Naturism/Nudism in the South, y’all!

We live in a very conservative part of the United States, in fact right in the buckle of the Bible Belt. The attitudes and beliefs that go along with that can be mind boggling and not anywhere near acceptance of social nudity. However, there is a culture of naturism here for at least 50 years! Being land locked and an 8 hour drive from the Eastern or Southern coast, any nude beach options are not a thing without making a visit a whole vacation.  So here we are confined to visiting nudist parks.

Let’s explore naturist vs nudist for a minute. Americans tend to call themselves ‘Nudists’ rather than ‘Naturists’ as their preference is to be nude in a social setting without embracing , what I would call as an Euro, a sense of oneness with the Planet and practicing a life of ‘ light footprint’ . In other words, being naked socially is just about acceptance and does not infer any commitment to unlavish living! But maybe there is room for those folks.

We (my wife and I) more tend to enjoy being naked in private or socially as a part of a ‘save the planet’ living. So anyway, the chances for a nudist event outside of private property do not exist, no tolerance for that here.

But back to what we have! Within an hour’s drive we have a great Family Nudist Park which has about 30 permanent residents who live in small houses built on the property. You can visit for a day for about $30 per couple. Single men are permitted too. There is a nice pool, volleyball courts, a clean hot tub, a breakfast/ lunch counter and a walking trail around the 40 acre property and it’s owned by a lovely welcoming woman! The rules are the usual in such a venue: no phones (‘cos of cameras, but also great ‘cos no-one staring at them around the pool), no unwanted behavior and best of all nude only! Some of the other venues within our driving distance for a day visit are ‘clothing optional’.

I have struggled with this idea and my wife agrees she would not be ok with being naked among a mix of textile vs nudes. In my opinion  having nude folks and clothed folks in a pay-in venue is setting up a deal where the actual nudists will be made feel like exhibitionists and the textiles feel like voyeurs (or actual voyeurs actually). Nope.

Then their is MN, FCO meetings, usually in someone’s house. That’s Males Nude, Females Clothes Optional. Only in America.  At least that’s what I thought until it was explained to me (and I agree) that such a set up, which is usually a pot-luck dinner, allows non practicing partners to see that their partners obsession is not something lewd! In fact many wives (‘cos it’s usually husbands who are nudists first) will decide to get naked and enjoy their new freedom. So in that scenario it’s a good thing.

American naturism/nudism, it’s complicated !

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I am looking at myself in the mirror in a changing room. I can’t help it. There are mirrors on every wall and I can see how I stand, how my body is from every angle.

I realise I am slouching so I pull myself up. My face looks tired. My hair is in a ponytail, there isn’t lots of it since my kids were born. I am in my early forties and my skin is starting to sag in many places. I pull myself up again. I smile but still look tired, I notice dark circles under my eyes. I remind myself I am only here to buy a pair of trousers, that’s all. I force myself to stop looking, get dressed and leave the changing room.

I go to the queue to pay. Big screens in front of us display the images of very young women. They are tall and thin. They have glowing skin and beautiful hair, lots of shiny, amazing hair and beautiful smiles. They have perfect, symmetric face features. They look casually at the horizon in amazing landscapes. They look free, young and untroubled.

I look at the rest of women in the queue; they are all different in age, all different shapes and sizes. None of us look like those women. I wonder if they are all thinking the same stuff when looking at the screen. I wonder if they can’t help looking at themselves in the mirror in the changing room. I wonder if they know, like me, how incredibly stupid these thoughts are, but still have them.

Suddenly something comes to mind: an article I read in the paper last week about naturism. You think about those people as somehow odd, nonsensical. In reality, looking at myself in the mirror it all makes sense. I assume when they undress themselves, they might feel uncomfortable at first but they are willing to break the barrier and show how we actually all look. They declare that they feel liberated, that they do it because it makes them feel good. I assume they don’t scrutinise themselves in the mirror when trying on clothes. Naturists are the rebels, the brave, the ones who step out of the mainstream.

I leave the clothes store and pass by many other shops. I can see many of them are geared towards women, they are all designed to create the illusion of youth. Clothes, make up, cosmetics, hair products, skin products, shoes, accessories. Women buy a lot more stuff than men. I wonder if when buying all kinds of stuff, women are following a painful path of perfecting themselves, of becoming one step closer to the women displayed on the screens. The reality is, as long as we feel so inadequate, we will keep buying. The more images of impossibly perfect women are displayed everywhere, the more we keep the wheels of consumption spinning.

