Phases of great change in Irish public life have coincided with political generational shifts, writes ELAINE BYRNE
ALFRED KINSEY’S pioneering research on human sexuality has profoundly influenced the study of sex since the 1940s. Although some of his findings have since been contested, his conclusions about sexual activity have become mainstream assumptions.
Kinsey asserted that the male sexual drive hits its peak between 20 and 30 years of age because physicality at that point in a man’s life ensures high libido and greater staying power. Women, on the other hand, achieve their peak in their 30s because they are, apparently, more self-confident and comfortable with their bodies and know how to communicate their needs more assertively.
Kinsey also believed that age determined the nature of sexual activity. When people are young, they are more inclined to be strong-willed, passionate, have greater stamina, are more adventurous and open to alternative ideas.
For example, scientific research suggests that heightened sexual activity is responsible for higher levels of creativity in an individual because it releases greater levels of dopamine. This neurochemical generates arousal and limits latent inhibition that thereby increases energy and drives ideas within the brain.
WB Yeats certainly believed in these positive effects of sexual activity and associated his loss of inspiration with an inability to have erections.
He held that there was a direct relationship between sexual desire and originality in his poetry. In a book published last year, WB Yeats and the Muses, Joseph M Hassett outlined how the poet underwent a “rejuvenation operation” in the mid-1930s to address this personal inadequacy.
After the surgical procedure, Yeats described a “strange second puberty the operation has given me, the ferment that has come upon my imagination”.
Ostensibly, frequent sex for those in their 20s and 30s has the unintended consequence of promoting less conservative behaviour. On the other hand, Kinsey found that older generations tend to revert to familiar and traditional sexual practices. In time, experience begets a reluctance to do anything remarkably different. The option often chosen, though not in Yeats’s case, is to put up with discontent. It becomes easier to live within the parameters of disappointment when expectations have been blunted over time.
Are there lessons within Kinsey’s research on sex for politics? Does the political development of the Irish State share a similar disposition to the different characteristics of sex among the young and old?
Since the foundation of the State, just three generations of political leaders have held office.
The first stage of Irish political development was defined by men primarily in their 30s. W T Cosgrave was regarded as the elder statesman in the 1920s Free State government, at only 42 years of age. Despite having no political experience, they established the legislative framework and institutions of the State.
The second phase of change in Irish public life came in the 1960s when dominant first-generation political figures permanently departed the political stage with the deaths of WT Cosgrave in 1965, Seán Lemass in 1971 and Éamon de Valera in 1975. The revolutionary elite of the old guard was gradually replaced by career-orientated politicians who challenged economic orthodoxy and opened Ireland to external investment with the Whitaker reforms.
The 1960s saw a new generation of young, urban, educated, middle-class voters who were more concerned with social and economic matters than the Treaty.
In Fine Gael this manifested itself into internal policy struggles on Declan Costello’s Just Society document that challenged the party to orientate itself left of centre.
This produced a more robust, articulate and energetic opposition with the election of John Bruton, Garret FitzGerald and others. It became no longer acceptable for the Fine Gael front bench to operate on a part-time basis because of outside career commitments.
The stagnant electoral market of previous decades became more competitive with the emergence of younger politicians within Fianna Fáil, such as Donogh O’Malley, Charles Haughey, Brian Lenihan, Des O’Malley and Bobby Molloy.
A new sense of optimism within the Irish Labour Party was prompted by consecutive victories by the British Labour Party in 1964 and 1966. This motivated the party to fundamentally reorganise its structures. The appointment of 31-year-old Brendan Halligan as general secretary at the party’s Gardiner Place headquarters in 1967 created a new dynamism in Irish public life.
A third phase of renewal in political representation occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the entry to political life of dominant personalities such as Bertie Ahern, Jim O’Keeffe, Michael Woods and Michael D Higgins – all of whom have announced their retirement in recent weeks.
Are we about to see a fourth generational shift in Irish politics?
With less than three months to go to an election, 25 TDs have already said they will not stand again. This is up on 2007 levels with others yet to confirm their intentions. The average age of TDs is considerably higher than that of the general population. More than 70 per cent of deputies are over 50 and the selection processes within Fine Gael and Labour indicate that this is not about to change.
According to a Red C poll by Paddy Power this week, 61 per cent say that a new political party is needed. Support for the proposition is strongest among the young.
Kinsey’s research loosely suggests that the act of sex is best appreciated or most enjoyed among younger people. Maybe politics is too.
Garret FitzGerald is on leave