Housewife of the Year is a new Irish documentary examining the lives of Irish women through the lens of an annual competition, Housewife of the Year, which began in the late 1960s and was broadcast on RTÉ from 1982 to 1995. The documentary looks back at some of the participants and speaks with them today about how their onstage presentation often hid what it was really like for women living in Ireland during a time of oppression and fear of stigma. We spoke with the director, Ciaran Cassidy, to find out why he decided to examine Ireland through this lens.
Where did the idea for the documentary come from?
You are always looking at ways to tell stories. We felt that the fact that this show existed was a way to explore women’s lives in Ireland at that time. 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. 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 EU.
We thought we could use the archive of the show as a way to tell the story and do the documentary in a then-and-now style. The producer Maria Horgan and I talked about it, and we knew if there wasn’t enough archive, then we couldn’t stretch it out to make the documentary. The second thing we discussed was that 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. 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.
When we were doing the development shoot, we cast a wide net, and one of the women who came forward was Bernie. When we saw her on stage in 1988, she was very self-deprecating. She was very honest. She talks about the ups and downs of her family. She came across as very honest and a straight shooter, and she understood the concept and what we were hoping to do with the film. She trusted us. The first time we were filmed with her, she said she wanted us to know that when she participated, she didn’t want to win; she was worried that if she won, people might find out that her first child was born outside of marriage when she was only 16. She was scared that it could be blown up in the papers and afraid of stigma.
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. We also realised that the idea of taking this footage of somebody in their mid-20s and then talking to them many years later about that period in Ireland worked as a concept.
Was it hard to get the participants to come forward?
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.
Many women who did the show were doing live TV in an era when very few people would do anything like that. Most people would be terrified of going live in front of an audience, but these women did it, so they are very good documentary subjects and happy to speak on camera. We talked about their lives, their children, their hopes, and taking part in the show. They were all very trusting with their personal stories, which weaved into the overall narrative. They were all brilliant to work with.
As you mentioned, these women trusted you with their personal stories. How did you build that trust?
We had a really good team, including Pauline, our researcher, and Maria, our producer. Once we got the participants’ phone numbers, we rang and had conversations with them and started to get to know them. I called to their houses to do audio interviews, which gave us a lot of insight into people’s inner stories. As a documentary maker, the key to gaining trust is often about timing and the stage in their life they are at now. Maybe they can talk about their childhood 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.
How did you deal with so much archive material?
It took a long time because the archive was always coming in. There is a lot in the RTÉ archive, but when we contacted ex-contestants, many of them had recorded VHS footage, which we copied, combed through, and combined with the archive from RTÉ. In the later years of the competition, RTÉ filmed at the contestants’ houses as they worked around the home or in the garden, playing with their children. When you are making a documentary, that sort of archive gives you so much more power because you can see the people at that moment.
The film tells the story of the competition and the social history of women in Ireland at the time. Can you tell me a little about the two narratives?
A lot of our participants criticized how women were treated in Ireland. They 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 has played at festivals around the world. What has the response been like?
In Copenhagen, people were shocked at how oppressive Ireland was. They did not know about mother and baby homes, or the stigma young unmarried women faced here. Whereas at home, these stories resonated because people have experienced them, and after screenings, audience members have shared similar stories from their own experiences. I think it’s so uniquely Irish that there are certain things an Irish audience gets that international people might not. There’s something unique for an international audience; they get to learn some of these terrible things that have happened and about the social conditions that existed here previously.
Why should audiences come out to see this documentary when it is released?
We made this for the cinema for people to see together. We wanted it to be an event, a film that people would laugh and cry as they watched it. It is a portrait of a generation that I don’t think got enough consideration of the circumstances that they were forced to exist in.
Words – Cara O’Doherty
HOUSEWIFE OF THE YEAR arrives into cinemas Nov 22nd