Recent discussions on the adoption scandal and the Magadalene women are a reminder that being an unmarried mother in Ireland was once considered shameful. But have things changed much over the years?

Maura O'Dea Richards is a founder member of Cherish, now known as One Family, which was originally set up to help single mothers.

She no longer lives in Ireland but returned this week to talk to her colleagues and share her views on how Irish society has changed for women since the 1970s.

Maura got pregnant in 1970. Her parents were dead and she says she was "terrified."

"It's always difficult to go back and realise how bad things were."

She decided that she was going to keep her baby, but says that when she began to tell people about her pregnancy, the euphemism was: 'you can go to England'.

"They didn't say 'have an abortion', but the thing was go to England, have it adopted or have an abortion and come back a virgin once again."

"I remember the power of the church and what they told women in the confessionals. Women were told sex was only for procreation and men were entitled to their conjugal rights."

Maura had a good job, a car and a place to stay, but she decided to look for alternative accommodation so that her landlady - who she says would have supported her - would not be subjected to gossip.

She lived in a caravan which had contaminated water and ended up falling ill with shingles, but she continued to keep her pregnancy hidden from her work colleagues.

After her daughter was born and she went back to work, she started telling people she'd had a baby. She had managed to hide it so well that they didn't believe her.

Maura set up Cherish to try and help other women in her position. She recalls the support the organisation received from the media.

"We went public, we put a little note in the Irish Press and the place exploded. The media nursed Cherish into existence."

Maura has been living in England for the past 40 years, but she thinks the situation for Irish women is better than it was when she was pregnant, and that the recent abortion referendum is a sign of that.

"It's much better because women hopefully don't have to go through what we went through all those years ago. It's as if Ireland is vomiting up its past."

"We got to change the constitution and hopefully things will happen with the North."

To catch the full chat press the play button on the image on the top of the screen