Swingers in Ireland: the figures

In our second article on Swinging in Ireland, JOE speaks to staff at swing4ireland.com – the largest swingers site in the country with 70,000-plus members. By Robert Carry JOE: So is swinging new to Ireland? Swing4ireland: Swinging has been around for centuries. Before the creation of the internet it was just done in a different way. What the internet does is it allows people to connect with each other in Ireland. They are able to meet, swap images, see if they are attracted to each other, meet socially, make friends and organise events. JOE: How many people are involved? Let’s hear the stats… Swing4ireland: Our site is the biggest of its kind in Ireland, we’ve currently got 70,000 Irish accounts. A lot of these accounts are actually couples so there are maybe 80-90,000 in total. We’ve been running for nearly four years and we’re now getting between 1,000 and 1,300 new accounts opening a week. We also own the largest UK site which has 1.1 million members. JOE: And of course yours is only one of a number of such sites. What’s the breakdown by area? Which city has the most swingers? Swing4ireland: Dublin is the number one place with 18,744 accounts. Antrim has 7,098 accounts and Cork has 5,684. JOE: Would this be mostly men? Swing4ireland: Single males would be the largest category followed by couples and then single females. Traditionally males like to get involved in threesomes. They log on to get involved with a female and then use their new relationship to go along to meet people for group sex – they tend to get a lot of action that way. JOE: What type of people get involved, is there a swinging type as such? Swing4ireland: There are all sorts of people who swing. That said, the typical demographic would be a 35-year-old with one or two children. JOE: Is there a charge involved? Swing4ireland: There is a free part of the site where people can place an ad to gauge interest and to see what replies they get. But to comply with legislation we have to charge in order to ensure people are over 18. It works out at about €60 a year. JOE: So we’re talking about a growth industry… Swing4ireland: As I said, swinging has been going on in Ireland for a long time before the internet arrived. I think it has become more noticeable with sites like swing4Ireland cropping up and it's made it more accessible to people who have always wanted to get involved. Now it seems to be growing at a considerable rate. JOE: So how does it work, does the site organise events for members? Swing4ireland: No, the website doesn't get involved in organising events. We provide a forum through which members can organise things for themselves. JOE: So what type of events do they put together Swing4ireland: First you have socials – which are purely social events. It's just like a meeting at a cricket club. People meet up to establish if there is any type of attraction there. The second type of event is a ‘munch lunch’ – it's a social event after which there is generally some 'play' (sex). Thirdly, there's what is called a club meet. Members will come along and meet, and the action will kick off from there. There are dedicated swinging and lifestyle venues in Ireland which cater to this type of event. JOE: Many thanks for taking the time out for us. All the best. Click here to read about what happened when JOE sneaked into a swinger’s party.