Colin Tierney on Tipp FM – 13th August 2021

Fran: Welcome back to, Tipp Today, to the 2nd hour of Tipp Today. Don’t forget we have that €50 voucher to give away from our friends at Classy Lady Boutique, the Square in Cairn. They have a sale on there at at the moment, and, that voucher is, based on your interaction with us on, WhatsApp and text 0 833, double 1, double 3, double 1. So final voucher. So do get in there. And if you wanna pop your name and your details at the end of your contribution, we will put you in the draw and announce the winner before 12 o’clock today.

Now naturism has become more and more popular in recent years in Ireland with laws around nudity in public having, been changed in 2017. However, naturism in Ireland is not accepted in the same way as it is in other European countries. 76 year old Colin Tierney has been a naturist for more than 70 years, and he joins me now. Colin, good morning to you.
Colin: Good morning, Fran.
Fran: And really good to talk to you today.
Colin: Thank you.
Fran: What is the attraction of what you do, of naturism?
Colin: Well, it’s not so much an attraction. It’s just, you know, freedom. It teaches your body acceptance. It’s got an awful lot of health benefits. And, you know, you’re exposing your whole body to the sun has enormous benefits. It increases your intake of vitamin D, which is excellent for health and for your, you know, strength of bones, and it can improve circulation and detoxify the body. It’s got enormous benefit. And,
Fran: And you’ve been doing this for 70 years since since you were a child?
Colin: I have. Yes. Yeah. And, it’s just a way of life. So some people wear different fashions altered, you know, in their lives. Mine just happens to be that, you know, no clothes rather than clothes. Yeah. So yeah.
Fran: And what happened in 2017 with the laws, changing, did that make a difference to you and to people who enjoy naturism?
Colin: To me personally, not really because I’ve always done that. But it has made an awful difference to an awful lot of people. Mhmm. The law was, actually part of the the act, was declared unconstitutional by chief justice. That he he declared one section of the law to be unconstitutional in a high court decision in 2014, and this led into a change in the the law itself.
Fran: Isn’t it incredible that people would take it to that, point? Are there indoors opportunity for naturism as well?
Colin: Oh, there are. Yes. We have very many. We even had one in Tipperary.
Fran: Go on.
Colin: We did.
Fran: Right.
Colin: Fairly near Clare.
Fran: And what what kind of an occasion was that?
Colin: There there was an indoors as well, we’ve lots of indoors swimming.
Fran: Right. Of course. Yeah. Yeah.
Colin: Yeah. Throughout, you know, all all over the country, you know, Monaghan, Cork, Galway, Tipperary is closed at the moment. Well, it has been closed since COVID. But, Dublin, there are several, swim pools that, cater for naturists. We just go along and, have our private swimming sessions.
Fran: And and would you I mean, is there occasion where you go for a meal, for example?
Colin: There has been. I personally haven’t been at that one.
Fran: Right.
Colin: But, it’s fairly common in the UK, especially in Bristol, there’s the regular indoor meals where people will sit down and just have a meal the same as anybody else. The only difference being that they might not have clothes on. There was also restaurants in Paris and Germany. They’re all over the world.
Fran: I’m fascinated by it because I could never do this. I just wouldn’t be comfortable enough because, you know, obviously, body type and all of that kind of thing.
Colin: Your body type has nothing to do with it, really. Nobody cares what your body looks like.
Fran: Yeah. Because there’s no sexual, dynamic to this at all.
Colin: Definitely not. Anybody who comes along thinking that there are sexual connotations with naturism, very, very disappointed. There are absolutely no sexual connotations. It’s, it’s fine. You know, it would be very much frowned upon.
Fran: And do you have do you have any issues with peeping toms, for example? Is there a voyeuristic, thing going on at times?
Colin: Not within the naturist or shall we call it community? There there would not be because anybody who, would be voyeuristic or would have any tendencies, you know, in that direction, would be quickly weeded out and not allowed to remain.
Fran: I suppose what I meant, Colin, was that if you have an area of a beach, for example, that is dedicated to naturism, would you have people looking over the sand dunes or whatever, you know?
Colin: You will. And you will have that, you do have that on on those beaches as well.
Fran: Yes. Of course.
Colin: Yeah. Of course. There are people, for whatever reason, will take pleasure in taking photographs even of people in, swimwear just the same as there are, you know, people who will take photographs of if they happen to see people naked on the beach, they will take photographs. But,
Fran: I think you were quoted.
Colin: It’s not so much the photographs, but then, you know, it’s the, as you mentioned there initially, the peeping.
Fran: The peeping. Yes. Yeah. I think you were quoted in, an interview as well, Colin, as saying that, you know, you see some of the outfits on the beach anyway that people might as well be wearing nothing.