I can see the trap of advertisers, and how easy it is to follow the main message. Stay young, forever young, buy everything we ask you to. And go even further and mutilate yourself, go under the knife, do botox, the fillers, the ultimate youth promise. Reject who you are and make our industry a multimillion-dollar industry.

For the last decade with the growth in popularity of social media, there is a danger of living in a parallel reality by posting pictures of perfect homes, perfect lives, perfect bodies. Instagram has replaced normal interaction between human beings. It is about showing the world how I transform myself in order to be closer to perfection. Lots of pictures are posted day after day and there is a race to have the same, the lovely south facing extension, the perfect holiday, the perfect skin, the amazing pair of shoes and hairstyles, the perfect tanned body, new fake eye lashes and hair extensions, the ultimate new procedure to make you look younger.

It is a never-ending race to spend and borrow, the more you spend, the closer to perfection. The more money wasted, the more you are conforming.

I go home with a sense of relief and keep the new trousers in the wardrobe. I need to have a look at this article about naturists. They seem calm. They seem happy. They don’t need to buy stuff, they don’t need to change themselves. They seem content. Happiness is already achieved. Will I take the plunge? I imagine myself naked in the water, all by myself. I close my eyes and I imagine feeling calm and happy. I imagine not wishing I was younger, desiring to look younger, and not wanting any stuff apart from necessities. Enjoying life, relationships and experiences, the real gift. It is you and the water. It is being grateful for being alive and life as it is.

But can I actually do it? Can I accept the passage of time? Vulnerability. Mortality. I don’t know if I can take that step yet. I am still someone who sits on the fence.

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Wild Atlantic Way becomes Nu2Be-Way („nude to be“)

For two weeks in September we have been travelling the Wild Atlantic Way and parts of the east coast – Connemara being the most northern place on our journey, Ardfield (south of Clonakilty) the most southern. Coming from not too sunny Germany  we usually spend our holidays on beaches in the south of Europe and choose places where naturism is uncomplicated and legal. Whether Portugal, Spain, France, Greece, Croatia or even Italy, we have seen a lot of naturist destinations. So now Ireland – most probably not spending lots of time on the beach, but enjoying the enchanting nature and breathtaking landscape of the ‘green island’ instead.
Since I cannot imagine a vacation without visiting a beach and some swimming and also the idea of being on an island that has thousands of kilometres of coast to offer, I did some research on the web.  At first, beaches in general. But pretty fast I came across your site and was baffled: What a variety of beaches at which to swim nude! Exact directions included.
I matched the beaches you indicated with our itinerary and noticed we would pass by most of these anyway; others would only be a small detour. And so our Wild Atlantic Way also became a beach tour that I decided to call the NU2BE (as in: nude to be) -Way. In the end we visited more than ten beaches, went skinny-dipping two times and spent a whole day naked in the dunes with a perfect blue sky and sunshine. Gorgeous!

Here is our “evaluation”: For swimming, Puppy’s Cove / Dogs Bay (northwest of Galway) has proven to be quite outstanding. Besides, this bay is just beautiful. On the east coast Magheramore definitely is worth a visit. For sunbathing, the dunes of Long Beach (southwest of Cork) are just perfect. No swimming there though, due to strong currents!
Other favourites were Mannin Bay (northwest of Galway), Banna (southwest of Limerick), Inch and Stradbally (between Limerick and Cork in the west) and Curracloe (between Dublin and Wexford).

Thank you for promoting naturism in your country. There is nothing better than swimming naked and having the sun and wind on your skin afterwards.
Please keep it up and thank your for amazing moments on numerous beaches. Viva Nu2Be! and best regards from Germany

www.petergdirmeier.de

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German Version

Wild Atlantic Way wird zur „Nu2Be“-Rundreise

Zwei Wochen lang waren wir auf dem Wild Atlantic Way unterwegs – unsere nördlichste Station war Furbo (westlich von Galway), die südlichste Ardfield (südlich von Clonakilty). Normalerweise verbringen wir unsere Urlaube an Stränden im Süden Europas und schauen, daß wir als Naturisten unkompliziert und legal sonnenbaden und schwimmen können. Ob Portugal, Spanien, Frankreich, Griechenland, Kroatien oder selbst Italien – wir haben viel gesehen und erlebt. Nun also Irland – mal nicht nur liegen, sondern Natur genießen und die zauberhaft-berauschende Landschaft dieses Eilands, das nicht umsonst auch die „grüne Insel“ genannt wird.

