Our History
One Family began life as Cherish in 1972. In that year, a group of solo mothers, led by Maura Richards, set about reaching others in the same situation.
Founder member, Colette O’Neill, suggested Cherish as a name for the group, taken from the 1916 Proclamation, which declared that Ireland would ‘cherish all of the children of the nation equally’.
Unfortunately in 1972, this was often not the case, and single pregnant women were often thrown out of their homes, lost their jobs and were rejected by their communities. Cherish was set up to provide such women and children with a voice, empowering women to help themselves and their families.
Mary Robinson, Cherish’s first President, who only resigned when she became President of Ireland in 1990, has described Cherish as one of Ireland’s first self-help groups.
As an organisation, Cherish not only provided services to single mothers and their children, but also campaigned for change. While many changes were brought about, the two most significant were the introduction of the unmarried mother’s allowance and the abolition of the status of illegitimacy.
In 1973, after much hard lobbying work, Cherish celebrated the introduction of the unmarried mother’s allowance – the first social welfare payment to acknowledge the existence of women bringing up children on their own.
In 1987, after many years of campaigning, the Status of Children Act finally abolished the status of illegitimacy.
When developing the Strategic Plan for 2004–06, it became clear that the society in which we offer our services is very different and that one-parent families exist in many forms in Ireland today. It is in recognition of these changes that we extended our services to all members of all one-parent families, and renamed ourselves One Family.
As One Family we continue to work to affect positive change and achieve equality and social inclusion for all one-parent families in Ireland.
See also: Merger with Gingerbread Ireland
