GUBU
An Irish woman's social, political and domestic commentary
Thursday, September 15, 2005  

Condoms

Here's a wonderful article by friend Tom McEnaney in today's Indo about his work giving away condoms in TCD in the late eighties. It's hard to believe it was still illegal to sell condoms back then. If link doesn't work let me know I'll send you the article or reprint in full.

One addendum. In 1992, Tom and I decided to re-introduce the condom blowing competition during Trinity Week. But the 'skill' of smurfing as it is called was lost by then. We went to the Well Woman Centre and got hundreds of out of date condoms and Tom conducted a tutorial for interested parties in my rooms. You stretch out the rim of the condom and pull it over your head till its just under your nose. Then you inflate it through your nose. The condom rises like a big smurf hat over your head. Its amazing to see cos you can't believe they go that big. Whoever bursts it first wins! Ah, the student life. The prize was a double ticket to the Trinity Ball which was £50 in those days which was pretty good.

So my friend Fiona and I co-hosted the competition in a packed Buttery Bar. It was great fun because a lot of people hadn't seen it before and we interviewed the contestants beforehand like on a TV gameshow. It was all guys of course. The only irony was that while Tom did enter, another guy one.

Afterwards we still had loads and loads of condoms left over and we had them piled up in the bathroom cabinet. Which was quite funny when the ultra conservative mother of one of my friends stayed over and they all piled out when she went looking for toothpaste.

My glorious student days. My parents were so proud.

posted by Sarah | 10:15 0 comments
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