Weil ich mir einen Urlaub ohne Strand und baden irgendwie dann doch nicht vorstellen kann und mir der Gedanke, auf einer Insel zu sein, die Tausende Kilometer Küste zu bieten hat, nicht aus dem Kopf ging, fing ich an, im Internet nach Stränden zu recherchieren. Erst einmal ganz generell. Doch dann landete ich ziemlich schnell auf Eurer Seite und war baff: Was für eine Auswahl! Und was für genaue Wegbeschreibungen.

Ich glich die von Euch angegebenen Strände mit unserem Reiseweg ab und entdeckte, daß wir an den meisten sowieso vorbeikommen würden; andere wären nur ein kleiner Umweg. Und so wurde aus unserem Wild Atlantic Way zusätzlich eine Strand-Tour, die ich einfach mal den NU2BE (also: nude to be)-Way getauft habe. Über zehn Strände haben wir uns angesehen, an zweien davon nackt gebadet und aufgrund des Wetters an einem den ganzen Tag nackt verbracht. Herrlich!

Hier unsere „Auswertung“:
Zum Baden hat sich Puppy’s Cove/Dogs Bay (nordwestlich von Galway) als ganz hervorragend geeignet herausgestellt. Außerdem ist diese Bucht einfach nur wunderschön. Im Osten der Insel lohnt sich das Suchen nach Magheramore; dort kann man befreit ins Wasser eintauchen. ZUm Sonnenbaden sind die Dünen des Long Strand (südwestlich von Cork) eine Sensation; das Baden ist dort aufgrund der Strömungen aber nicht erlaubt!

Sehenswert von den Euch genannten sind auch:
Mannin Bay (nordwestlich von Galway), Banna (südwestlich von Limerick), Inch und Stradbally (zwischen Limerick und Cork im Westen) sowie Curracloe (zwischen Dublin und Wexford).

Vielen Dank, daß Ihr das Nacktbaden aus der Schmuddelecke holt. Es gibt nichts Schöneres, als unbekleidet im Wasser zu sein und sich danach von Sonne und Wind trocknen zu lassen. Macht weiter mit Eurer Arbeit, den Menschen in Irland (und den vielen Touristen) die Möglichkeit des Nacktbadens an den zahlreichen Stränden zu bieten. Viva Nu2Be!

***Zur Person: www.petergdirmeier.de

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I’ve always been curious about naturism but have always been too shy to indulge myself. Growing up in Ireland in the 70’s and 80’s it wasn’t something that was considered normal so absolute privacy was needed and growing up in Ireland in the 70’s and 80’s where large families in small houses was the norm so the opportunity for this seldom presented itself. There was also a stigma, real or imagined, that If you were into that sort of thing you were some weird pervert. Personally I didn’t associate what I felt when nude with any kind of sexual mood, I just liked to feel the sun’s rays on my skin.

I suppose there were opportunities when I first started going abroad on holidays at 18 or 19. I first went to some of the most popular holiday destinations in Spain. The first two weeks in August, landing in Majorca, applauding the pilot and stepping off the plane into an outdoor oven. Unfortunately my pale complexion resented this and decided to torture me with the sting of sunburn and the curse of the itch when I got home. I decided that naturism was best practiced at home indoors.

I got my first flat as half of a couple at 23. My girlfriend was very receptive of the idea and we spent most of our time at home nude, however as with most flat dwelling the common areas had to be navigated carefully. With having the space and willing accomplice allowed me to feel very normal about being naked, at least at home in private with someone that was sharing my life.

My last proper relationship ended many years ago and I’ve remained single since, so nudism at home hasn’t been a problem. I’ve done some travelling in the company of a good female friend who while not a nudist herself did grow up in Germany in a family where nudity was normal so she was perfectly happy for me to be nude in her company, indoors in private spaces. I don’t know about anyone else but having a friend like that is so good. She saw absolutely nothing weird about me being naked while in her company. The fact that we were not in a physical relationship but I trusted that she didn’t think me odd and that She trusted that I wasn’t in any way threatening to her was very liberating for me. Perhaps other people would be the same!

