Sexual attitudes in Ireland

This blog post is an excerpt from a guest interview with a UK GP-led initiative called Every Body. The full article is available here.

What’s the current attitude towards sex and talking about sexual wellbeing like in Ireland?

There have been welcome developments in sexual health -related public discourse and policy in recent years. The Irish Government recently announced that free contraception and Hormone Replacement Therapy will soon be available for women and people with vulvas. Women’s lived experiences of menopause are increasingly being highlighted in Irish media. The last decade has seen the introduction of long overdue legislation for protection against intimate image abuse, same-sex marriage and reproductive health rights - though access to those rights is still not equal.

Fortunately (and finally!) sexual consent will become mandatory learning for young people from 2027. Healthy sex and healthy sexual attitudes require safety, and safety requires consent, so it is imperative that people are given adequate guidance on how and why to understand and communicate consent. Research has shown that the perspectives of Irish adults’ (most of whom did not receive comprehensive sex education) on consent are gradually becoming more informed and respectful. In 2024, 76 percent of people surveyed strongly agreed that everyone has the right to change their mind at any point during a sexual encounter, no matter how far it has gone. This was a welcome increase from 62 per cent of people strongly agreeing in 2021, though it does still leave us with one in four people who did not strongly agree with that statement.. We know that rape crisis services are more in demand than ever in Ireland and that Ireland’s mental health services are the most difficult to access across the European Union. So while attitudes are becoming healthier, sadly we do not yet have the accessible services needed to bolster that progress and help people to be sexually well and empowered.

I also believe that even while sexual attitudes are becoming more open, many people’s sexual experiences are negatively impacted by low sexual confidence or misinformation. Having acceptance and openness around sex is fantastic, but we also then need to understand our own bodies, and be able to communicate our desires and boundaries with sexual partners. For many of us, this will take practice, patience and prioritisation of sex education, which is not straightforward when people are juggling work, relationships, family, caring responsibilities, studies and health issues.

Where do you think Ireland’s sexual attitudes have come from?

While policies and attitudes are progressing, the legacy of Ireland’s historically oppressive government practices has not been fully rectified. The joint leadership of abusive religious and political actors gradually petered out from the 1960s onwards, but the after-effects of decades-long punishment and shaming of people’s sexual relationships, legalisation of rape, and severe restriction of sex education play a significant (if less obvious) role in people’s relationships and communication today. To go back a little further, the inextricable link between the Catholic church and many Irish people’s social (and sexual!) identity can be attributed at least in part to Britain’s barbaric occupation in Ireland. British imperial policy did not end with Irish land rights - it also sought to  destroy people’s beliefs and practices. For many Irish people, their long-standing Catholic practices took on a new importance beyond faith - Catholicism became a symbol of identity and of resistance against British imperialism. Following the establishment of the Free State in the South of Ireland, for several generations the Catholic church continued to hold major influence on culture and policy, with an obsessive focus on sexual morality.

Today, all over the country, people are avoiding discussions on relevant sexual issues with their partners, peers, doctors, therapists and Gardai. This can be due to embarrassment or fear of a judgemental or dismissive response, which is common practice in the healthcare and justice systems. Importantly, people in those professions are not adequately trained in supporting people with their sexual issues, despite the fact that their service users’ sexual wellbeing is often highly pertinent to the appointment or case at hand. The Republic of Ireland has only one, part-time publicly funded psychosexual therapist which, considering the context mentioned above, is not justifiable. Creating specialist psychosexual services should be a top priority for our political leaders. Those services should be accessible for all demographics in Ireland, and healthcare and other public service providers across the country should be provided with adequate training regarding sexual and psychosexual issues.

What do you think can be done to improve sexual wellbeing and sexual attitudes?

I would love to see more diverse, engaging sex education available for all demographics, with practical guidance on how to understand and prioritise our sexual interests and boundaries, how to hear ‘no’ without taking it personally, how to explore our sexuality without our decisions being influenced by shame or embarrassment, understanding how our bodies actually function - the list goes on. I would love to see adults embracing sex education well into older age. That’s why I set up the Sx Sláinte project in 2023, to provide workshops and resources for adults of all demographics in Ireland! I would also love to see psychosexual and somatic supports becoming more widely available to people in Ireland. Psychological and emotional processing is very much intertwined with our sexual wellbeing, so I hope specialist services in this area become more accessible in Ireland going forward.

References 

 Department of Health. Budget 2025. 2nd October 2024. Available at: https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/306635/498fce25-b625-4fd7-a548-9919fe58a862.pdf#page=null 

 The Menopause Hub. 31st July 2022. The Week That Changed Menopause In Ireland Forever - Joe Duffy Liveline On Rte 1 Radio. Available at: https://www.themenopausehub.ie/news/the-week-that-changed-menopause-in-ireland-forever-joe-duffy-liveline-on-rte-1-radio 

 Law Society Gazette. Review of ‘Coco’s Law’ finds positive signs. 27th September 2024. Available at: https://www.lawsociety.ie/gazette/top-stories/2024/september/review-of-cocos-law-finds-positive-signs/ 

 Marie O’Shea, BL. 28th February, 2023. The Independent Review of the Operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. Available at: https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/255442/bda412d4-9538-47a5-8abc-ce22826bbae6.pdf#page=null 

 Ranae von Meding, 4th October 2020. Irish Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.ie/life/the-government-should-not-be-able-to-say-you-did-not-do-it-the-right-way-you-are-a-stranger-to-your-kids-ranae-von-meding-on-equal-rights-for-same-sex-parents/39572029.html 

 Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. We Consent Research 2024. Available at: https://www.drcc.ie/assets/files/pdf/drcc_we-consent_research_2024.pdf 

 Newstalk. Rape Crisis Helpline records highest-ever number of calls for help. 27th June 2024. Available at: https://www.newstalk.com/news/rape-crisis-helpline-records-highest-ever-number-of-calls-for-help-1739315 

 European Commission. Flash Eurobarometer 530 - Mental Health. October 2023. Available at: https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/api/deliverable/download/file?deliverableId=88914 

 Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin. “The Consolidation of Irish Catholicism within a Hostile Imperial Framework”, in Hilary M. Carey (ed.), Empires of Religion. New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, p. 25-42.

 Oliver Rafferty S.J..The Catholic Church and the Protestant State: Nineteenth Century Irish Realities. Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2008.

 J.H. Whyte. Church & State in Modern Ireland 1923–1970. Gill & Macmillan 1971, p. 24–31.