Sex in Ireland - Swapping tyranny for exploitation?

WHAT the “special vice squad”, which patrolled the streets of Cork in 1935 because of concern about “the growing number of sexual offences coming to light”, would make of any Irish city today is not hard to imagine.

At the time “offences against morality were increasing ... to a really serious extent” and there were fears that those gripped by “moral panic” would seek to establish “a body of special police who will patrol the streets, asking young girls where they were going and sending them home if they are not satisfied with the answers”.

Not quite extremists flogging women because their burkas were not standard issue but close enough. Nobody beaten or stoned to death either but personal freedom, as we have come to understand and cherish it, threatened if not completely put aside. It is not recorded if those who advocated the vice patrols felt it might be necessary to question young men in the same way.