Luckily  I have some close European friends or maybe being from mainland Europe has nothing to do with it as they are just the right people. I was in Slovakia visiting a friend in August  2010 or 2011. As some of you may know, central Europe gets the most amazing thunder and lightning storms in summer. It was night and we had just arrived at her house after a social evening where some drinks were consumed when one of these storms started. Now, I love rain and this was proper downpour but it was also kind of warm. We went around to the back of the house and stood under the protruding roof just looking at it. It was dark except for the lightening and there was nobody around so I took off all my clothes and walked into the garden to feel the ground under my feet and the rain on my skin. It was amazing. I stood there for about 30 seconds although it felt longer and then I returned to the house and began to dress. “You’re crazy” she said. I apologised for the outburst and blamed the drink and the moment. “It’s not the nudity, normally I’d join you, it’s the lightning, you could have been killed”. We laughed at my stupidity but I have to say I loved every second of that experience.

Fast forward, it’s late 2018 and I’m chatting to a friend from Austria. She’d lived in Ireland for a few years then traveled the world and then returned home to Austria. She invited me to visit and even though I’d visited her there before a few years previous I’d never seen it in winter. So in March 2019 I flew to Munich and got the Flixbus through the snow-covered Alps to Innsbruck. That bus journey alone was worth the trip. It was 2 hours of wonder and amazement looking out the window. I arrived late afternoon, was brought to my hotel to check in and then off to dinner and drinks at a great little vegetarian restaurant. She is vegan and for any vegans reading this once you get off this Island your options really open up. We discussed the plan for the weekend, it was to be a weekend of thermal spas and saunas.

The first one was called Aquadome. It was about an hours drive away. It was  something ridiculous, like €35 for a day pass and another couple of euro for a robe. This place is awesome a warm thermal spring heated pool with other pool options, one with salt another with sulphur and I can’t remember the last one. After trying all the pools we went to the sauna. There is a big sign on the door that translates as “bathing suits are not permitted beyond this point”. I initially was a bit nervous and conscientious. I had never been naked in public before and I’m not exactly cut like Michelangelo’s David.

Needless to say I bit the bullet, went in and removed my robe. I was expecting a sauna. What met me was a whole other complex with outdoor thermal pools, steam rooms and multiple saunas with different temperatures, minerals and even building materials. They really take this stuff seriously over there, and everyone was naked. Young adults, mature adults all shapes and sizes. This is when I really got a sense of what being naked meant there. It meant nothing, it wasn’t even considered. It is just what you wear to the sauna. No vanity or exhibition, just normal. This is exactly what I needed to get me going. A sense of total normality being nude among complete strangers. Nudity wasn’t the topic of conversation. It wasn’t common ground. People still talked about work and sport and the news like they were in the pub. This is what I wanted without actually being able to express it before, total normality. But the icing on the cake for me was being outdoors nude, although it was -5 degrees C, and stepping into a heated swimming pool. I relaxed, floated face up surrounded by the snow-capped Alps with flakes of snow falling on my face.

I repeated that experience in different venues over the following few days, totally amazed at how accessible they all are price-wise. I absolutely love it. But the thing I loved most was swimming nude. This is how I found Irish Naturist Association. I searched for somewhere I could go that would accommodate me and found it. I have yet to avail of the opportunity. I am back in Ireland now, it won’t be the same. A certain fear has returned. Not the fear I had before. A new fear – this water will be cold!

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Summer is nearly over in Ireland by now and most of our Irish followers will have enjoyed a naturist holiday this summer.

Some may be seasonal naturists: Irish people who only go naturist abroad for a vacation. Indeed, the weather plays an important role for naturism and with that sense of freedom and clothes-free lightness – isn’t that something you found incredibly liberating and enjoyable, something so truly great that it makes the heart go grim and despondent when thinking of the need to wait around eleven months in order to have that experience again??

It happened to me after my second naturist holiday: I remember standing on a French airport ready to hop on to a plane back to Dublin, feeling bewildered and looking with amazement at my own garments after a 14-day total clothes-free period. I still recall how my mind seemed to go wild, feeling that that clothing-mandatory world around me was not the real one, the one which made more sense and induced more authenticity, honesty and openness in human interactions.

