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Bad romance: 10 surprising facts about the Irish and sex

By
DARA KELLY,

Published Saturday, January 30, 2010, 1:37 PM
Updated Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 3:56 PM

 

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'The most expensive 14 minutes of my life,' says Colin Farrell of the sex tape in which he starred.
'The most expensive 14 minutes of my life,' says Colin Farrell of the sex tape in which he starred.

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.

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Posted by REMITROMJR on 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."
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Posted by CitizenWhy on 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.
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Posted by sonshine1949 on 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!?!!!!!!
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Posted by Whitepark on 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.
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Posted by Towngate on 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!
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Posted by kateomprint on 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.
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Posted by ODonnabhain on Sep 11, 2010, 01:54 AM EDT
The Irish were always ahead of their time!
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Posted by Erinona on Apr 30, 2010, 06:20 PM EDT
I whole heartedly agree with you SingleDonald!
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Posted by SingleDonald on 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!
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Posted by IrishAndProud on 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?
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Posted by olovely on Feb 03, 2010, 10:35 AM EST
Oh please, I would love to pass around pics of you expressing yourself in Ireland.
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Posted by IrishAndProud on Feb 02, 2010, 08:58 PM EST
I hardly need to, olovely. Their falling birth rates scream that loudly enough.
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Posted by olovely on 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.
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Posted by IrishAndProud on 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.
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Posted by LilPaddy on 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.
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Posted by Temerity on Feb 01, 2010, 06:15 PM EST
Oh dear is Ireland where it all started???.
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Posted by olovely on 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.
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Posted by BishopSean on 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.
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Posted by irishathens on Feb 01, 2010, 05:37 AM EST
Super..Loved it
 


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