User:AnnaMor12/sandbox



=  Marie Conmee  =

Later life
In her 50s Marie Conmee and her significant other Mary Brady set up regular lesbian meetings in the early 1980s in Dublin. These meetings comprised of around ten to fifteen usually middle-aged women in Dublin at the time. In an age of homophobia, recession, unemployment and the ongoing troubles in Ireland at the time, these groups met regularly for a space to be "be themselves" and for companionship.The pub Grogan’s on South Williams Street, is the pub Denis Staunton met them in. Most of the women who joined these meetings were married and had children of their own. By Conmee and Brady arranging these meetings they provided a rare opportunity to meet other queer women in Dublin. For a few hours monthly, these women would be able themselves, through socialising with women who shared their struggles as well as have fun with chatting and laughing. For these women their queer experience was not about sex, but also about community and friendship, which was largely faciliated by Conmee and Brady.

Along with organising these meetings, Conmee and Brady had a reputation for brawls with barmen and occasionally policemen often leading them to being banned from many bars around the  Dublin City Centre. Denis Staunton describes their routine as follows; as a man would start talking or flirting with Conmee, Brady would watch before assulting the man in the face. If bar staff or others intervened the two would team up before the barman would eventually resort to cowering behind the bar to call for the police. Henceforth they accumulated multiple bans from various pubs and an infamous reputation across Dublin City Centre.

Death
On the 10th of October 1994, Marie Conmee passed away at the age of 61. She died in St.Vincant's Hospital in Dublin following a short illness. She was missed greatly by her friends and family. "She was a lovely comedian and a considerable actress. She has a great heart and was a great friend and I will miss her terribly" says Ms Potter in her obituary in The Irish Times.