Inis Beag, Ireland
"Inis Beag" was a stabile Irish peasant community with a population of 350 on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. When John Messenger did his research there between 1958 and 1966 the village lacked electricity and running water. The only vehicles were ass-drawn carts. Householders own land and herd cattle, sheep, goats, asses and horses. Potatoes are the staple crop.
The people of Inis Beag arrived at the island as immigrants during the time of Oliver Cromwell. The community has been essentially unchanged for about 300 years. The island folk are devout Catholics, although many traditional Druidic beliefs linger on.
Children and Sexuality
Infant nudity was abhorred by the islanders. The bodies of infants are always covered when in view of siblings and outsiders. Infants had their bodies sponged once a week, and from early childhood onwards washed only their faces, necks, lower arms, hands lower legs and feet. Breast feeding was uncommon because of the sexual connotations. Verbal affection replaced contact affection by late infancy.
Children were never allowed to see anyone naked. People slept in their underwear and clothes were changed only in secrecy, often under the bedcovers. Even nudity of pets in heat caused anxiety and dogs were whipped for licking their genitals.
Sex was never discussed . Parents and kin instructed children with rewards and punishments. The punishments were often brutal beating with belts and the "rod". Any form of direct or indirect sexual expression, such as masturbation, mutual exploration of bodies, use of any slang words related to sex, or open urination was severely punished.
Girls and boys were completely separated at home, on the play ground, and on the way to and from school. After Mass, boys, girls, men and women left the chapel in separate groups one at a time.
Sex was never discussed in the home when children were present. Only three mothers admitted giving any sort of brief and incomplete sexual advice to their daughters. When girls had their first menstruation they know nothing about it. First menstruation was frequently traumatic, especially as their mothers were incapable of explaining it.
Boys mostly learned about sex from older boys and men and especially from observing animals. Elders believed that sexual instruction was unnecessary because "after marriage, nature takes its course." In some villages cases have been reported of childlessness due to sexual ignorance of the spouses.
Courtship
Chastity of thought, complete absistence from premarital sexual contact and premarital virginity was the ideal. A young woman’s "character" was her full status. Courtship was nearly non-existent. Boys and girls were never seen walking together around the island. Dances were of the "rigid-body" type and involved little or no bodily contact. Girls would refuse to dance if even so much as a touch of hands was involved. Marriages were arranged by parents with little concern for the young people involved.
Fear of gossip and ridicule were two major factors in control and repression, the most pernicious rumors were always sexual and malicious gossip was a favored pastime. Young people listened over fences and through doors for the latest tidbits. Men watching a woman step-dancing would stare fixedly at her feet.
Although no cases of premarital pregnancy were reported, there are regulations for the family whose good name would be destroyed if such an event were to occur. There were only two options: the pair either accepted a forced marriage, or were expelled from the community.
The political system was dominated by the curate. Sermons and schoolroom talks served as vehicles of church discipline. Many priests attacked courting, dancing, visiting, gossiping and drinking spirits with sermons, threats, withholding sacraments, placing curses and corporal punishment. The headmaster of the school was rigidly supervised by the curate. Curates also roamed the trails at night seeking out young lovers and halting dances.
The church held an evangelical mission every three to five years and the favored theme was, "controlling one’s passions." Any departure from the accepted norm was considered a sin, a lack of religion and brought the whole weight of all the village’s sanctions and values to bear upon it.
The average marriage age for men was thirty-six and for women twenty-five. A man was still considered a "boy" or a "lad" until age forty. Nearly a third of marriageable persons on the island remained unmarried and celibate.
Conjugal love was very rare. Women were taught by the curate that sexual relations with their husband was a duty that must be endured and that to refuse coitus with her husband was a mortal sin. Foreplay was limited to kissing and rough fondling of the buttocks. There was no knowledge of tongue kissing, a male kissing a female’s breast, a female placing her hand on her husband’s penis, cunnilingus, fellatio, anal coitus, extramarital coitus, manifest homosexuality, sexual contact with animals or sado-masochistic behavior. Underclothing was never removed and the missionary position was the only position used. The female orgasm was unknown and after ejaculation the man fell asleep.
Men felt that intercourse was debilitating and male sexual strivings were thought to be a result of eating massive amounts of potatoes. Women are most valued for their fecundity and were not approached during menstruation or after childbirth at which time they were considered dangerous. Women who had no children were thought to be without value. As one man said, "Here is a woman that has no more milk of her own. They shouldn’t allow a woman like that to breed because a man should always keep his wife in the milk."
Menstruation and menopause were never explained to females and women were frequently upset by menstruation, menopause, sexual curiosity of their children, and "excessive" sexual demands of their spouses. They suffered from extreme symptoms of menopause, including severe headaches, hot flashes, faintness and severe anxiety. It is commonly believed that menopause could cause "madness" and some women retired from life at about age 40 and confined themselves to bed until they die.
Escape valves for sexual frustration on the island are thought by psychologists to be masturbation, drinking, alcoholism disputes and pugnacity.
Sources:
Arensberg, Conrad M. & Solon T. Kimball. 1940. Family and Community in Ireland. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Colum, Padraic. 1926. The Road Around Ireland. New York:MacMillan Company. Cottage Interior from a painting by Power O’Malley
Carbery, Mary. 1937. The Farm by Lough Gur. New York: Longmans, green and Co. Decorations by Elizabeth Corsellis.
Porter, Arthur Kingsley. 1931. The Cross and Culture of Ireland. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Messenger, John C. 1971. Sex and Repression in an Irish Folk Community in Marshall Donald S. & Robert C. Suggs. 1971. Human Sexual Behavior. New York: Basic Books Inc., Publishers
Index
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