Not sure why it took me as long as one year and two holidays to convince myself that it was a great regret to have to renounce naturism in my own country. Too great a pity. I had not realised that I was going to miss it that much, to the point that imagining myself in swimming attire again seemed more and more ridiculous, as if I were trying to hide my imperfections… I concluded that rather than going back to “normal”, I preferred “going forward to reasonable” and following my gut instinct, I started to search for like-minded people among whom it was normal and non-judgemental to be naked again.

When I was younger I could never fully enjoy going to a swimming pool or the seaside, I was too self-conscious and preoccupied about how bad I might have looked. Since this turn in my life, I just love swimming naked of course – and feel mentally healthier than ever. My perception of cold has changed: I used to find it impossible to be naked under 20 degrees and now I even swim outdoors from May to October in Ireland (I might need a little longer to extend it to all year round), and I happily participate in nude beach clean-ups in autumn and spring. My tolerance of air temperatures in the lower two digits has been reinforced to my own surprise. Of course, apart from outdoor naturism I find it very enjoyable to feel like a fish in its birthday suit when attending the many pool sessions Irish Naturist Association facilitates.

I understand not everybody is the same but… if you think it is a pity to have to wait till next year, why not put a remedy to it here and now? September has been declared the Irish swimming month so… I might see you around? 

Looking forward to your messages!!!

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I’m sitting on a beach now, looking out at the Island of Lobos across the Bocayna Strait in one of the stone circles that have been erected by tourists over the years to give shelter from the winds that in some peoples opinion gave the island its name ‘ forte ventura.’  The circles are a perfect place for shelter, leaving your towels and backpack and to give some privacy to those who have yet to have the confidence to be naked on the open beach. The circles on the shoreline are the best as they afford a view of the beautiful sea and are generally cleaner than the ones further back in the dunes. There are no designated ‘Nudist’ beaches on Fuerteventura; there is simply no need. Once you have ventured away from the main tourist or town beaches you can be naked or clothed. As I now walk along the miles of gorgeous shoreline I cant help but notice despite this; birds of a feather flock together.’  The Kitesurfers are concentrated in one area enjoying the best wind/ waves with those surfers that sunbathe after their exertions being at either end. The less mobile beach goers stay close to the two large hotels and on the group of rented sun loungers the last sunbeds seem to be exclusively naturist…..yet , everywhere naturist and textile are interspersed. The further I get from the hotels the less people there are. There are other walkers, some hugging the water’s edge, some walking through the dunes. Most are clothes free and stop of at the sandy shallow shelving water for a swim or a dip.  Just over a mile from the last hotels there are a collection of stone circles where people of all ages have got themselves comfortable for the day….I will stop here and relax watching the tide come in and cool off from time to time in the crystal clear sea.

Next day…
El Cotillo was a small fishing village on the Northern coast of Fuerteventura.  I has seen some development in recent years, but it has retained some of the original charm.  To the left stretches impressive beaches with warm golden sand and a backdrop of impressive cliffs. There are surfers and hippies as well as tourists and today its mostly textile…but not exclusively… To the right of the village is one of my favourite spots in the world: Los Lagos or The Lagoons.  The lagoons are little sandy inlets divided by rocks with similar hexagonal patterns  as Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway, though they aren’t in columns. I parked at La Concha beach which is a very safe and sheltered swimming beach, Textile and Naturist swim together but it seems that the right hand side and all beyond is mostly naturist.  Unless your feet are tough you will need flip flops to walk over the rocky paths between the lagoons ..but its worth it .  I never feel more relaxed and safe than i do there. The other people on the beach will keep an eye on your bags while you swim and people stop for a chat on the waters edge . There are Germans, Irish, English, Italians, Spanish, Scandinavian and Polish all enjoying the beauty of this place… and it’s quiet and peaceful.  Hours drift by… it’s perfect.

I’m heading home again now. The South of the Island has even more great beaches, I will go there next time… The whole island is perfect for those wishing to relax… and if you have never tried skinny dipping or being clothes free… this is a place to start.

Andy P – July 2019

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I  grew up feeling the appeal of nakedness on the beach as a natural urge to be close to nature and body freedom. I knew naturism existed as an organised movement in other countries from magazines such as H&E, but in Ireland being naked seemed to be associated with pornography, so I never talked about it to my friends nor sought out like-minded people in Ireland. When I had enough money to go holidaying abroad I looked for naturist beaches which confirmed my intuitions that naturism is a healthy lifestyle and beneficial for personal self-development.

