Born in 1978

Life in Ireland was changing visibly — more cars, more televisions, more foreign holidays for those who could afford them. Supermarkets were spreading. Young people were staying in Ireland more than a decade earlier.

The contraception debate was intensifying — a Health (Family Planning) Act was slowly working through the Dáil. The Church was fighting to maintain its grip on social policy, but the world was coming in through the television screen whether anyone invited it or not.