From divorce over impotence to vigilante castration, the evolution of Irish sexual mores is laid bare by Ian Miller in A History of Ireland in Ten Body Parts
Dublin’s notorious red-light district, the Monto, where Edward VII (right) is said to have lost his virginity. And from left, women’s campaigner Isabella Tod, brothel owner Peg Plunkett and former Fine Gael politician Oliver J Flanagan
In 1966, Fine Gael politician Oliver J Flanagan famously criticised Gay Byrne’s The Late Late Show, claiming that “sex never came to Ireland until Telefis [sic] Éireann went on the air”. The phrase is usually misquoted as the much catchier: “There was no sex in Ireland before television.”
But was Ireland’s sexual history really as chaste and pure as Flanagan believed? Absolutely not.