Travel Features

Let's face it, we Irish are a tad squeamish when it comes to public nudity. Most of us are insecure about putting our bodies on show, except, that is, for a few thousand Irish naturists who continue to use unofficial nudist beaches every summer. JOE speaks to the head of the Irish Naturist Association, Pat Gallagher, about the average Irish naturist and where we can find these “nude” beaches.

By William Nestor

At last we have the opportunity to dust off the Bermuda shorts and lather on the sun cream as our tiny island temporarily turns tropical.

For me, pulling on the shorts and letting the air get between those paler-shade-of-white toes, is sheer ecstasy in weather like this. However, that doesn’t cut it for everyone.

The Irish Naturist Association (INA) has been in existence for over 40 years and is currently campaigning for the provision of officially approved clothing optional beaches. Roughly 5,000 people in this country are calling for town and city councils to erect signage at designated “nude beaches.”

Pat Gallagher is a naturist and he tells me about the status of Irish naturism, which beaches are unofficially “nudist” and why stripping off appeals to him.

JOE: So Pat, why do you like being nude on a beach?

Pat Gallagher: At this stage of my life I don’t feel comfortable having to wear a bathing suit on a beach. I’m gone past that stage in my life.

I just don’t want to do that and I don’t feel like I have to. That’s why I wouldn’t pick a (holiday) destination where I couldn’t go on a beach (nude).

JOE: You say, “at this stage of your life.” Does that mean there is a particular age bracket for naturists?

PG: Somewhere between 25 and 65 I suppose. And then you can have younger and older. But I suppose around the 50 mark would be the mainstay.

JOE: So you think people in their fifties are the most comfortable with nudity? Why is this the case?

PG: I think people discover later on in life, after they’re married, after they’ve had one or two children, they go abroad on holidays, they find a beach down in the canaries or somewhere. They are a bit amused for a day or two, then by the end of the week or the end of the holiday they’re lying on the beach. They’re the nudies on the beach then.

They’re more comfortable because they’ve grown into it more if they started it when they were 25 or 30. By the time they are 50 they are well into and they insist on going to places where they can go nude on holidays. They won’t go to regular destinations. They will only go regular destinations if there is a naturist beach nearby.

I wouldn’t consider a holiday anywhere in the world unless I knew there was a nude beach nearby within a taxi ride that I could use.