A celebration in words, music and poetry of the life of Mary “May” McGee, who successfully took a 1973 Supreme Court case against the State’s ban on contraception, took place at Dardistown Crematorium in Dublin on Saturday.
The ceremony saw three generations of Ms McGee’s family stand beside her white coffin, with images of brightly coloured flowers on its sides, as they paid tribute to her sense of humour and care for each of them.
Andrea McGee told attendees her mother’s pride in “her baby” had extended to telling customer service agents in Eir and Sky all about her. “Even in hospital,” she said, her mother “would ask the doctors and nurses how they were, and how their families were keeping.”
Andrea McGee said that on shopping trips her mother, who died on Tuesday, would “fill the trolley with all sorts of stuff,” and when questioned, “she would say: ‘Your father would want me to have this’.”
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When she asked her mother “What did your last slave die of”, the reply was: “I am still waiting for the autopsy.”
Knowing her parents May and Shay were together again, she said, was some consolation. “I know she is with him now.”
The late Ms McGee’s grandson Ronan told the gathering she had been “truly welcoming” to all her grandchildren. “Every time we left her side we left with a bit more wisdom.” His sister Aisling, referencing the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken which she recited, noted her grandmother’s life had made “all the difference”.
Darren McGee, son of May, said his mother had wanted her children “to be 100 per cent ourselves.” He said: “If she had cared for what people thought of her, she would never have embarked on her Supreme Court case.”
“Her attitude was: enjoy life and if you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing at all.”
Ms McGee’s landmark court case overturned the 1935 Act prohibiting the importation of contraceptive devices and paved the way for vastly improved reproductive choice for women.
Another son, Martin McGee, said: “Rest in peace, mam. Ireland is a better place because of you.”
The late Ms McGee’s brother Fintan Grimes recalled how May had taken him on her back to a doctor when they were children after he had stood on a rusty nail.
The committal took place to the sound of Frank Sinatra singing the 1960s hit I Did it My Way.
Ms McGee is survived by her children Martin, Gerard, Sylvia, Sharon, Darren and Andrea, extended family and a large circle of friends.
Ms McGee’s husband Shay, her co-litigant in the Supreme Court case, predeceased her in January 2024.
