The case was the subject of much media comment and public controversy in the period. Colm Tóibín described the reports on the "Gay Byrne Show" as reminiscent of a Thomas Hardy novel. Feminist and liberal commentators at the time and in retrospect have seen it as one of a series of events illustrating a conservative Catholic society unsympathetic to women; others include the 1981 Kerry Babies case, the 1983 abortion referendum, the 1984 death of Ann Lovett, the 1985 moving statues, and the 1986 divorce referendum. The fact that Richie Roche was a Sinn Féin activist meant that RTÉ would not interview him for fear of breaching Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act. (Flynn herself was not in Sinn Féin.)