Special Survey - Adultery Irish Style - The Sexual Explosion
Sexual attitudes and behaviour are changing radically in Ireland as evidenced by the increasing breakdown of marriages, the higher VD and illegitimacy rates and the sale of the contraceptive pill. We examine the scale of this change and attempt to describe current attitudes to sex in Irish society.
SPECIAL SURVEY
* A clear majority of young Dublin women believe that extra-marital sex is permissible.
* Single women and younger women have more liberal attitudes towards sex than married women and older women.
* The vast majority of women believe that sex outside marriage is very much more common now than 5 years ago.
* Five women out of six believe than women have not yet achieved equality.
These are the main conclusions of a special opinion poll survey commissioned by Magill and conducted by The Market Research Bureau of Ireland Ltd. last month.
The survey reveals that 57% of 18 to 34 year old women in the Dublin and DunLaoghaire areas believe that sex outside marriage is permissable in certain circumstances.
An overwhelming 68% of these women believe that sex outside marriage is now very much more common than five years ago.
As perceptions of sexual behaviour are probably a more accurate guide to actual sexual behaviour than any other measurement, the massive 89% of women believing that extra" marital sex is mOFe prevalent now than five years ago, suggests a sexual revolution.
The survey was conducted on March 21 and 22 last among a representative statistical sample of 400 women in the 18 to 34 age group in the urban boroughs of Dublin and Dun Laoghaire. It has an estimated statistical accuracy of plus or minus 7%, therefore an undisputable majority of women in this age bracket in the Dublin region believe that sex outside marriage is permissable in certain circumstances.
Of the 77% of women who stated that women did not have equal status, 48% of these said that there wasn't equaality in employment, 34% said women were on lower salary scales, 23% said women were discriminated against in income tax, 13% said that women were treated in an inferior way generally and 10% said that married women had few rights.
Because of the possibly embarrassing nature of the survey and consequent respondent bias, prompt cards were used with all of the questions. Respondents were asked to state which of a series of statements agreed with their opinion.
While a clear 57% of respondents agreed that sex outside marriage was permissable, 26% said it was permissable among two people who intended getting married and 30% said sex was not wrong among two people in love. Only 1 % stated that sex was never wrong, though had the question been asked about sex between consenting adults of the opposite sex there might have been a higher response. (See Charts Page 13)
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Sodom and Begorra
The Ireland which we have dreamed of would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as the basis of a right living, of a people who were satissfied with frugal comfort and deevoted their leisure to the things of the spirit; a land whose countryyside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villlages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the rommping of sturdy children, the conntests of athletic youths, the laughhter of comely maidens; whose fireesides would be forums for the wisdom of old age. It would, in a word, be the home of a people living the life that God desires men should live.
(Eamon de Valera in a radio broadcast to the nation on March 17, 1943)
That dream is no more.
The Ireland of today is best represented not in fields, villages or firesides but at the throbbing discoes and single pubs throughout the country, where young couples meet to "score", and married men chase "a bit on the side".
Every Friday and Saturday night in Dublin's night spots clustered around Leeson Street thousands of sturdy youths disgorge into the dimly lit basement night clubs to sip cheap wine, gyrate to pop and slink home to the flatlands of Rathmines, Ranelagh, and Terenure for casual sexual encounters to be forgotten by lunchtime next day.
For the evidence is of a sex explosion in Ireland causing major social disrupptions for which we are ill prepared. The official statistics on broken marriages, illegitimate births, VD, and abortions testify to this social eruption, while the legal and medical systems continue to operate as though de Valera's dream were a reality.
Over 20,000 people are involved in marriage breakdowns and up to 60,000 people are "living in sin", according to social workers, marriage counsellors and others involved in coping with this exploding Irish social problem.
The law takes little account of these recent developments and while the Catholic Church has gone some way to meeting the marriage breakkdown situation, legally thousands of Irish couples are living in a bigamous state.
Since the liberalisa tion of the Cattholic Church's position on marriage there has been a hugh increase in the numbers of couples seeking annulment. Last year alone the cases of 4,540 people were being considered by Church tribunals but this figure hides the extent of the marriage crisis.
