Reynolds, P: Sex in the City: The Prostitution Racket in Ireland

Sex in the City explains how the organised prostitution rackets work in this country. It does so through the lives and activities of the main people involved. It maps the origins and development of their enterprises and charts the growth of their multi-million euro businesses. It identifies the people at the top who ran the brothels, the type of women they employed and the individuals who supported their criminal enterprises. The men and women come from all walks of life and social classes. Wealthy middle and upper class professionals such as doctors, lawyers, businessmen and priests all paid to have sex with prostitutes in the brothels, in their offices or in their own homes. And it's not just sex with women and men they seek. There is a disturbing demand in Irish society for sex with young teenagers and children. In 1997 an Eastern Health Board study found that 57 boys and girls were working as prostitutes. A 14-year-old child prostitute was found in one of the brothels. Hundreds of men paid to have sex with her. Two members of the Garda Siochana approached brothels and prostitutes while they were serving in the force looking for sex with children. Kieran O'Halloran, who had himself been raped as a teenager and Gerard Lynch, were both caught and sent to prison. The link between the vice trade, prostitution and paedophilia cannot be ignored. Prostitution is big business. It's estimated to be worth at least 7 billion a year worldwide, GBP750 million sterling a year in Britain. There are no definitive statistics for Ireland, but based on these figures and the amounts the brothel keepers alone earn it must be worth over 100 million here. Sex in the City tells the full story of the business: who ran it, how they operated, how the money was split. It is long look at a murky corner of modern Ireland.