Mother-of-four brought legal case against government after customs seized her contraceptives package from UK
Tributes have poured in from across Ireland after the death of Mary McGee, a woman credited with sparking a “social revolution” that paved the way for the legalisation of contraceptives in the country.
McGee, who went by May, and her husband, Seamus, burst into the headlines in 1972, after the couple lodged a landmark legal challenge against a decades-old law that banned the sale or importation of contraceptives in Ireland.
At the time, the couple had four children. Their second and third pregnancies had been complicated by health issues, with McGee nearly dying at one point and suffering a stroke.
A doctor warned them that any future pregnancies could prove fatal for her and advised her to take contraceptives. A 1935 ban on the sale and importation of contraceptives, however, made it nearly impossible for her to follow the doctor’s instructions.
