The Irish are not that romantic, I am afraid, with the possible exception of Bono. While there are some wonderful Irish love stories, the truth of the matter is that once Ireland became Catholic men and women are often not that wild about fiddling with each other. Ireland has a huge number of bachelors and spinsters, and the average marriage age is very high for Europe. It will be interesting to see what happens as the influence of Catholicism fades.
When our family was in Ireland, one thing we all noticed is that we could never find any Irish women, even in Dublin crowds, who walked in the way American women do when they feel attractive and sensual. There is no rolling of the hips or a relaxed, open stance. Everything is rigid and straight ahead. Similarly, you only have to watch Irish dancers to see how straight they stand. There is no movement at all from the waist up, the arms are down at the sides . . . Very pretty to watch, but almost religious in its formality. When Irish dance was done at all the crossroads as fiddlers played, in pre-Catholic times, the whole body moved. It is another thing the Catholics corralled and changed. |