Colin: Exactly. Yeah. There are, I was on the beach there, what was it, last weekend, there were the skimpiest of swimwear on people that, especially the females. And know, actually dressed like that is actually more provocative than being naked on the beach. There are more sexual connotations attached to the skimpier or to swimwear than to the naked body itself.
Fran: Isn’t that very interesting? What what about the age cohort here? I mean, with the people that you would, if you’ll forgive the pun, hang out with, how what what age bracket are we talking about?
Colin: We’re talking about all ages. We we’ve got people in their from their early twenties to their seventies and eighties. And I have been corrected. I am not the oldest, actually.
Fran: Oh, are you not? So at 76, you’re not the oldest, Colin?
Colin: No. I am not the oldest. There are a number of older members in the Irish Naturist Association. And, you know, just to be a naturist, you don’t have to be a member of the Irish Naturist Association. We there are you know, the Irish Naturist Association only has membership of a tiny fraction of naturists in the country. There are people here, and I’m sure there are lots of people from Tipperary and from all over Ireland that go on holidays to France and Spain and will happen either intentionally or unintentionally to, wander onto a naturist beach. And they will undress just the same as everybody else on the beach, and they will enjoy it.
Colin: They don’t they don’t practice it at home.
Fran: And what is it about us here that makes us slow to embrace this, do you think?
Colin: I don’t know really. I think it’s the old Victorian attitudes, have not changed. Well, they have changed to a degree, but not as quickly as they have changed in other parts of the world.
Fran: Right.
Colin: And people blame the church for a lot of our ills at the moment, but the church has absolutely nothing to do with naturism. I actually know priests who are naturists as well.
Fran: Do you indeed?
Colin: And there is even a saint in the Catholic church who has practiced naturism to a short degree in his life, and he’s a fairly modern saint.
Fran: And and Yeah. And can you can you name that saint?
Colin: Yeah. Pope John Paul the second.
Fran: John Paul the second.
Colin: Yeah. He swam naked when as he was, when he was a young person. And he has a very famous, one of his, I think he he called them his
Fran: Encyclicals. Yeah.
Colin: Yeah. Which, I don’t know whether it was written while he was pope or whether he while he was cardinal, but, he didn’t advocate naturism as such. Mhmm. But he said that with the naked body, there was nothing immoral with the naked body. That it was, the naked body itself was perfect and was created by God and, was quite immoral.
Fran: Yes. It’s everything that’s imposed upon it, I suppose. That’s where the issues are. Yeah.
Colin: It’s it’s more it’s all in the mind and the psyche of the the person.
Fran: Yeah.
Colin: That was his attitude?
Fran: And why do I mean, I’m fascinated with this, Colin, and I’m not sure why. I think it’s I’m fascinated with your bravery, on this. You know, I think it’s great. But you don’t see it as being bravery. You see it as being totally natural.
Colin: It is totally natural. There is absolutely nothing brave about it. By the way, the writing by Pope John Paul the second was contained in his book, covers it, “Love and Responsibility”. It came out in 1981.
Fran: Yeah. Isn’t that very interesting? And when he was a young man, he would have swam naked and He
Colin: would have. Yeah. You know, I think most people at some stage in their lives would have done so.
Fran: Mhmm. Well, I didn’t because I can’t swim, but Yeah. That would rule me out. If people wanna find out more about this, do you do you have a do you have a website or do you have something?
Colin: Yes. It’s irishnaturism.org.
Fran: Okay. Were you disappointed to find out you weren’t the oldest naturist?
Colin: nature? No. I wasn’t. No. No. I took it in good stead. Yeah.
Fran: Very good indeed. Well, we wish you well, Colin, and thank you so much for coming on with us, today. Most interesting My pleasure. Indeed. And do look after yourself. Thank you.
Colin: Bye bye. My pleasure.
Fran: That’s Colin Tierney there. And Colin is 76 years old, and he’s a naturist. And I think it’s fantastic, absolutely fantastic, because I wouldn’t be brave enough to do it. I wouldn’t inflict that, on anybody. And, plus, I’m a bit sort of strange about these things. I look the other way in the bath just in case.
Somebody wondering, does he wear a swimming cap in the pool? Well, I would imagine, that they would be, I don’t know to be honest with you, but I think aren’t there rules and regulations around that? Do you have to wear a swimming cap even though you might not have to wear togs? Anyway, okay. I won’t read that one out, but thank you for it anyway.
Patrick was on to say, good God, Fran. I couldn’t see me sitting at a dinner party naked. God forbid if you spilt your soup. You have a very strange mind, Patrick, I have to say.
…
Alright. Let’s take a break.
FM’s TipP Today with Fran Curry.