18th-century links of 'Sex and the City'

THE PROBLEMS experienced by Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City were familiar to the 18th-century Irish, author on sexuality …

THE PROBLEMS experienced by Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the Citywere familiar to the 18th-century Irish, author on sexuality and relationships Carmel Wynne said at the Merriman Summer School yesterday.

Ms Wynne said Brian Merriman's famous poem Cúirt an Mheán Oíche( The Midnight Court) explores attitudes to sex that reflect 21st-century concerns.

"Merriman understood how to use myth and fantasy to get his listeners to question their own attitudes, assumptions and beliefs. He understood how easy it is to confuse the need for sex with the need for self acceptance, closeness and intimacy," she said.

The human needs, wants and deprivations expressed in The Midnight Courtare as emotionally painful today as they ever have been, she said.

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"These issues are timeless. The words may be different today . . . [ but] cross-culturally and down through history, people have had similar emotional responses and reactions to the need for physical closeness and intimacy."

It was a myth that marriage ends loneliness, she said, or that a spouse, partner, lover or friend "will come along, sweep you off your feet and the sexual union will take you to the heights of ecstasy and eternal bliss".

But feeling loved is a potent force for change, she said. "It allows you to carry around positive beliefs that build up self-confidence and self-worth, to blossom and become your best self."

Also at the school in Ennis yesterday, a book, Clare History and Society, edited by Dr Willie Nolan, was launched. School director Brian Ó Dálaigh said it was the most important work on the county since James Frost's The History of the County of Clarein 1893.