What is it about the Irish and sex? Pre-Christian Irish attitudes to sex were decidedly more liberal than in recent times, where Cupid was saddled with a chastity belt by an outwardly pious nation. But have times changed? You be the judge. Here are 10 surprising facts about the Irish and sex:
1. Sexual Equality
Ancient Irish laws, called the Brehon Laws, provided women full equality with men. That’s right, they could inherit property or bequeath their own; they could marry or divorce the man of their choosing; even the right of a woman to experience satisfaction in marriage was enshrined in its legal framework. In Europe, where burning uppity women at the stake became a national pastime, the Irish attitude to sexual equality between the sexes was nothing short of revolutionary. Stamping out of the Brehon Laws, and with them the rights of women, was finally accomplished under Queen Elizabeth of England.
2. The land of sex and sinners
When it came to matters of love Edmund Spencer, the Elizabethan poet, was appalled by Irish men, who were in the main, he wrote, a bunch of lascivious bisexuals who offered themselves freely to both women and men before his shocked gaze. Spencer enthusiastically recommended the extermination of the Irish race but was himself burned out of his famous castle in County Cork.
3. Bad Romance
The Irish much prefer a dramatic finish to a promising start. Think of Diarmuid and Grainne, think of Charles Stewart Parnell and Kitty O’Shea. Most of all think of poor Oscar Wilde. Wilde’s affair to remember will still be passionately discussed by people not yet born. Having married a beautiful but unsuspecting woman before his latent homosexuality became blatant, the real love of his life turned out to be Lord Alfred Douglas, a whey-faced flaxen -haired youth who ruined his life and reputation. In response Wilde did what generations of Irishmen have, he wrote a ballad that has outlived them all.
4. Do You Take This Man?
According to Yale historian John Boswell, the early Christian church in Ireland included widely performed sacraments and marriage rites for men, which means that the first instances of same sex marriages were held in Ireland. Tell that to your bishop the next time he fulminates against the gays.
5. Yes, I said, I will, yes
James Joyce and Molly Bloom. Their names will always be inseparable. Molly was a facsimile of Joyce’s flesh and blood wife Nora and in Ulysses, Joyce’s masterpiece, both writer and subject scandalized Ireland two decades before it became the philistine Catholic gulag he feared it might.
Joyce understood the twin threats to Ireland (and in a way, Irish women) came from Britain and Rome, so he recorded and celebrated every aspect of the Irish themselves from womb to tomb, how they lived and how they loved, the better to keep Ireland safe from colonial powers and spiritual dominance.
6. There was no sex in Ireland before TV
Oliver J. Flanagan, the longtime Fine Gael politician, once famously said “there was no sex in Ireland before television.” Flanagan was appalled by the frankness of public debates on Irish television about matters he thought should never be discussed: sex, sexuality, women’s rights. But Flanagan lived to see his conservative standards collapsing all around him. This was in 1966, by the way. It’s safe to assume he would have been appalled by 2010.
7. There will be no sex in heaven
The only time sex is not sinful, according to the Catholic church, is when the intention or the possibility of conceiving are present. So no sex in Heaven, then. If we don’t have earthly bodies there will be no need to procreate. Don’t even be thinking about just enjoying yourselves sexually in the afterlife, because that’s sinful too. It was having sex on earth on earth that sent men and women to the other place. But if you’re dammed if you do and damned if you don’t, the Irish discovered, then you might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.
8. Do as I say not as I do
Hypocrisy, like money, makes the world go round. But when hypocrisy reaches the towering levels that twentieth century Irish society achieved, something’s got to give. It was the denial of sex, its existence, its allure, its wonder and its normality, that gave the Irish Church so much power. Ironically enough it was sex that stripped them of it too, in a slew of ever increasing scandals that saw clergy having affairs, fathering children or abusing them. Revulsion at the double standards transformed Irish society. It’s sex in all its permutations that historians will return to when discussing the nature of Irish society in the late 20th century.
9. A pint of plain is not your only man
30 years ago, contraceptives were still illegal in the Republic. And pints, believe it or not, were another thing women could not have. To tackle this head on determined women like writer Nell McCafferty went into famous pubs in Dublin’s city centre, ordered 40 brandies, waited for them all to served, and then ordered a pint. When the barman refused, they in turn never paid for the brandies. Hit them in the pocket and they’ll always remember you.
