Irish eyes are smiling! - Irish Naturist Association

[Nude_not_rude]

http://www.irishnaturism.org/

Although Naturism in Ireland is hard to come by, this group is trying to make it legal and accepted in the country. check them out! They are affiliated with the INF too.

There are links to beaches (unofficial of course!), clubs and places to go. There is also a survey and polls which I urge you to check out and participate if you can.

[randomer909]

Thanks a lot for this link Todd :D. I actuallt just pm'ed Breff on what we could do for naturism in Ireland so I,ll let him know about this :)

[Smoothies]

This is our paper on the subject, which we mailed to INA before long:



Dear Friends of Naturism in Ireland!
 
This is to welcome and encourage you in your attempt to legalise Naturism in Ireland.
 
By becoming a member of United Europe, Ireland has contributed quite a few
cultural peculiarities of undoubted worth to the community. I am not speaking of
Whiskey, though.
As a member of the Union, Ireland has most likely decided to stay open-minded
in terms of accepting a few habits which may - at first sight - not match with the
traditional and paternal "Irish common sense" - a term that insinuates habits which
might have never ever been questioned for some thousand years.
 
Certainly, I am not talking about the Microlithe culture 7.000 BC, not about the
Tievebulliagh stone axes in County Antrim, nor the Culture of La-Tène, not about
the 150 micro-kingdoms (Túath), the capital of which was Tara (today's Meth
County). I am not talking about the Romans, the Cristianisation by Irish monks,
or the Vikings, or whatever one may call a "traditional Irish background", on which
a present legal framework could possibly (and more or less unquestionably) have
been established.
 
I am trying to depict a quality that must never be held back within an individual nor
a people: the ability of being curious and ready for asking questions.
 
Ireland has been open-minded, as for cultural aspects: In Dublin we find the place
where George Frederic Haendel conducted his Messiah for the orphans.
 
Sir Karl Popper, famous philosopher of Austrian origin, who died 1994 near London,
always said that "a question is the result of a more or less anticipated assumption".
 
Questions, therefore, are essential and highly recommendable outcomes
of what has already been the case before. Questions must therefore be considered
a constitutional element of further development, as they express a certain
readiness for innovation in terms of an individual and cultural development.
 
As for your aim, there are two questions which everybody must be given the right
to ask:
 
1st:   When does the habit of staying dressed make sense?
2nd: Is there any, at least one, occasion existing among others, when staying
        dressed does not make sense?
 
Accordingly, we may ask if and how staying undressed could become indecent,
and why?
If not indecent, perhaps when savoured by oneself alone, or in company of others,
who do not feel annoyed, the question will be only fair, why this should be illegal?
 
Legal actions, following European standards, can only be taken in such cases that
implicate the defiance and violence of existing law. Legal actions must not be taken
in cases of any private dissent (see below).
 
Staying undressed, will certainly have to be distinguished from all kinds of sexuality.
 
Sexuality can have something to do with nudity, but is not necessarily the "moving
factor", nor are both the same:
 
Sexuality is a constitutional part of the human being, as such it might as well
be threatened by punishment in any situation of everyday life, apart from staying
naked.
Sexuality, as such, is associable with all kinds of expressions, many different
kinds of hopes and fears, no matter if an individual is, at the same time, wearing
clothes or not.
 
Sexuality, however, will have to be submitted under a system of even stricter
control as soon as people go bare - because nudity, of course, does disclose the
sexual organs and might, theoretically, promote uncontrolled sexual activity.
With naturism, however, he visibility of sexual parts can be taken as a constitutional
part of the group-culture within the naturist community. Therefore, staying naked
can not be considered a public annoyance, as long as naturists make clear
that they obey, in particular, comprehensive rules for sexuality and sexual acts,
call it "morality" or "ethics" or , perhaps, their own "culture" (as it is expressed by
the German "FKK", "free body culture")
 
Here in Austria, we may call ourselves lucky, as nudity has been promoted and
widely accepted for more than three generations. We do not talk much about it, we practise
it wherever nudity does not in particular offend other people's interests or  religious believes.
Our laws do not define plain nudity as illegal, as long as the naked individual does not act
in an over-sexualised manner, like presenting one's erection towards uninvolved people,
or comparably disgusting criminal actions.
 
Following "Roman Law", there is no punishment posssible without a certain law (having
been violated): "Nulla poena sine lege scripta."
This is an interesting aspect which leaves Austrian naturists cautious not to act in a
politically pushing manner - we do not want to be focused too much in terms of legal
actions, as the possibility can't be denied that legal terms could be passed against
nudity, in the present time of crisis, personal data control and the oppression of individual
freedom.
 
As, at present, there does not exist any law against nudity, you can't be punished
for just being naked.
You could not offend the law by just strolling through a public park, whereas, of course,
you'd violate laws against decency or owners' (house) rights, if attempting to enter an office
or a cathedral in the nude.
 
Acting in a principally decent manner, you will be allowed to do what is not prohibited:
Here in Austria, therefore, naked hiking will not be contradictory to Law in a wood or
in the alps, nor would it be considered illegal by a lake - if there were no other regulations
published, that might be based on private or public owners' special rights and decisions.
 
Our naturist sites can be found here (some parts presented as English mirror sites):
http://www.medpsych.at/smoothies0.html
 
Articles on naturism-related items, such as naturist and naked horseback therapy
http://www.medpsych.at/NACKTherapie.pdf
http://www.medpsych.at/LUSTtherapie.pdf
 
and a basic paper
on some psycho-sociological aspects of naturism (45 pages, 34 corresponding articles
as footnotes),
http://www.medpsych.at/nackt-psychosozio.pdf
 
are available in German only.
It would, probably, be interesting to offer these articles in a professional translation.
 
Sincerely,
Birgit and Volkmar (INF)