Women of today have “different battles to fight,” Evelyn felt. “The battle to legalise contraception was at the centre of a human right, it was extremely difficult to fight for, I consider that one of the great achievements, it is a pity we had to fight so hard for it but that was the problem when the Catholic Church had such a hold on our politicians and our society, it was women who stood up to them and fought that battle, at the same time there was women on the other side but it was mainly women who stood up and fought that battle”. Of these fights, one was more difficult than all the others, she detailed. “Those battles had to be fought, in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s women had to do an enormous amount of fighting and standing up to authority, I think in a way I feel gratified that so much of what we were demanding in the 1980s has actually been achieved, it beholds us not to forget how hard we had to fight for it, nevertheless I also sometimes think we have to be joyful about that”. In 1979, she was a co-founder of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, over the intervening four decades she believed that “things have changed enormously for the good” in how women can live their lives in this country.

Speaking to The Clare Echo, the Monaghan born novelist recalled that in her lifetime “the battle to legalise contraception” was among the most difficult fights she endured in Ireland and something she regards as “a great achievement”.

AS A PANELLIST during Ennis Book Club Festival, Evelyn Conlon discussed Irish literary feminisms, however she does not class herself as a feminist writer but one who continues to champion women’s rights.

Not the Same Sky by Evelyn Conlon