Mamie Cadden

Mary Anne "Mamie" Cadden (27 October 1891 – 20 April 1959) was an American-born Irish midwife, backstreet abortionist, and convicted murderer. She was born 27 October 1891 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Irish parents Patrick and Mary Cadden. In 1895, Cadden and her family returned to Lahardane in County Mayo, Ireland, where she completed years of schooling. Once she obtained her spot on the list of licensed midwives in Dublin, she opened a series of maternity nursing homes to aid women with health issues and to perform illegal abortions. After a series of criminal convictions, Cadden lost her status as a licensed midwife. In 1956, Cadden was charged and convicted for the murder of 33-year-old Helen O'Reilly, a patient who died during an operation. She was sentenced to death, albeit her sentence was quickly commuted to life in prison since O'Reilly's death was unintentional. After a year at Mountjoy prison, she was declared insane and moved to the criminal lunatic asylum Dundrum, where she died of a heart attack on 20 April 1959. Although many people committed backstreet abortions during the period of Cadden's life, Cadden was the only person in Ireland to be sentenced to death for a maternal death occurring as a result of an abortion. As one of the most discussed Irish abortionists of her era, some members of the Irish public associated the name "Nurse Cadden" with "evil".

Background Childhood Mamie Cadden was born Mary Anne Caden on 27 October 1891 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Patrick and Mary Caden, and was the eldest of seven children, five of whom survived infancy. Patrick and Mary Cadden had met in America, where Patrick worked as a miner. In 1895, upon the death of her paternal grandfather, Mamie's father inherited his father's farm and so Cadden and her family returned to Lahardane, County Mayo. Her parents settled down, purchased a small family farm, and opened a grocery store on their land. Cadden spent much of her early life on this farm, and continued to live there until she was 33 years old. This Catholic ethos helped ensure that in the Irish health care system things like contraceptives were relatively inaccessible. In 1929, the Censorship of Publications Act banned the sale of literature that advocated or educated on the use of birth control or contraceptives. While the Act did not ban the access or sale of birth control, it did, however, ban the access to information about contraceptives. Birth control was officially prohibited in Ireland in 1935 until 1979, Many believed that birth control would tarnish the work in prenatal clinics and mother and baby entities. For many years, Catholic principles and Catholic professionals remained central to developments in the Irish medical field. As a result, many women resorted to illegal abortions and contraceptives. These illegal actions were facilitated by people like Mamie Cadden.

Midwife and abortionist Early career After Cadden completed her training at the National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, she began working as a midwife. She first worked in the Alverno maternity nursing home on Portland Row in Dublin from 1927 to 1929. In 1929, she opened her own maternity nursing home in the suburb of Ranelagh which operated until 1931. At St Maelruin, Cadden gave help relating to female health issues such as pregnancies, illegal abortions, and foster care operations for unwanted children. Her cousin, Molly O'Grady, helped as her maid and accomplice. Cadden also accepted fees for placing children into adoption. She also operated a fostering service, which placed children with families who received payment for caring for the child. She procured abortions – both medical (using preparations such as ergot) and surgical (by injecting a solution).

As there was a large demand for her services, Cadden did not feel the need to advertise her work; and such an advertisement would have been illegal. The girl claimed that Cadden had inserted the laminaria tents which were found in her cervix. Cadden was tried under the Offences against the Person Act 1861. Despite denying the charges, she was convicted of procuring an abortion and was sentenced to penal servitude in Mountjoy Prison for five years. Over 80 witnesses were called to give evidence in the trial, which lasted about a week. and on Monday 18 November 2007, an episode of the RTÉ television documentary series Scannal featured the case under the title "Scannal: Nurse Mamie Cadden", which framed her as a complex woman who had a life that reflected the difficulties of Ireland's restriction on reproductive rights. The 2016 play "Our Lady of Last Resort" by Sorcha Hegarty paints Cadden as a ghost in the Shelbourne hotel and as a criminal figure, but also as someone whose life and work exposed the contradictions and failures of Irish reproductive laws. The story places her in the Shelbourne Hotel, a well-known landmark in Dublin, and highlights the contrast between the respectable appearance of Irish society and its hidden truths.