A “Fifty Shades of Grey” inspired sex festival is being held in Dublin this weekend with hundreds expected to attend.
The organizers of the festival entitled “Fifty Shades of Bliss” stated that they “believe Ireland is ready” to “move from a guilt and shame filled perspective on sex and sexuality, to one that allows sex to be a path to enlightenment as well as personal and collective freedom and empowerment.”
The festival will feature talks and workshops around the themes of the book. Among the featured events will be “Smut Writing” and “Ecstatic BDSM (Bondage Sado Masochism).”
The organizers promise “A voyage designed to take you on a journey through all your senses that will engage & tantalise your mind, body & spirit. “
Organizers say that the success of the book, which has been a runaway best-seller in Ireland, has opened up the debate on a more healthy attitude towards sex.
The festival promises “workshops from internationally respected & experienced facilitators, from 3 continents, in the fields of sexual pleasure, freedom & health, Tantric, Thelema, Wiccan & more spiritual perspectives on sexuality.”
The Fifty Shades of Bliss Weekender takes place in Dublin’s Morrison Hotel today and tomorrow.
The sales of "50 Shades of Grey," the so-called “mommy porn” trilogy, are selling at rates not yet seen in Ireland since the ‘Harry Potter’ series hit the shelves. The "Twilight"-inspired fan-fiction has sold around 80,000 copies since going on sale at the end of April in Ireland.
TheJournal.ie reports on the fascinating boom in sales the trilogy is experiencing. The figure of 60,000 copies sold is probably an underestimate as figures for sales of an e-book version haven’t been accounted for.
One prime example of just how quickly the book is selling was showcased at Eason’s on O’Connell Street in Dublin recently. The national bookseller had stocked the shop with 400 copies of the book - all of which were sold by lunchtime.
“Bar Harry Potter, we’ve never experienced anything like it,” says Maria Dickenson of Eason.
"50 Shades of Grey" has already officially become the fastest-selling paperback since records began in the UK, dethroning other literary juggernaut "Harry Potter." Similarly, Booktrade, which tracks book sales, says it is also the fastest selling-paperback in Ireland as well.
26 Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Yerffac | Aug 06, 2012, 12:28 PM EDT
Ciaradexty--How is it that any man who disagrees with you or criticizes those innane books "can't do it." Your pity one man's missus, accuse another of sex with sheep (and what's wrong with that?. You would shrivel a man with your attitude. Go find one (if you can)who is turned on by your "liberation."
mamaginnty | Aug 06, 2012, 11:59 AM EDT
How stupid can they get, America of all places. Why not name buns and beer after every country they have invaded.
Yerffac | Aug 06, 2012, 11:58 AM EDT
Hey Smartass--leave Cooleyman alone and don't insult the good people of louth.
mamaginnty | Aug 06, 2012, 11:45 AM EDT
Well well well, the women are having right laugh at ye all, and not just Ireland, it's selling well in Britain and America so leave out the slanging match about Ireland. To the prude's...get a life and the men seem to be running scared of it. No wonder it has become a best seller world wide, the women know it is getting up your nose.
ciaradexy | Aug 06, 2012, 06:31 AM EDT
Cooleyman, if you dont like sex, dont have it! I doubt you have any willing participants anyway except some sheep in the Cooleys.
abhainn | Aug 05, 2012, 07:17 PM EDT
Erotic books like this have been selling well in Ireland since the early 1970s when the "Emmanuelle" series, "The Story of O", and works by Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin went on sale after censorship was abolished in the 1960s. The trend continued when Irish American author Anne Rice sold very well when she wrote her BDSM "Beauty" trilogy under the pen name A. N. Roquelaure, and "Exit to Eden" under the name Anne Rampling. This latest surge in sales is just the latest wave in a well established history of interest in erotica in Ireland.
Curitiba | Aug 05, 2012, 06:24 PM EDT
TayandCake, you're a living saint, anyone ever tell you that?
cooleyman | Aug 05, 2012, 06:24 PM EDT
This is either a pi**take or a serious low point in Ireland's association with literature. Poor old Maeve Binchy is probably looking on from her writing desk in the clouds with disappointment and despair at this.... although it is probably just a bunch of chancers capitalizing on a fad that hopefully will soon be at the bottom of the bargain bin along with those Dan Brown classics......
Towngate | Aug 05, 2012, 01:49 PM EDT
Lookit! Hole-y Ireland has been at this sort of thing for ages! Witness the overflowing childrens homes, convents and industrial schools with their constant intake of abused and to be even more abused, inmates who resulted mainly from illegal Socially and Religiously unacceptable sexual practices! Ireland has been well ahead with its own living version of this book. Now, at last,you know the meaning of: " The Forty Shades of Green "!
