Born: May 25th, 1944
Died: October 28th, 2025
Mary ‘May’ McGee, the Dublin woman who together with her husband Seamus (Shay) McGee won a Supreme Court case in 1973 for the right for married couples to use contraceptives, has died aged 81.
The couple’s landmark legal case is widely deemed to be the turning point in the separation of the roles of Church and State in Ireland.
RM Block
The Skerries couple had four children at the time and May McGee had suffered from severe health problems during her pregnancies. She was advised by her GP, the late James Loughran, to use a diaphragm on health grounds.
This required the importation from England of a spermicide jelly which was seized by customs under a 1935 law banning the sale, importation and advertisement of contraception. May and Shay McGee were told if they ordered contraceptives from abroad again, they would face fines or jail.
In 1972, supported by Dr Loughran, a founding member of the Irish Family Planning Association and his solicitor, the couple took a High Court case against the 1935 law but lost their action.
However, in their appeal to the Supreme Court in 1973, four of five judges ruled in their favour, finding that contraception was a private matter for married couples to decide on without the interference of the State.
Such was the strong grip of the Catholic Church in Ireland at that time, it took another six years before contraceptives were legalised for use by married couples on prescription. And it wasn’t until 1985 that anyone over 18 could purchase contraceptives without prescription in this country.
Supreme Court Justice, Gerard Hogan later noted that the couple’s legal battle - McGee v Attorney General - remains the court’s single most important decision in terms of its political and social consequences. “It was the legal equivalent of the moon landing in that it forced the Government to gradually shift its stance on contraception,” said Hogan at a 2023 conference examining the McGee case and its legacy.
Mr Justice Hogan described May McGee as a “brave” woman who displayed “fortitude and endurance” in succeeding in her Supreme Court case against “almost overwhelming odds” .
At the conference, Mr Justice Hogan presented May McGee with the Praeses Elit award in recognition of her “immense contribution to Irish law and society”. The Praeses Elit award is handed out by the Trinity College Dublin Law Society to those who have advanced societal and legal discourse in Ireland. It was the first time the couple received any formal recognition of their contribution.
In an interview with Ruadhán MacCormaic, now editor of The Irish Times, for his book The Supreme Court (Penguin Books, 2016), McGee said she liked to think that she had “helped women to stand up for themselves a little bit more”.
McGee later said that if she didn’t win in the Supreme Court, she would have brought her case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. “It was a case of wanting to do our own thing, whereas before that we were like puppets. What would the church know about family planning? They don’t get into bed with us, do they?”
A TG4 documentary exploring the McGee v Attorney General case was broadcast in 2023.
But while the couple received congratulatory messages from the World Health Organisation and other international bodies, in their hometown of Skerries, they were publicly shamed. “We were condemned from the altar. The priest said, ‘certain people in this parish have brought the church into disrepute’. So we all got up and walked out. I never went back again,” McGee said later.
At the time, the couple – who went on to have two more children, were worried how their families would cope with the backlash. McGee would later recall that her devoutly Catholic mother denounced her daughter’s detractors’ with the words: “Ah, f**k them.”
After the court case, the McGees returned to normal family life – Shay working as a fisherman and May rearing their children, none of whom would know for years the pivotal role their parents played to modernise Irish society.
The second of seven children of Mary Rose and Francis Grimes, May attended St Patrick’s Girls School in Skerries. As her mother suffered from ill health, she and her sister, Liz often took responsibility for looking after their younger siblings while they were teenagers. Later, May Grimes had various jobs in businesses in the town before marrying Shay McGee in 1968.
A strong woman with a wicked sense of humour, she took great pride in her family and enjoyed the arrival of grandchildren. Her adult children recall how she was always on hand to give advice to family and friends alike. “I could say anything to her. She was always making sure we had a full belly, a warm bed and a roof over our heads,” said her son, Darren McGee.
A great crafter, McGee dedicated a lot of time to knitting and crochet, passing on her skills to younger members of her family. She was also a fan of crime series on television and her house was full of her favourite magazine, The People’s Friend.
[ May McGee, wife, mother and grandmother celebrated in words, poetry and songOpens in new window ]
In August 2025, just 19 months after the death of her husband, a mosaic memorial was unveiled in honour of May McGee in Skerries, close to St Patrick’s Church in which over 50 years earlier, the couple’s courageous actions were condemned from the altar.
In an interview with The Irish Times to mark the installation of the mosaic, May McGee reflected on the support the couple received in taking their case to the Supreme Court. “We were so lucky with the people we had. People who cared about what they did and that make a big difference.”
She also believed that society was on the cusp of change. “We were at a time when people were ready for change. Growing up under tight surveillance and scrutiny by the Catholic Church. They were controlling everything. It was awful years ago,” she said.
Although bereft following the death of her husband, McGee found a new lease of life, drawing on the support of family and friends while living in the family home, she and her husband had reared their family in.
Mary ‘May’ McGee is survived by her children, Martin, Gerard, Sylvia, Sharon, Darren and Andrea, her 13 grandchildren, brothers, Tony, Fintan and Brendan and sister, Liz. She was pre-deceased by her husband, Shay and her brothers, Michael and Noel.