Acting on my need to feel free with no clothes in the water and on the beach brought me closer to myself, gave me more inner balance and contentment and increased my overall self-confidence. At that time I was just happy to be on my own and cherish my naturist holidays. It was later on that I started to feel it was a shame that I was experiencing it only when abroad. I was terrified to be exposed in Ireland as a pervert, or that I would lose my reputation as a nice guy; I had the feeling most people would find it eccentric, to say the least, or just utterly wrong.

But in the last years I had started to hear more Irish accents on foreign nudist beaches, so I couldn’t be the only one in Ireland with a love of naturism. Undertaking some research on the web I found Sallymount beach. I loved it there, although it seemed it was for loners apparently.

For professional reasons I moved abroad for some years around that time. I came back to Ireland a decade later; internet and social media were starting to take off by then. To my surprise and delight I found that naturist activities seemed to be flourishing. When I had left Dublin ten years earlier, I had heard of a swimming pool that might offer a nudist session from time to time, but now there seemed to be some event or get-together happening on a very regular basis!! My enthusiasm rekindled, I finally realised it was time to join a naturist group, to engage in social activities with other naturists, to normalise what I always found normal.

I am so happy naturism is now a part of my Irish life, a natural development here too.

I want to thank the volunteers of the Irish Naturist Association for their fantastic job creating this safe environment and providing a huge amount of naturist opportunities where I can feel totally at ease with myself and others in naked harmony.

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We have summarised here what we consider the 10 most compelling ideas:

1) The sense of freedom that naturism offers is consistently rated by naturists as one of the main reasons they live that way.

2) Naturism is highly compatible with the ideals of a natural, simple, and environmentally friendly lifestyle. When nude, people feel much more a part of a natural environment.

3) Naturism promotes wholeness of body, rather than setting aside parts of the body as unwholesome and shameful.

4) Clothing hides the natural diversity of human body shapes and sizes and hides and therefore creates ignorance about natural bodies.

5) Naturism where everyone is accepted is the opposite of the body fascism where only “the beautiful people” can be seen nude.

6) Naturism is tolerant of others and their differences. Nudity promotes social and sexual equality, feelings of unity with others and a more relaxed social interaction in general. Naturists tend to be especially sociable and accepting of other people, just as they are, not measured against some artificial social standard.

7) Countries with fewer hang-ups about nudity have lower teen pregnancy and abortion rates.

8) Children are not born with any shame about nudity. They are conditioned to be ashamed of their own nudity. The dominant idea that clothing is necessary for reasons of modesty is a cultural assumption, not biologically instinctive. Children who grow up in a naturist setting tend to be more self-confident, more self-accepting, and more sexually well-adjusted.

9) Nudity is not, by itself, erotic, and nudity in mixed groups is not inherently sexual. Sexuality is a matter of intent rather than state of dress. Complete nudity is antithetic to pornography and the elaborate semi-pornography of the fashion industry.

10) There are times when clothing is uncomfortable and unnecessary (swimming, sauna, hot weather).

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As a lifelong naturist I have met hundreds of people who have spoken with me about their experience of clothing optional social interaction in a non-sexual setting. The experience of most of those I met included one or more of the following:

• Feelings of personal freedom
• Absence of feeling socially different
• Feeling trusted
• Feeling empowered
• Feeling respected
• Feeling relaxed
• Feeling part of something wonderful
• Feeling accepted
• Accepting that my own body looks great / not worrying about my age, shape, weight, skin colour, scars, amputations, skin conditions etc.
• Feeling comfortable about making new acquaintances regardless of differences in age, skin colour, social status, education, career etc.
• Feeling safe
• Feeling fulfilled
• Not feeling judged
• Feeling that you have found your tribe
• Feeling that for the hours you spend together, you are among friends.

With these personal experiences being so widespread, it can be no surprise that so many people report feeling a lot better about themselves during and after naturists events.

This seems to be particularly true for people who live with anxiety and depression, and for people who suffer from low self esteem.

One person recently spoke about this in a TV interview, describing her clothing optional gatherings as her happy place, and when she is going through tough times with her depression, she can raise her mood simply by thinking of her next day with the group.

You don’t need a mental health diagnosis to feel better about yourself. Our mental health is a wide continuum. For any of us, the important thing is not so much where we are on that continuum, but in which direction we are headed. Our mental health improves when we do things that consistently help us feel better about ourselves.