RobbCobb | Aug 05, 2012, 12:39 PM EDT
I think it's cool that so many are reading this genre of literature, and how progressive the thinking and feelings toward the type of intimacies portrayed have become. Well met. I would though like to give a shout out to Jacqueline Carey, my favorite author, who helped pioneer in this genre of story telling in 2001 with her New York Times Best Selling publication of Kushiel's Dart, and subsequent Kushiel's Legacy and Naamah's Trilogy. Nine books in all and worth ever second of your time. Have a great Sex Fest, then go pick up Kushiel's Dart, you won't be disappointed.
TayandCake | Aug 05, 2012, 12:30 PM EDT
I'll be dressed as the gimp and dishing out whippings and arse sex if anyone needs it
ciaradexy | Aug 05, 2012, 10:20 AM EDT
Dear American IC posters, this has NOTHING to do with you! Why do you all feel the need to comment on matters related to sex in |Ireland? You are American! We have sex in Ireland. We dont have to be or want to be married. Some people are into BDSM, thats none of your business either. If you all want to lie on your back and think of a country youre not from then more power to you but do not tell us how we should be having sex.
ciaradexy | Aug 05, 2012, 10:16 AM EDT
StR, Maeve Binchey only died a few days ago. This festival was publicised months ago you idiot. Perversion? Id say youre a crap lay. Your poor missus.
StRoibard | Aug 04, 2012, 07:38 PM EDT
Not that I'd wish her gone, but it's probably just as well dear Maeve Binchey is not around to see the depths to which Irish literary tastes have sunk ... not to mention Yeats and others. Perversion is glorified ... now where have I read about that occurring?
Harliemt | Aug 04, 2012, 04:42 PM EDT
There is love in the book. Don't judge it until you have read all THREE.. Then all the questions are answered.
hellenna | Aug 04, 2012, 04:10 PM EDT
very sad...what happened to loving someone?...much better sex anytime...hard to believe so many people think otherwize..not to mention all the people who will be abused sexually through this sort of thinking...
peterson | Aug 04, 2012, 02:26 PM EDT
Must have been a slow news day !!Really bad journalism !!
Bostonlass01 | Aug 04, 2012, 01:32 PM EDT
this book is so poorly written I couldn't get past the first chapter...pure trash! Women flocking to read it have no literary sense, they just jumping on the band wagon.
handsome68 | Aug 04, 2012, 11:58 AM EDT
So the Irish seem to be going from: "No sex!", "Keep it in the trousers!", "Get your mind out of the gutter!", to: "Let it all hang out!". Well, having had Irish-born parents who emigrated and having been being educated as I was by Irish Christian Brothers, it all sounds familiar to me. For me, all heck broke loose in the late 1960s, when many bra salespersons probably went belly-up. My advice to young women: beware of sexually transmitted diseases, the odd serial killer, and The Guilt. Any of those bogey(wo)men might get you. haha
Springfield9 | Aug 04, 2012, 11:56 AM EDT
I hae returned to Ireland many times, over the years. I set aside a small piece of life to walk parts of the West from Co. Kerry to Co. Galway. I was young and the weaher was with me. It requires no details for me to assure you that there is nothing amiss with Irish sexuality. My memories of those days are near poetry. There is no need for BDSM, etc. Dublin is a place where both the highs and lows of our race have always been played out.
Irishphotograph | Aug 04, 2012, 11:04 AM EDT
Ireland is a cheap country because we hold to cheap values.
hunter933 | Aug 04, 2012, 10:46 AM EDT
One book won't do anything to undo what the Catholic Church has done.
katieherk | Aug 04, 2012, 10:40 AM EDT
What has happened to the moral fiber of this world/country. This book is trash and should be put in the garbage. How can you even give this subject the time of day let alone the words to promote it. Shame on you Jim!!!
lyoness555 | Aug 04, 2012, 10:30 AM EDT
WTF? An S&M book is hardly what I call being liberated its more like being a slave to perversion. Ireland , shame on you for indulging in this filthy pig book
Yerffac | Aug 04, 2012, 10:22 AM EDT
A book on dominance and bondage--hardly liberating. As if Ireland hasn't had enough of that stuff for real?--not long ago since women had a child a year and no access to birth control, and no food to feed the children that came out of their worn out, half starved bodies. Ireland today almost makes me wish the Catholic church was in charge again.
Nicoletta | Aug 04, 2012, 09:46 AM EDT
God help us!