IRFF25 Housewife of the Year

Housewife Of The Year tells the story of Ireland’s treatment of women through the prism of a unique, surreal, live televised competition, that has to be seen to be believed, where a generation of Irish women competed in front of a live audience for the title of ‘Housewife of the Year’. The documentary is compelling viewing for those generations for whom Gay Byrne’s Late Late Show set the moral agenda and the Catholic Church was all powerful in Ireland. The former contestants share their direct experiences of marriage bars, lack of contraception, Magdalene laundries, financial vulnerability, huge families, boredom and shame and of course, of being contestants in the competition. What shines through is the courage and spirit of the women who sometimes overcame major obstacles to reach a place in life where they are proud of their achievements. They hail from a variety of backgrounds and from places as diverse as Galway, Cork, Kildare, Donegal, Dublin and Limerick. It is a poignant, often hilarious, uplifting story of a resilient generation of women and how they changed a country.