But what is it that is so powerful about naturism that it can improve our mental health? I used to think that it was the body acceptance, the shared sense of respect, the experience of pressure-free equality where you are trying to impress nobody, the absence of a socially defensive or competitive atmosphere. Perhaps it is all of these things, and perhaps social nudity helps us to identify with each other better while we experience these things collectively.

But I think the answer lies elsewhere. I think the most significant factor is the fantastic people who are attracted to the naturist lifestyle. People with a joyless or dark agenda quickly feel out of place and drift away from naturism if they are not already excluded because of something they did to make others uncomfortable. The people who remain involved are the best human beings in the world, and their positive life energy gets into you, to the point where you too have that same effect on others. 19th century sociologist Emile Durkheim described this effect in his writings, when he spoke about the power of the collective experience creating something greater than the sum of the parts.

Naturism is like that. It is an example of one of the great truths in managing your mental health: if you want to feel better about yourself, surround yourself with great people.

David McCarthy

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Our first overseas outing was in February to the largest sauna complex on the planet, Therme Erding on the outskirts of Munich. 15 INA members made the day trip. A day where we were spoilt for choice due to the variety of saunas and steam rooms on offer.

The 13th February brought us to Dog’s Bay in beautiful remote Connemara. Four naturists braved the elements to conduct a thorough clean-up.

5th May was World Naked Gardening Day, it was a glorious early summers day. 40 members availed of the opportunity to tour the magnificent Corke Lodge gardens in Shankill, Co. Dublin. It was a truly memorable occasion.

Credit Photo : Paul Kolbe

On the 29th May 2018 in collaboration with Art Nude Ireland the Irish Naturist Association had organised a private viewing for the evening of the 29^th May at The Inspire Gallery. The appeal of the event took the organisers by surprise: Over 100 people registered to attend a private nude viewing of the Art Nude Ireland exhibition The Body”.

A first-time event – the exhibition was so well received and so thoroughly enjoyed. The managers of In-spire Gallery, where the exhibition took place, were delighted for the opportunity of this unique naked collaboration.

Credit Photo : Paul Kolbe

Following on from this viewing, one of the participating photographers, Doug Ross gave a presentation about Art Nude Ireland at our AGM.

The AGM was again held in the Lough Allen Hotel. A most enjoyable experience with so many members relaxing and socialising together. Leticia scheduled in a nude Spanish class which focused on vocabulary that would be useful on naturist holidays.

On the summer solstice we celebrated Spencer Tunick’s 10^th anniversary with a small re-enactment early in the morning on the South Wall. And in July we had our first island excursion. Our destination was historic Dalkey Island, we departed in two groups from Bullock Harbour on a very favourable day weather-wise.

Both Ballyfermot and Monaghan Leisure Centres grew in popularity as the year advanced with the facilities at both locations proving to be very appealing to members.

2018 was the year we had our first nude dining event. The first 18 to register were treated with a combination of Spanish/Venezuelan cuisine in the House of Salads. It was such an enjoyable experience that we returned again 2 months later.

September led to our first official INA ‘adventure’ in Cork city. This was the first time we would have three events in the one day – all in Co. Cork. The day started with two sessions of naked laughing yoga. A first for many of us but it certainly set the tone for what was to be a very satisfying day. Also, as part of the occasion we organised a collection for the ‘Bare to Care’ charity.

Straight afterwards it was on to the Crawford Gallery for the Naked Truth exhibition.Nearly 70 participants partook who had pre-registered through Eventbrite. Due to the large number we broke into two groups for the private tour. As the museum was closed to the public we could wander freely throughout the premises.

Credit Photo : Paul Kolbe

That evening we descended on Fermoy Leisure Centre. It was a first time visit and we were immediately taken with its very modern facilities. It was a great way to unwind after such a busy day and we immediately set about making plans for it to be a regular venue.

In October, our Event Coordinator attended INF world congress in Lisbon. Leticia could proudly publicise our growing membership base and diverse event calendar.

Towards the end of the year we marketed Black Friday Promotion and Cyber Monday Special aimed at attracting new younger members.

Throughout the year there wasn’t a month that went by without a beach clean-up or naturist hike. In fact, our last event was a very successful winter solstice beach clean-up in Sallymount on the 20^th December.

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