New documentary sheds light on Cork in the bad old days

Housewife Of The Year is a new Irish documentary that examines Irish women’s experiences through the perspective of an annual competition that commenced in the late 1960s and was broadcast on RTÉ from 1982 to 1995.

The documentary revisits past participants, including several Cork women, and interviews them to explore how their public presentations frequently concealed the complexities of women’s lives in Ireland during a period characterised by oppression and a pervasive fear of stigma.

The film’s director, Ciarán Cassidy, says that his mother’s experience informed part of his decision to make the documentary.

“I grew up with my mum telling me she had a job, but she had to give it up when she married. I remember her returning to the workforce and explaining to us as children that she was tired of being at home,” said Ciarán.

“There’s a subconscious thing where you are aware that for a large generation of women, the then-existing rules had a profound effect until we joined the European Union.”

Cassidy cast a wide net to find his interviewees, and says he was fortunate that the women trusted him and his production team with their stories.

“This would only work if the women wanted to discuss the reality between what was going on at home and what was going on the screen,” he explained.

“If they just said, ‘oh, I had a lovely day up in Dublin, and it was nice to meet Gay Byrne’, then there is no film.”

Cassidy and his team contacted as many participants as possible and said the initial response was mixed.

“I think we sent a letter or rang nearly everyone who appeared on the show.

“Some of the women we contacted wondered why we wanted to make the film, and others were worried about how their grandkids might react, but there were enough people who were interested in it.

“We developed relationships, and they trusted us with their stories.”

The filmmaker says that as his search continued, he realised that many of the competition participants had stories they had always wanted to share, but hadn’t had the opportunity to do so until now.

“We were doing the development shoot, and with just a small sample of women, we realised that this generation of women had many stories they wanted to share and talk about,” Ciarán said.

“As a documentary-maker, the key to gaining trust is often about timing and the stage in their life they are at now.”

Cassidy says that it is easier for many women to speak now because family members are not around anymore.

“Irish people are very conscious of saying something personal and offending somebody, so for many, it is easier to talk now than it would have been a few years ago.”

The documentary combines archival footage of the competition with interviews from contestants today.

Cassidy contrasts the joy and recognition the women felt during the event with their feelings of being trapped at home, limited by their roles and unable to access contraception.

He says that it was essential to show the two narratives.

“A lot of our participants talked about inequality and being forced out of the workforce, but they also spoke about how they enjoyed being on the show.

“There is a contradiction with that that I wanted to explore, which is why the film has two narratives.

One narrative is a straightforward look at the show, how it began, what it was about, and why it ended.

“The other narrative is a social history of the time and what happened in Ireland during that period. You could say that the women’s lives and personal stories form a third narrative.”

The film features several Cork women, including Ellen Gowan. When she was 16, her father gave her a camera. She took pictures of her friends and some boys she knew, and when she left the camera roll in the local pharmacy to be developed, the pharmacist didn’t give her back the photos.

Instead, they were handed to the local priest, who went to Ellen’s parents to discuss her “inappropriate” behaviour - hanging around with boys.

Ellen’s punishment for being an amateur photographer was to be sent to a Magdalene Laundry.

When Ellen appeared on the Housewife of the Year competition stage with Gay Byrne, she couldn’t tell her story.

Now aged 80, she shares the horrifying truth of her life in the documentary.

“When she did the show, Ellen talked about her life in Castletownbere, but we were stunned when we heard what she went through and other hardships that she later faced,” said Ciarán.

“We thought we knew Ireland and heard all the hard stories, but hearing Ellen share her story stopped us in our tracks.”

Ena Howell, from Grenagh, also stood on the Housewife of the Year stage and spoke about her life, children, and husband, but she couldn’t talk about being born in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home.

Cassidy says that Ena’s story, like Ellen’s, is crucial to Ireland’s social history.

“The state is only 100 years old; we fought so hard to get our freedom, but the treatment of women is a stain on the new nation,” said Ciarán.

“We wanted to explore how this generation of women were treated within society through the prism of this show, but if the women didn’t want to tell those stories, we wouldn’t have had a documentary.”

There are moments of light and fun in the documentary alongside the darker moments, and Cassidy hopes audiences will embrace all sides as it represents the lives of Irish women for so long.

Housewife Of The Year is in cinemas from November 22, Cert: PG.