A civil servant who was forced to resign her job after marriage wrote to two senior ministers in May 1972 claiming a bar against married women remaining in the public service was unconstitutional.
The Attorney General advised the ministers he did not believe Mrs Clodagh Ryan of Ballsbridge, Dublin, had a case.
Mrs Ryan wrote to the Minister for Education, Mr Padraig Faulkner, and sent a copy of the letter to the Minister for Finance, Mr George Colley, to inform them she was advised that the bar against women remaining in the public service after marriage was unconstitutional.
She had been employed as an assistant in the Natural History Division of the National Museum of Ireland until her resignation upon marriage, on March 31st, 1972. Prior to her resignation, the letter said, she had made a formal written request to be retained in employment after marriage. This was declined.
Based on the legal advice she received the letter concluded, "my resignation may therefore be regarded as having been obtained under duress." As a consequence she requested immediate reinstatement without loss of seniority or pension rights.
Mrs Ryan's case was typical of employment norms for married women which pertained up to 1973. Despite the bar, married women were frequently taken back on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis, usually at less pay and on a lower grade than they had while single. "Temporary married" was a familiar classification in many workplaces, including Aer Lingus.
And where married women were permitted to work, they paid more income tax. In turn, their husbands gained something in the tax-free allowance. But an unmarried couple was better off after taxes than a married couple in a similar work situation.
On June 14th the Minister for Finance, Mr George Colley, referred his copy of Mrs Ryan's letter to the Attorney General for his advice. Mr Colm Condon SC believed "it would be virtually impossible to give a completely firm prognosis of what the Supreme Court might decide should this issue come before them".
Therefore, what he had to advise was "only an opinion with which the Supreme Court might well disagree", and should be taken only as such.
"Mrs Ryan has not set out the provision of the Constitution which she alleges is infringed by the retirement on marriage rule," he noted.
His advice to the minister was that Mrs Ryan should be informed he did not accept the contention of whoever informed her. There is nothing further in the file to indicate any further action was taken, either by the Attorney General or Mrs Ryan.
Less than a year later Mr Richie Ryan, Minister for Finance in the new coalition which took up office in March 1973, was steering the Civil Service (Employment of Married Women) Bill through its final stages in the Dáil. The Bill would be the Magna Carta for married women in Ireland, he predicted.
"It is proper to give reassurance to the wonderful women who work in our Civil Service. I do not believe this will operate to their disadvantage, whether married or unmarried. I believe it will remove a great deal of the uncertainty, the ill will and worry which have plagued women in the public service in the past," he said.