10. Now they’re on YouTube
Now everyone knows your business if they have a laptop. In the last decade you were no one if you’re private life wasn’t picked over in public. Even homegrown Irish celebrities joined the trend of discovering their privately made sex tapes had turned up on YouTube where the whole world laughed at their antics. In Ireland we have Colin Farrell to thank for this. Always first in line for a bit of trouble, in 2005 a sex tape featuring Farrell and a former Playboy model Nicole Narain appeared on the internet prompting a lawsuit by the temperamental Dubliner, who called it “the most expensive 14 minutes of my life.” It certainly wasn’t his most inspired.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.anglo-norman | Feb 17, 2013, 01:55 PM EST
The stupid corkman still can't figure out the capslock lol
STEVENSTAR | Feb 17, 2013, 08:53 AM EST
IF THIS NEWSPAPER WAS PRINTED IN IRELAND AND IF THE REST OF MY FELLOW IRISH COULD READ WHATS PRINTED ON HERE BY AMERICANS THERE WOULD BE ABSOLUTE UPROAR.. I THINK ITS A DISGRACE WHAT THIS NEWSPAPER PRINTS ... AND GIVEN THE INTELIGENCE OF MOST OF WHATS ACROSS THE ATLANTIC IM SURE MOST OF IT IS BELIEVED WHICH IS THE SAD THING ... BUT ONCE THEY COME OVER ON THEIR HOLIDAYS AND SPEND THEIR $$$ THEN WHO ARE WE TO COMPLAIN :-)
Stiofain | Feb 16, 2013, 02:40 PM EST
Sorry,comrades this machine is acting weird. At least,I guess, I got my point across.
Stiofain | Feb 16, 2013, 02:38 PM EST
Aaah!It was the Italian men who forced the church on the Irish so they could claim credit as great lovers with out competition.
Stiofain | Feb 16, 2013, 02:38 PM EST
Aaah!It was the Italian men who forced the church on the Irish so they could claim credit as great lovers with out competition.
Stiofain | Feb 16, 2013, 02:38 PM EST
Aaah!It was the Italian men who forced the church on the Irish so they could claim credit as great lovers with out competition.
Stiofain | Feb 16, 2013, 02:38 PM EST
Aaah!It was the Italian men who forced the church on the Irish so they could claim credit as great lovers with out competition.
Stiofain | Feb 16, 2013, 02:38 PM EST
Aaah!It was the Italian men who forced the church on the Irish so they could claim credit as great lovers with out competition.
REMITROMJR | Mar 27, 2011, 06:19 AM EDT
Boswell was a homosexual out to reconcile his perversion with Roman Catholic teaching. From Wikipedia: "Rites of so-called 'same-sex union' (Boswell's proposed translation) occur in ancient prayer-books of both the western and eastern churches. They are rites of adelphopoiesis, literally Greek for the making of brothers. Boswell, despite the fact that the rites explicitly state that the union involved in adelphopoiesis is a "spiritual" and not a "carnal" one, argued that these should be regarded as sexual unions similar to marriage."
CitizenWhy | Mar 15, 2011, 03:05 PM EDT
My very Catholic mother from Ireland used to say in response to comments against homosexuals: "It's their natir (Nature). They have to love according to their nature. And that's enough on that topic." She often said in response to priestly pronouncements: "What do they know? Make up your own mind." Her down-to-earth priest relatives acknowledged that they were skeptical about many church teachings on sex, and endorsed the idea of making up your own mind.
sonshine1949 | Feb 26, 2011, 10:08 PM EST
Does anyone here rememeber that the Irish were Pagan for centuries BEFORE Christianity arrived and much of the religious beliefs today are an incorporation of both Pagan and Christian beliefs? People, really???? How can you call yourself knowledgable about being Irish if you don't even know that much about your own history!?!!!!!!
Whitepark | Feb 26, 2011, 05:59 PM EST
I know the unemployment rate in Ireland today is very high, but by reading some of the above descriptions of Ireland from the past you folks really need to get back to work, you have far to much time on your hands.
