A pharmacist, a priest and a poor young girl - madness

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

On Thursday, November 21 Housewife of  the Year, directed by Ciaran Cassidy, opened in a number of Irish cinemas. It’s a documentary on the Calor Gas Housewife of the Year competition, which ran from 1968 to 1995. It was a different Ireland, where the woman was in the kitchen, where she was told she belonged.

It so happens an in-law of mine won it in 1983. It did no harm at all to her subsequent flourishing bed and breakfast business.

On his programme the previous day Oliver Callan interviewed two former winners of the competition. Ellen Gowan from Cork and Patricia Connolly from Kildare. The 80-year-old women were great fun, full of good sense, who made great radio.

Their prizes were Calor Gas cookers and the Cork woman was delighted with her prize as her old cooker was long past its sell-by-date. To close the door she had to give it a good kick.

When she was 16, she and a group of friends, girls and boys rowed over to an island off Youghal. The boys were not boyfriends. They knew each other from school and choir. She had a camera, which her father had given her as a get well gift. She took photographs of their day’s fun and frolics with her new camera. 

Fadó fadó we bought a roll of film, inserted it in the camera and snapped away. When the roll was full we brought it to the pharmacy/chemist where the negatives were developed and printed. It might take a few days for the job to be done. Time passed, Ellen heard nothing about the film.

When the pharmacist/chemist saw the photos he went to the local parish priest, who was a canon and a very nice man, according to Ellen. The priest was made take action and report to the girl’s parents. She was carted off to a Magdalen Laundry in Waterford. 

She forgets how long she was there but remembers she was there for one full summer. She was made wear a prison-style uniform in case they escaped. ‘We did a lot of praying and attended loads of Masses,’ she recalled. 

That sure was some praying. Ellen spoke highly of the canon. ‘He was a beautiful person, really a nice man, just a perfect priest’, she said. She argued he was forced into doing what he did by the pharmacist/chemist, who was a business man in the town, as was her father. People were obliged to do as the business people said. 

We look into the past with our contemporary eyes but whatever eyes you look at this story, it was barbaric. 

Whatever about the pharmacist/chemist being a clown, surely the parish priest, with all his philosophy and theology studies should have had the wit to know this was beyond insane. 

Also, he should have had the backbone to tell the pharmacist/chemist where to go. 

Do we always kowtow to the ruling establishment, whatever forms and styles it takes? I think we do. We are only fooling ourselves if we think otherwise.