Míne Bean Uí Chribín (20 December 1927 – 6 August 2012)[1] was a prominent Irish conservative campaigner.[2] [3]
Born Christine Philomena Lawless, she was passionate about music and served as a church organist for over three decades. She worked at the Department of Posts and Telegraphs for nearly eight years before taking up a position at her father's post office in Santry, Dublin, which she held until her hospitalization in 2012. A mother to six children, Uí Chribín also authored several books and wrote for Irish: An Timire, a Catholic magazine in Irish, and a children's column, Irish: Eoghanín. Throughout her life, she was an active participant in two political organizations –Irish: Mná na hÉireann (Women of Ireland) and the Irish Housewives Union – both of which opposed women's liberation, contraception, divorce, and abortion. Controversy surrounded her in 2009 when she was accused of assisting parents in obtaining a High Court injunction to prevent their children from being taken into care during an incest case in County Roscommon.
Míne was born in Santry, Dublin in 1927 as Christine Philomena Lawless.[2] She had a love of music and learned to play the church organ, playing it at several churches, but according to her family her favourite church to play at was Saint Pappin's at Ballymun Cross. She played the church organ at almost all of their religious services for 35 years.[2]
After she finished school, she worked at the Department of Posts and Telegraphs from 1944 to 1952.[2] Her father was postmaster in Santry and she took a job as an assistant there in 1953.[2] She succeeded him in the post after his death in 1963 and worked there until she was hospitalised in 2012.[2]
In 1994 she insisted that Irish: Scoil Paipín Naofa, a national school run on land owned by her, teach traditionalist Catholicism.[4] [5] The resulting row led to many parents removing their children from the school.[4] [5]
She was involved with two political organisations, Irish: Mná na hÉireann (Women of Ireland), founded in Cork in 1970, and the Irish Housewives Union, founded by Úna Mhic Mhathúna.[2] Both organisations criticised women's liberation and the availability of contraception, as well as the legalisation of divorce and abortion.[2] She was also alleged to have had some involvement with Irish: [[Cóir]], a Eurosceptic lobby group.[6]
The Irish Housewives Union regularly interrupted meetings of the Anti-Amendment campaign in the run up to the referendum on abortion of 1983.[4]
She appeared frequently on The Late Late Show on television, representing conservative Roman Catholics and serving as a "barometer" for conservative opinions.[2] During an interview, she compared divorce to adultery.[2]
In an interview with The Irish Times in May 1985, regarding proposed family planning legislation, Uí Chribín said that it was "classic of the rottenness of our society" and of divorce said "it is just a connived issue, concocted by a small group, but they have the media".[2]
In an interview by Aodhán Madden in New Hibernian magazine in June 1985, when asked about relationships that had irrevocably broken down she said "We [the Irish Housewives Union] have never found an irrevocably broken down marriage, never."[4] On homosexuality she said "It's just not natural to be a homosexual. You show me anywhere in the whole of nature where homosexuality is natural?"[4] She also said it was "a by-product of contraception."[4]
In 2009, allegations emerged that she had helped parents obtain a High Court injunction to prevent children being taken into care in an incest case in County Roscommon.[2] [5]
During the case, a Health Service Executive childcare manager said that Uí Chribín had contacted him to argue that the family needed support, not intrusion.[5] He admitted that he had no evidence she was involved in the application, but suspected she was.[5] She denied having any part in the application, saying she would not believe a "Hail Mary" from healthcare workers.[5]
The mother in the case was jailed for offences including incest, sexual assault and neglect of her children.[5]
In a statement to the Irish Independent, Uí Chribín denied providing any financial or legal assistance in the case and said that any help was "given in good faith".[2] She said she was "shocked to learn of the revelations that have unfolded", accusing State officials of trying to scapegoat her to "deflect blame."[2]
The Health Service Executive report into the case was released in 2010 and did not name anyone, though it did say a "Mrs B" contacted the Garda Síochána (police) after the High Court injunction was granted in October 2000.[5] It also stated that a "Mrs B" wrote to the Minister for Children, asking the minister to stop the Western Health Board from "persecuting" the family.[5]
She married Gus Ó Chribín and they had six children.[2] Her husband and one son predeceased her.[2] One of her daughters, Áine Ní Chribín joined the Carmelites of the Holy Face (which later became the Palmarian Catholic Church) at the age of 17 and was a nun in Spain for 17 years before leaving; this was the subject of a TG4 documentary in 2000. The wider family had briefly been associated with the Palmarians in the 1970s, however for Míne Bean Uí Chribín herself this was only for a brief time until she became associated with the Society of St. Pius X and after the death of John Paul II, the Indult Catholic community.
She wrote several books, including a novel based on how her parents met, a social history of Ballymun Cross and three books in Irish.[2] Until she was hospitalised in 2012, she wrote for Irish: An Timire, a Catholic magazine in Irish, and wrote a children's column Irish: Eoghanín.[2]