On the day that 40 women’s rights activists took the train from Dublin to Belfast in 1971 to buy contraceptives that were banned in the Irish Republic, it was Nell McCafferty who marched up to the chemist’s counter and asked for the pill. The protest, organised by the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement, was a public challenge to the socially conservative state and the authority of the catholic church. McCafferty, who has died aged 80, having endured ill health following a stroke, was a founding member of the group.
The expedition might have failed but for her quick thinking. When she asked the pharmacist for contraceptive pills, he told her she needed a prescription; nor would he sell her a coil without a doctor’s request. McCafferty realised that the Irish customs officers awaiting their return would never have seen the pill, either. So she bought aspirins and removed their packaging.
