Who does the washing in the homes of Donnycarney in Dublin?

In response to a letter to an evening newspaper in 1964 from a woman who objects to washing her husband's socks, 'Newsbeat' reporter Des Keogh pays a visit to her hometown Donnycarney, Dublin, where he asks a number of women if they wash the socks in their house.

Several women say they do them all by hand. A woman who puts them in the washing machine feels that the machine is doing the work. The final woman interviewed is the sister of the woman who wrote the letter. She asks the reporter about his own socks.

This clip is part of a broader exhibition ‘Women in Irish Society’. This exhibition examines the experiences of Irish women from the housewives who washed their husbands' socks by hand in 1960s Dublin to the era of Ireland's first female president Mary Robinson in the 1990s.



Des Keogh (1964)

A Newsbeat report broadcast 7 October 1964. The reporter is Des Keogh.