Towngate | Feb 22, 2011, 11:53 AM EST
Kateomprint: The Muslims only have to say it three times. Join up and save yourself the walk! ~ ~ ~ anybody else interested in ancient Irish attitudes to the power of sexual reproduction should google image "Sheela-na-gig" and see what was removed from roadsides and CHURCH buildings and hidden in the basement of the Dublin Museum. There you will see the real meaning of Hole-y Ireland. Warning: Not for the faint hearted!
kateomprint | Sep 12, 2010, 04:46 PM EDT
I have read about the Brehon laws and they seem to be way ahead to their time. A woman could divorce a man by walking around him three times say "I divorce thee" and the job was done. No lawyers no legal fees. What a great time that must have been.
ODonnabhain | Sep 11, 2010, 01:54 AM EDT
The Irish were always ahead of their time!
Erinona | Apr 30, 2010, 06:20 PM EDT
I whole heartedly agree with you SingleDonald!
SingleDonald | Feb 06, 2010, 10:23 PM EST
Very interesting! It really is sad how the Catholic Church was so dogmatic about sexual matters, when I was growing up. Happily, they don't push these matters today, even if they haven't officially repudiated them. We can't help noticing how confessional lines, at least here in America, are considerably shorter than when we were kids. The reason to me is obvious. Men don't see the need to run to confession, after doing such things as looking at Playboy, or fantasizing about a close encounter with Jennifer Aniston. The same, of course, applies to women looking at Playgirl, or engaging in fantasies over George Clooney! I wish that the Church would abandon its medieval concepts, over human sexuality, once and for all!
IrishAndProud | Feb 03, 2010, 06:05 PM EST
Well then how about parading about Dublin or anywhere else in Ireland with a sign saying that you believe homosexual an-l sex is normal and okay, and that Irish schoolkids should learn it?
olovely | Feb 03, 2010, 10:35 AM EST
Oh please, I would love to pass around pics of you expressing yourself in Ireland.
IrishAndProud | Feb 02, 2010, 08:58 PM EST
I hardly need to, olovely. Their falling birth rates scream that loudly enough.
olovely | Feb 02, 2010, 05:48 PM EST
IrishandProud I suggest you buy a soap box, to to Dublin and hold up a sign that reads: "The Irish aren't having proper sex, enough." Please please send us photographs as proof, too.
IrishAndProud | Feb 02, 2010, 04:14 PM EST
First of all, the homosexual lifestyle has been practiced since there have been people -- busting the myth that it's some sort of 'new, alternative lifestyle.' It's even OLDER than the xtian bible (how else could that book have referenced the lifestyle, but that it already existed, beforehand?). Of course, how long or often something is practiced does not make it right (crime has been around since the beginning, too); rightness or wrongness does not depend on such things. And secondly, if native Irish birth rates have dropped below replacement levels (as is the case in most if not all of Europe, nowadays) then the Irish aren't having proper sex, enough.
LilPaddy | Feb 02, 2010, 12:26 PM EST
At 67, believe me there is no lingering effects from my Dublin "you will go to Hell if you do things like that!! If the "action" is between adults (of any or all lifestyles) Just keep your Donkey out of their business... That includes feeding off the lives of Iris and Peter R.
Temerity | Feb 01, 2010, 06:15 PM EST
Oh dear is Ireland where it all started???.
olovely | Feb 01, 2010, 12:14 PM EST
Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, by John Boswell. Contrary to myth, Christianity's concept of marriage has not been set in stone since the days of Christ, but has evolved as a concept and as a ritual. Professor Boswell discovered that in addition to heterosexual marriage ceremonies in ancient church liturgical documents (and clearly separate from other types of non-marital blessings of adopted children or land) were ceremonies called, among other titles, the "Office of Same Sex Union" (10th and 11th century Greek) or the "Order for Uniting Two Men" (11th and 12th century). That certainly sounds like gay marriage.The ceremonies Boswell describes had all the contemporary symbols of a marriage. A community gathered in a church. A blessing of the couple before the altar. Their right hands joined as at heterosexual marriages. The participation of a priest. The taking of the Eucharist. A wedding banquet afterwards.
BishopSean | Feb 01, 2010, 09:04 AM EST
Same-sex Church marriages in early Ireland? This is doubtful because it would have clearly gone against numerous Scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments. Remember, our Irish people were the ones who brought the Scriptures, and the Latin and Greek classics, and education, back to mainland Europe in the early centuries, after the barbarian invasions destroyed books on the Continent. Would like to know what sources were used to support this statement re: same-sex Church marriages. Regards.
irishathens | Feb 01, 2010, 05:37 AM EST
Super..Loved it