Showing in cinemas across Ireland, ‘Housewife of The Year’ is a documentary about the competition of the same name that was once a national institution.
First held in 1968, the contest was televised from 1982 and ran until its final show in 1995. Married women were judged on their cooking, housekeeping, nurturing skills, personality and appearance to win hearts, cash prizes and household gas appliances. They also performed a party piece in the RTE primetime show, presented by the late Gay Byrne.
One woman who remembers this firsthand is Maureen Robinson from Ballinagore. She recalled her 1985 experience, five years before another Robinson woman would become Ireland’s first female president and ten years before divorce was made legal, when her friend Carmel Ennis nominated her for the coveted title.
BiBi Baskin
“It came out in the papers for you to nominate somebody. My friend Carmel Ennis put in my name and never told me until I got word in the post that this was coming up,” she said.
“BiBi Baskin interviewed me at the local heats. I always liked her. I was just myself and in my head, I thought I’d never be picked. We had great fun in the interview, laughing with me about having 13 children. Next thing I was picked to go to the regionals and the palpitations started!
“Joan, my daughter, was working with Campbell Catering at the time and she decided she’d do a bit of teaching in the house. Between schooling and farming, cooking was the least thing on my mind but she organised the menu for me. I was to cook marinated pork chops and upside down pineapple sponge.”
Gay Byrne
The regional finals were held in the Leisureland Centre, Salthill, Galway on Wednesday. November 25, 1985 and Maureen and Joan stayed in the hotel the night before.
The next day, the main event happened on stage in front of a live audience and TV cameras, not unlike The Rose of Tralee format.
“Gay asked about my husband John and the family and then it was time for the party piece. I wasn’t going to sing or dance so my husband’s cousin John wrote a lovely poem and I recited it. They organised a small busload to come down from Westmeath to support me and there were great cheers from them when I came out on stage.”
Gas Appliances
The top prize was a coveted gas cooker with all finalists receiving portable gas heaters, also known as Supersers. Maureen did not progress on to the televised national finals that year but she didn’t mind it too much.
“It was a good experience and we’d a good laugh in the end. Even though you weren’t a winner, you were as good as the rest of them there, that’s the way you were treated. There was a lady from Cong, a postmistress I think , who was a fierce character. We had great laughs, it was a lot of fun.”
Family Robinson
In the 39 years since the contest, the Robinson family has expanded with many in-laws, 24 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren joining their ranks.
The family have sadly also lost loved ones, including son-in-law Finbar and Maureen’s husband John.
“John enjoyed life. We used to always go socialising, to hear the country music in Kilbeggan and Ballymore. We’d meet lots of friends, have a laugh and dance. He fancied himself as a dancer. He was good.
“Finbar would have been so proud of his two lads and his grandchildren. The night before he died, we were all around the table, and he was messing with everybody and the craic was mighty. It was hard to believe that man died the next morning. We never got over it.”
Throughout her grieving, the Rochfortbridge native was wrapped in the arms of her family and community who still visit her home regularly, while also keeping busy with Castletown-Geoghegan Comhaltas, the Monday morning club, ICA and tending to her garden. It’s amazing she has any free time, but she does and she enjoys nothing more than hosting her nearest and dearest.
Community
“The family are always here and I have great neighbours. Last week, I said to a few people I go visit that we should go out for a meal but it’s so costly, so I said I’d cook a bit and have it here. One lady didn’t come so I rang my neighbour and asked her what she was doing. She said nothing so I said come down at two o’clock for the dinner. We had a great meal and sat chatting until six o’clock.”
Almost four decades on, the Housewife of The Year Regional Finalist 1985 is still going strong, living the qualities that earned her a nomination in the first place. She has this advice for staying active, fit and healthy.
“Talk plenty and keep out and about. Meet your neighbours, meet everybody and keep talking.”
