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Summary

The attitudes and legislative initiatives of the Irish government in the 1920s and 1930s cast a long shadow over the rest of the twentieth century. Lack of access to contraception combined with the power of Catholic teaching meant that there was considerable fear around pre-marital sex, which also influenced how sex education was disseminated in the period with a focus on morality rather than physiology. In the absence of formal sex education, young men and women were provided with moral codes regarding sexual activity, which were in turn policed by families and communities. This chapter shows how attitudes to sex in the period were clouded in a culture of fear which was perpetuated by Catholic Church teachings. Yet, at the same time, women’s magazines and television programmes such as The Late Late Show attempted to push against these boundaries through more open discussion of matters relating to sex and family planning.

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2 - Sexual Knowledge and Morality from the 1940s to the 1970s

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2 - Sexual Knowledge and Morality from the 1940s to the 1970s

Summary