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On our backs: Sexual attitudes in a changing Ireland
Book by Sweetman, Rosita
250 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 31, 2021
Unlike the earlier On Our Knees, in this book Rosita Sweetman removes herself from the majority of the interviews and just lets the interviewee speak. In this way the 27 interviews provide a glimpse into views of people in Ireland in 1979 as to changing sexual morality, the impact of having no sex education, the role of marriage, condescension towards the working class, absolute confusion around LGBT people, the extreme violence with society, those working to improve education and access, and those such as Mná na h-Éireann and The League for Decency who were campaigning for a ‘traditional’ Ireland.
It is strange – and often sad – to read so many people discussing the great changes that had taken place in the previous few years and how they were conscious of a great social change taking place while being aware that in only a few years such a great backlash would take place in the form of the 8th Amendment. The historian John A. Murphy seems the one most aware of this, saying to Sweetman “There is evidence of a Catholic reaction or backlash. The politicians are wondering how representative these organisations like the League of Democracy are. The prospect of a liberalisation of the laws on contraception and divorce is something that raises grave doubts even among sane and tolerant people. It isn’t only cranks and puritans who fear for the future of moral standards. There is a genuine fear that we may be opening the floodgates.”
As a reader in 2021 it is also noticeable how little is mentioned of the Mother and Baby Homes or Magdalene Laundries. Vera mentions Mother and Baby Homes briefly in ‘Orphanages’ and in ‘Contraception’ Noreen Keane from Ally mentions them as an option she doesn’t agree with. They just aren’t discussed in any great detail anywhere else. Could it be that people were living in entirely parallel worlds? Is it because so many of the interviews are with urban dwellers and were less likely than rural girls to end up in those particular institutions? As a 2021 reader it is difficult to reconcile the numbers that went through the Mother and Baby Homes and that so many people could discuss sex and sexuality in Ireland without raising the spectre of them. And if those institutions weren’t well-known, could they have had any ‘preventative’ purpose or was their existence just to torture women and children?
The interviews with Nato (age 21) and Madser (age 20) where they discuss the raping women so early on in the book are some of the most shocking pages. But it is Vera (age 28) and David (age 28) in the ‘Orphanages’ chapter who are possibly the most affecting. When his mother went to work after her husband abandoned the family, a neighbour reported that a child was being left alone and so David was taken into State custody from age four to 16. He describes not just the experience of the institution but also the impact that it has had on him since then, particularly his difficulties in forming relationships. Vera’s experience is of torture in one institution after another.
This is what we have been left with – a society full of people who had the most basic family ties torn from them in the most inhuman manner. If Vera and Patrick are alive today they would be around 70 years of age; this is not a time in our history which has disappeared.
Would recommend to anyone interested in the social history of the period.
It is strange – and often sad – to read so many people discussing the great changes that had taken place in the previous few years and how they were conscious of a great social change taking place while being aware that in only a few years such a great backlash would take place in the form of the 8th Amendment. The historian John A. Murphy seems the one most aware of this, saying to Sweetman “There is evidence of a Catholic reaction or backlash. The politicians are wondering how representative these organisations like the League of Democracy are. The prospect of a liberalisation of the laws on contraception and divorce is something that raises grave doubts even among sane and tolerant people. It isn’t only cranks and puritans who fear for the future of moral standards. There is a genuine fear that we may be opening the floodgates.”
As a reader in 2021 it is also noticeable how little is mentioned of the Mother and Baby Homes or Magdalene Laundries. Vera mentions Mother and Baby Homes briefly in ‘Orphanages’ and in ‘Contraception’ Noreen Keane from Ally mentions them as an option she doesn’t agree with. They just aren’t discussed in any great detail anywhere else. Could it be that people were living in entirely parallel worlds? Is it because so many of the interviews are with urban dwellers and were less likely than rural girls to end up in those particular institutions? As a 2021 reader it is difficult to reconcile the numbers that went through the Mother and Baby Homes and that so many people could discuss sex and sexuality in Ireland without raising the spectre of them. And if those institutions weren’t well-known, could they have had any ‘preventative’ purpose or was their existence just to torture women and children?
The interviews with Nato (age 21) and Madser (age 20) where they discuss the raping women so early on in the book are some of the most shocking pages. But it is Vera (age 28) and David (age 28) in the ‘Orphanages’ chapter who are possibly the most affecting. When his mother went to work after her husband abandoned the family, a neighbour reported that a child was being left alone and so David was taken into State custody from age four to 16. He describes not just the experience of the institution but also the impact that it has had on him since then, particularly his difficulties in forming relationships. Vera’s experience is of torture in one institution after another.
This is what we have been left with – a society full of people who had the most basic family ties torn from them in the most inhuman manner. If Vera and Patrick are alive today they would be around 70 years of age; this is not a time in our history which has disappeared.
Would recommend to anyone interested in the social history of the period.
April 14, 2025
A powerful, weighty, eye-opening read. Rosita Sweetman explores the lives of Irish women and women navigating sex, puritanism, identity, autonomy, catholicism, resistance, and so much more. The book, framed as an oral history of sexual attitudes in Ireland, is almost unwittingly passionate and grounded, making this as engaging as it is important. A must-read for anyone interested in feminism in Ireland, Irish history, or the intersection of both.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews