'...if you touched anything that 'didn't belong to you ' you went straight to Hell'

'...if you touched anything that 'didn't belong to you ' you went straight to Hell'

Billy Gallagher remembers his sexual development as a young man and describes his naivety and the fear that was associated with sex at that time.

Billy Gallagher

Trinity College Dublin

1955

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Billy Gallagher

Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Life Story

Macroom, Cork

1950's

I fancied a bird in Macroom (Cork) just after this, not the most convenient place as I was working in Donegal. She was eldest of a large family (7), both parents dead, the family being looked after by 'Aunt Agnes' from Cork. Aunt Agnes was from the Old School. She took her responsibilities seriously and sat between Mary and me always, even at 3 in the morning. I often wonder why she bothered as it was a well known fact that if you touched anything that 'didn't belong to you' you went straight to Hell (if you died of course). It was 327 miles from Strabane to Macroom, serious work in a Ford Cortina. It wasn't possible to pursue this relationship on purely inaccessibility grounds.Fr Feargal O'Connor who used spend regular evenings in the flat was always raising in-depth discussion. His speciality was relationships and he often boasted that he had more girl friends than any man alive. This was true and he was a profoundly good influence on everyone. He said one night that we should discuss sex with any girl we took out on the first night. What he meant was communication but I being na £ £ve thought he meant literally what he said.On the first date with Mary Murphy we went for a walk in the country (to get away from Aunt Agnes) and as an opening gesture I said to Mary 'Feargal O'Connor says you should talk about sex on your first date'. That killed the conversation dead. In fact neither of us had any idea what he was talking about, we knew nothing about sex anyway.

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)