In the 8 years from 1969 to 1977 the Free Legal Aid Centres (FLAC) dealt with 4,800 cases involving marrriage breakdown, in the two years from 1975 to '77 AIM, another group dealing with the marriage problem, has had 1,700 cases - and both these organiisations are dealing almost exclusively with Dublin cases, which accounts for only an estimated half such cases in the country.
Over 5,000 women are drawing the deserted wives allowance, there have been over 1,200 maintenance actions in the courts in the last four years and hundreds of other such cases are piling up in the courts.
But even these figures disguise the extent of the problem. Hundreds of married couples part amicably, with resort to neither the courts or the women's aid organisations. In addiition thousands of couples are living together unmarried.
Marriage counsellors, doctors etc. to whom we have spoken see no reason to believe that the pattern of relationnships outside marriages is any different to countries such as Italy, where prior to the introduction of divorce 2% of the population were living with partners other than their spouses. If this is true of Ireland, 60,000 people are "living in sin".
Little research has been done into the causes and effects of marriage breakdown. Report number two of AIM Group on legal separation in Ireland cites alcoholism, cruelty and money problems as predominating in breakdown, with irresponsibility, meannness and lack of shared interests high on the list of marriage breakers.
In the majority of cases (76%) inncluded in the AIM sample, wives took the first steps in seeking legal advice on separation. Changing attitudes, suggest AIM, may mean that wives are less' willing to endure an intolerable relationnship for the sake of respectability.
It is also possible, states the report, "that in Irish marriage, where the immaturity of the husband is now more and more subject for comment, the wife may be the prime influence in the emotional growth or the destruction of the relatie nship , being the partner with the most real interest in the marriage."
There has been a steady rise in the number of illegitimate births. In 1976 a total of 2,578 illegitimate births were recorded as against 2,514 in 1975 and 2,309 in 1974. However these figures seriously disguise the incidence of preemarital sex because of the number of cases of pregnency at the time of marriage.
No official figures are available any longer on this latter phenomenon but in 1958 when figures were last availlable 12% of the brides, or one bride in -eight, was pregnant at the time of weddding. It is reasonable to suppose that this figure like all others would have doubled in the last 20 years, therefore about one in four brides are pregnant nowadays at the time of marriage. This gives an approximate figure of 6,000 marriages a year in which pregnancy is involved.
A total of 2,183 women resident in the Irish Republic had terminations of pregnancy (abortions) in Britain during 1977, this was a 21 % increase on the previous year.
In 1970, when statist is for the nummber of abortions were first recorded in Britain, the number of women recorded as having the operation was only 300. This annual figure rose steadily from 600 in 1971, to 1,000 in 1972, 1,200 in 1973, 1,400 in 1974, 1,600 in 1975, to 1,802 in 1976.
Speculation at the family planning clinics as to the reason the numbers have risen so markedly ranges from the suggestion that Irish women are much more aware of the facilities since aborrtion was legalised and publicised there, to the opinion that Irish women are simply less furtive about giving their Irish addresses.
Therefore, aggregating the 2,578 illegitimate births, the estimated 6,000 pregnant marriages and the 2,183 abortions, there are about 11,000 cases of pregnancy in Ireland each year resulting from pre-marital sexual intercourse.
There was an 8% increase in the inncidence of VD in the Eastern Health Board region in 1975 over the previous year. Altogether in 1975 that Health Board recorded a total of 13,536 cases of VD, of which 13,028 were male and 508 were female.
Officials estimate that the Eastern Health Board figure should be doubled to estimate the incidence of VD throughhout the country. Therefore there were approximately 27,000 cases of VD in Ireland in 1975 and on the basis of a continuing 8% per annum increase this would give a figure of 31,500 for 1977.
Of the 1975 Eastern Health Board VD cases 1,000 were new cases. Also in 1975, the latest year for which these figures are available for the Easttern Health Board region there were a total of 28 new cases of syphilis in males and 15 in females. A total of 209 males and 15 females attended clinics for the first time with gonorrhea.
The effects of marriage breakdown obviously have considerable social immplications not least for the institution of marriage itself.
FLAC make the point that in their considerable experience "In very many cases of irretrievable breakdown one of the spouses has a stable extra-marital relationship in a normal setting and is rearing another family. We have no figures in this regard but our informed opinion is that the incidence of families which are not grounded in the marriage contract is very high."
The law at present does not provide adequate clear-cut remedies to deal with marriage breakdown and separation, nor does it allow remarriage except in the very limited context of nullity. Divorce - dissolution of a valid marriage which would leave partners free to remarry is constitutionally prohibited by article 41.3.2.
The lack of marital remedies results in a great deal of suffering says Mary Griffin, chairwoman of FLAC. Since FLAC started their service in 1969 the organisation has dealt with 8,288 family law cases, 60 -70% of which involve marital breakdown situations.
"There is no provision for making the final break", she points out, "the worst thing is that we have to try several different procedures to arrive at an unsatisfactory conclusion. There is no effective remedy to deal with marrriage breakdown. It is a matter of adjusting different means to fit the case, often with undesirable consequences."
Where a couple cannot agree to a deed of separation four or five actions in different Courts under different judges may be necessary to settle maintenance, custody and guardianship of children, property and the matriimonial home.
In addition there are serious anomaalies resulting from the Catholic Church's recently liberalised attitude on the annulment of marriage. A marriage annulled by the Church still remains valid in the eyes of the law, thus the partners involved are not free legally to remarry.
These legal anomalies may be about to be tested in the courts in the case of Dublin businessman, Julian Yard, whose legal marriage was annulled by the Church and who then "married" a Miss Kathleen Byrne.
Another indicator of increased sexual liberality is the growth in the use of contraceptives.
The drug company, Schering Ltd. estimates that in 1977 there were 60,862 women on the contraceptive pill in Ireland. While the Irish Family Plannning Clinics deal with about 10% of these women, they estimate that of their women patients about 25% use other forms of contraceptives such as IUD, foam and cream contraceptives.
No nation-wide statistics are available for the use of these latter methods but if even only 10% of all users (female) of contrac.eptives use non-pill methods, then there are about 66,000 women using contraceptives regularly. The Family Planning Clinic reckons that condoms are used almost as extensively as the pill - in the Mountjoy Square clinic alone in 1977 about 1,200 pacckets of 12 condoms each were distriibuted per month - therefore thereefore there are over 100,000 people using some form of contraceptive in Ireland.
The two Family Planning Clinics in Dublin (Mountjoy Square and Synge Street) catered for 7,233 new patients in 1977 and of these 50% were single.
Dr. Emer Bowman has done a study of 50 of these single women coming to the Synge Street clinic for contraaceptive advice. Of these three in five planned to marry shortly and two in five had no marriage plans.
Four per cent of Dr. Bowman's sample experienced sexual intercourse by the age of 14, 26Ih% by the age of 16, 34% by the age of 17 and 76% by the age of 20.
Six per cent of those interviewed had no sexual partners (they were planning starting a sexual relationship), 40% had had only one partner ever, 22% had two partners only, 10% had three partners, 14% had between four and six. Of the four remaining women one had between seven and ten partners and the other three gave an estimated figure of "somewhere around thirty".
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OPINIONS ON HOW COMMON IS SEX OUTSIDE MARRIAGE
Very much more Somewhat more No different Less common No
common now common now now now opinion
Total % % % % %
68 21 8 - 2
Age
18-24 66 24 6 - 4
25-34 70 18 10 1 1
Status
Single 64 25 8 1 2
Married 73 16 8 - 3
Class
ABC1 67 23 , 8 - 2
C2DE 69 20 8 1 2
OPINIONS ON SEXUAL BAHAVIOUR OUTSIDE MARRIAGE
Sex right Not wrong among Not wrong Never No
only within two people who among two wrong opinion
marriage intend getting people in
married love
Total % % % % %
39 26 30 1 4
Age
18-24 36 22 34 2 6
25-34 43 30 25 1 1
Status
Single 36 23 34 2 5
Married 44 31 22 1 2
Class
ABC1 45 22 30 1 2
C2DE 35 29 30 1 5
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Rub-a-Dub
The dangers of the massage parlours are obvious: several of the earlier owners were known to assault their employees ond some gentlemen from the North were known to pay protecction there to paramilitary organisations. At least one parlour on Dublin's South Side is wholly owned by Northerners expanding their massage business south.
