Sandra Harris Writes

NO SEX PLEASE, WE’RE… TRAUMATISED…? BY SANDRA HARRIS. © Last year, Ann Summers Ireland Ltd. reduced the number of shops it operates in Ireland from three to two. Also last year, sales from the Irish arm of this UK company’s adult sex toys and lingerie retailers nose-dived by a whopping forty-five percent, from 3.34 million euros to 1.82 million. So, what gives? Are the Irish having less sex and, if so, why? Well, there might be a couple of theories to explain this extraordinary state of affairs. For one, it might have had its roots in the COVID-19 pandemic, which was well underway by this time five years ago. Can you even believe it’s been five years? It’s mad how fast time flies. During this pandemic, if you were lucky enough to live with your spouse or significant other, you could have as much sex as you liked, because you weren’t required to socially distance or isolate yourself from people you lived with, unless you or they actually contracted the virus. In fact, people pro...

  WHY I’M NOT CRAZY ABOUT THIS POST-PANDEMIC WORLD OF OURS. BY SANDRA HARRIS. © 1.       Firstly, we emerged out of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which a few million people, including many of our loved ones, died globally, into a world where Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was allowed to attack Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Ukraine, in a manner disturbingly similar to Hitler’s take-overs of various countries during World War Two. Didn’t we put measures in place at the end of that war to prevent this exact type of thing from ever happening again in mainland Europe? Someone somewhere must not have read the memo… 2.       Right. The shops are not as full of juicy goodness, useful gizmos and yummy treats as before. And, any time you ask the shop keeper or store manager what’s happened to your favourite chocolate bar with the picture of the lovely Alpine village on the wrapper or the blue kitchen roll that goes on forever, they just look apolog...