.
Also, if Catholics followed the New Testament to its word we’d have a morale society. The teachings in the New Testament are mainly liberal and are great lessons for humans to learn. Even as an agnostic I find having secular catholic schools better than having a free for all with the possibility of vicious militant religious schools developing and abusing the laws. We all know how that’s going in the UK. No thanks.
One last note, I find it funny to find people here screaming repeal the eight and screw the Catholic Church while at the same time supporting Islam and defending it as if it’s somehow a more liberal, beneficial or progressive religion. There is nothing better about Islam than catholicism, every aspect of it is worse. It’s more of a cult, it’s more anti women, and it’s more conservative.
@Caesar: They are exactly the same. The difference is that Islam didn’t Fu$k our country over for the last century. But in an Ideal world a country without either superstition would be better than one with them.
@Rob Cahill: they’re not the same, even claiming they’re remotely similar shows how desperate snowflakes have become to try claim oppression. There’s a big difference between shaming someone for being gay, to torturing them to death.lets not get started on islams oppression of other religious groups too. That doesn’t happen in Ireland.
Also as a majority catholic country the marriage referendum wasn’t too difficult to pass. Try doing the same in any Muslim majority country lmao
Back in those days we banned wonderful writers and chased away those who would not conform. Bad days indeed.
In another interesting and related story, the Mirena Coil or “the coil” which was introduced in Ireland around 1990s was nearly banned by prominent irish obstetricians at the time on the national review board due to suspicions and misunderstandings about it inducing abortions.
Amazing to see how the country’s attitudes towards these issues evolve over the decades.
Fella walks into Virgin Megastore around 1993 and says “I want one of them new rubber johnnies”. The wan behind the counter goes “What soize?” He goes “I dunno?” She goes “Trow it up on the counter there til we have a look at it an I’ll tell ya” so he does and she inspects it, gives it a quick tug and roars out the back of the shop “Jimmy, send us out a J., soize Noi-an”. Yeer man goes off with his purchase. Another guy comes in asks for the same and same thing again. He throws it out she looks rubs and roars “Jimm-ee send us ou’ a J., soize twe’uhlve”. Next in walks a 16 year old asks for the same she tells him throw it out til she sees what size gives it a rub and goes “Jimmy! Send us ou’ a J-cloth!”
Round 1986 could just drive to Enniskillen in yer 1977 Celica ST the one with the shark nose and the SU swapped out for twin Weber 9:1s and get them. Along with cans of Norn Iron Harp for 23p a pop with a mate’s dad’s wholesaler card. Nip back down the unapproved routes with the help of the Brits at the checkpoint who’d tell you of any nearby customs mobiles maybe you might throw them in a six pack and yer mates running interference in a Mark 2 Mexico and a Manta GTe ye all with CB radios and mag mount whiplash aerials also bought in Enniskillen in the old motorbike shop near the war memorial. Sell from boot at Lavey Inn at 2AM in car park near chipper van. 300-500% profit Kaching.
Maybe shoulda let the train take the strain an not have to practice J-turns or hop off any Cavan potholes
@John O’Driscoll: Did that every weekend in my MG Midget, sold them in Strandhill cost about £1 a box of 6 and sold for £1 each, easy money and good craic as well, brought 2 friesian bull calves back one day, just about fitted them in, made £50 selling them to a local farmer.
Excellent
Condoms stop the spread of herpes or genital warts?
@sup: not stop, but practically removes the risk of transmission through body fluid, provided the johnnie doesn’t split, or during unprotected oral either. STDs can live in saliva too.
Condoms suck. It’s much more fun when you have a guy going bareback. Feels more natural.
@Sara Elia López: I hear ya .. hate them myself.
@Sara Elia López: other things that suck: genital warts. Herpes for life. HIV/AIDS. Unwanted teenage pregnancy. Having to get the boat to England in secret. All things that use of condoms gives a high chance of preventing. Or are you advocating for the pull it out method?
@Canoe O’Hara: who exactly are you riding? Heroin addicts?
@Sara Elia López: That is the backdoor Sara??? Best way to get HIV…
As a one-time salmon fisher might think the “Flying Condom” (known po-facedly also as the “Flying C”, one of the most effective spinning lures of the Nineties probably did its bit for women’s (and sensible men’s) lib too.
I can remember the fuss and the craic when they got to Dundalk station – the best was going up to Garda and asking what it was all about I was 15 – they turned red :-)
‘Condoms, what are they?’
http://eighty20nutrition.com/creamy-fruit-icicles/ To make ice cream???
@Alois believe it I know someone used work in the old Leaf factory in Kilcock as a kid where they made those nuclear coloured old “Mr Freeze” ice pops and their summer job was sitting in the chill warehouse unboxing surplus inventory and holding up the lollies to a light and checking for mould. Yours look much healthier.
@John O’Driscoll: God, if there was sediment in them then they would have been the first alco-pops lol.
have your say