Terry Prone: Gemma Hussey was a true pioneer of women's rights in Ireland
'It’s not an insult to have the struggle forgotten,' she once said. 'It’s a triumph that this generation of women can take their rights for granted.'
Originally published in the Irish Examiner.
She dropped her eyes from the black and white TV screen when her image appeared on it, until the Media Skills trainer told her she wouldn’t learn unless she watched herself. What she and all the group saw was a smartly dressed woman in her thirties, with diction as crisp as a snapped biscuit, articulating a new vision of what women in Ireland could be.
Gemma Hussey was one of seven women, all members of the Women’s Political Association, who had decided that they needed to come to terms with the relatively new medium of television, in the 1970s. They wanted women to play a bigger part in Irish life, and they knew public persuasion would be key to achieving it.
Gemma was the leader, and, while she might not have wanted to watch herself on TV — all her life she hated her own appearance — she was perceptive, confident and insightful when it came to assessing the performances of her colleagues.
This was when Women’s Liberation was synonymous with bra-burning and Ireland was still in the relative dark ages: when women needed their husband’s signature in order to get a library card. On the second day of the training programme, one of the women suggested the group needed a single, achievable, highly visible goal.
Like? “Like getting a female newsreader on Telefís Éireann,” said Gemma Hussey.
Silence ensued as every woman present realised that the national broadcasting station — the only national broadcaster at the time — did not have a single woman in this key, even pivotal role. No woman ever looked up from the news desk to the camera when a major bulletin was about to start.
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