The up-market end of Dublin prosstitution came in from the cold, draughty streets to centrally-heated massage parrlours nearly three years ago.
The traditional streetgirls parading the beat around Baggot Street, Mount Street and Fitzwilliam Square largely ignored the phenomenon. Conditioned to ritual arrest, and sporadic violence, they continued to hitch rides on the gravy train of kerb-erawling surburban motorists.
But a few fiscally hungry returned em migrants had seen the euphemistiically titled massage parlours burgeonning in Britain and abroad and the temptation to offer sexual services in the warmth, and comparative comfort, of a "health clinic" proved too much for them. They decided Dublin was ready for the body-rub-boom.
A new type of girl was needed to man the massage parlours. Some were recruited in Britain to train younger, though not so naive, Irish women.
And, one owner even started his own course in an apartment he shared with his wife and child, in Baggot Street.
The girls went through an "intensive five day crash course" in massage techhniques. Most of them knew what was expected by the last day. They were told in clinical terms about the "relief massage", and given instructions, apparently in almost medical jargon, on the most effective ways to massturbate a man.
About six parlours were operating in the city when the Sunday World blew the whistle on the parlours. Their reesearch was thorough. So, when the owners of the Penny Bentley Health Clinic in Phibsborough, the Rendezvous in South Lotts Road and the Venus at Rathmines Road tried to obtain writs preventing the paper publishing its reeport, the judge waived their objections.
The newspapers had a field day.
They reported how the reporters had been offered intercourse from scantily clad masseuses; how the girls offered topless massage. how, if preferred, they could have a two-girl massage.
The usual charge was £8 paid to the receptionist at the parlour and the girls usually expected a tip for services beyond the rub of their regular duty.
The owners, a Mr. Bob Ryan who owned the Penny Bentley and spent his weekends riding with the Bray Harriers, Mr. Cecil Clarke of the Renndezvous and Dublin's oldest hand at the massage business and a Dublin Nominee owner for two Belfastmen who set up the Venus, had a perfect alibi: they would be shocked to think of their girls offering any sexual service, and if they heard about it they would sack them at once.
Oh, by the way, the girls had no regular salary, they were paid appproximitely £2 commission on every massage.
Since then massage has been big business in Dublin. A recent estimate was of 25 "leisure spas" operating around the city, one allegedly just off Grafton Street and, if one will believe rumour, another planned for O'Connell Street.
It costs little or no major capital outtlay to get into the body-rub boom. Just a few pounds for plumbing a couple of showers, a second hand sauna, erectting a few cubicles with a couch, towels, baby oil and tissues.
A reasonably successful massage parrlour should gross £500 - £600 a week, more at holidays, big football matches and a bonanza at All-Ireland final weekends.
Legally they operate with impunity.
Police called to several at the time of the Sunday World investigation but there were no charges preferred. A lot of the parlours are, of course, brothels but the Gardai seem to have no stomach for employing the tactics used by the RUC in Belfast.
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Out of the question
Favoured venues tor the "singles" set in Dublin are the Leeson Street discoes, Bojangles, Piers, Maxwell Plums, Aphrodites, Styx, Elizabeths, Annabells at the Burlington Hotel, Zhivagos and Barbarellas off Bagott Street.
The more notorious male practiitioners range from former cabinet ministers, impressarios, senior RTE executives, a handful of journalists including at least one editor, advertising executives (of course), a leadding southern garage owner, a welllknown printing executive, Aer Linngus personel (some of whom have recently been acting-hostesses on the strike-hit flights), several well-known pop singers and dance band leaders, a bishop and a well-known priest marriage counsellor. It's an epidemic.
A story associated with a wifeeswapping Dublin suburb is of a man cutting his hedge and enquiring of his neighbour how the wife was. The neighbour replied; "fine, how's mine?"
A well-known Dublin publican was asked recently when he last had sexual relations with his wife, he paused and replied: "I think it was at the time of the Eucharistic Conngress (1932)".
Contributors to this feature were: Christine Newman, Marianne Heron, Sammy Smith and Vincent Browne.