A disgusted Claire Ryan talks to the ordinary men, single and married, who pay for sex, but she is not convinced by how they rationalise their sordid behaviour. Is your husband a john, or a punter? You may be horrified by the question, but don't fool yourself into thinking that only lonely perverts pay for sex.
All a modern john needs is a wallet and a limited conscience. The men that keep the sex trade booming in Ireland are husbands, boyfriends, brothers, fathers and sons. A john may be the most ordinary guy in the world, but he is able to detach himself from his emotions and treat paying for sex as a transaction.
Johns operate in an anonymous world that, these days, is largely conducted online. Here they can access escorts on sites such as escort-ireland. On the other side of the sex boom are the escorts who advertise on Escort Ireland and list sexual likes such as 'reverse oral' or 'waterworks' in their explicit profiles, as well as listing the dates when they are 'on tour' around the towns and cities of Ireland. In recent years there has been a big shift away from on-street prostitution and a move towards escorts or 'high-class whoring', as the site brassers.
In fact, the escort business has exploded in popularity and accessibility to such an extent that paying for sex in any town or city in Ireland can be organised faster than you can say "dial-up" or "broadband". And, unsurprisingly, a wedding ring or a happy family life does not guarantee a man isn't secretively paying for sex.
So how do married men, or attached men, square things with their consciences when seeking out the services of escorts behind the backs of their partners? None were willing to explain face-to-face. These interviews had to be done via email, or via forums where I put questions to the numerous punters chatting anonymously online. Many of them had a lot to lose by coming clean. One man who regularly pays for sex, even though he has a long-term girlfriend, was willing to answer questions by email but would only give his online name, Anon Anon explains that he doesn't visit escorts to escape "an ugly wife" -- a description which he apologises for using -- going on to say that he's very lucky with his partner, but that no matter how appealing and attractive that person is, you may still want to stray into paying for sex.
