"Perverts" in Disguise

Image by jgrantmac via Flickr

The Definition of Pervert will be very important in this post:

Pervert: to cause to turn aside or away from what is generally done or accepted
Source: Merriman-Websters

I am not a pervert. I am many many things. I am a son. I am a friend. I am a lover. I am a brother. I am not a Pervert.

Not a typical mantra I have to say to myself everyday of the week but every so often Something appears which makes your blood boil and your bile turn over so that it acidifies the entrails of your body. Tonight such an event has happened. I have been sent a copy of the Mayo Echo's article entitled "Castlebar Lake Attracts Hundreds of Perverts".

Now as you can imagine since I have read the article, I have been told to take a deep breath and calm down. Not my style much. This time I am pretty pissed off . I have a copy of the article below because funnily enough the Actual Article is no longer available on the Mayo Echo's Website.

Published under the title "Castlebar Lake Attracts Hundreds of Perverts"


Hundreds of perverts are descending on Castlebar every week as the town has become the 'cruising' capital of Connaught. The carpark at Lough Lannagh has become a meeting point for so called 'cruising', where gay men walk or drive to a specific place in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, onetime variety.
Hundreds of gay perverts gather at this carpark at Lough Lannagh in Castlebar every week. When they find a partner, most make their way across the bridge and up the pathway to the left. In recent months, the men have begun arriving in the daytime, propositioning passers-by, including teenagers, for casual sex.

Over the past two years, the carpark at Lough Lannagh has become a magnet for men looking for such encounters, and their actions are making the area a nogo area for ordinary visitors and walkers. Many of our readers have contacted the Mayo Echo in recent times to complain about the activities of these perverts, and following an in-depth investigation, it can be revealed that the situation is much more worrying than anyone imagined.

Initially, the practice of cruising by men was confined to night-time, and the area it was taking place was usually quiet enough during these hours. However, over the past six months the practice has now spread to the daytime, when children are around, and many more members of the public are around. The perverts are approaching unaccompanied men and teenage boys who are walking, fishing, or visiting the local graves. Numerous complaints have been made to local Gardai in relation to unsolicited approaches for sex. Complaints have also been made about men having sex in public places, around the Lough Lannagh area. Walkers have come across men in various stages of undress, in different positions.

The Mayo Echo has been carrying out an investigation of the situation at Lough Lannagh over quite some time following complaints from our readers. The first thing to strike any observer is just how busy the area is. Many people visit the area to eat their lunch, read the newspaper, go for a stroll, feed the ducks, or just have a daytime snooze in their car. In fact, it should be stressed that the majority of people who visit Lough Lannagh are doing so for completely innocent reasons. However, as you spend more time in the area, you begin to notice that there is a hidden world. Over the course of the past week, up to fifty men visited the area looking for other gay men, every day. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the busiest, when upwards of one seventy men will visit the area, right throughout the day. The vast majority will arrive by car, although an increasing number are arriving by foot, leaving their vehicles elsewhere in the town. Most of the men do not know their partner before they meet up, and do not stay in touch after the encounter.

The men follow the same sort of procedure to meet other men. They arrive by car or on foot, and walk about the immediate area. They say hello in a casual nature to other passing men , and if the other men engage them in conversation, they make their way to a remote spot and the sexual activity begins. They may also leave the area in one of their cars, although many refuse to do so as this can prove much more dangerous than staying in the locality. Most of the men make their way to one of three spots in the hedge-growth around the area.

The most popular spot is up in a corner alongside the river. Any sounds are drowned out by the noise of the river. The ground at these spots is strewn with discarded condoms and tissues. Worryingly, at the busier spot, there are pages from young boys' magazines strewn in the area. There is a well-worn branch where the men hold onto whilst engaging in their business. The most worrying aspect of the whole situation is that this spot overlooks a children's playground, and the noise of children playing can clearly be heard from just 50 metres away, whilst these man take part in their perversion. Unbeknown to parents who are minding their children playing on the swings or the slide, drooling perverts are getting off whilst watching their children.

Some men visit the area regularly, many times a day. The same faces and vehicles can be seen acting suspiciously almost every day. Men also travel from as far away as Sligo, Galway, Roscommon and even Donegal to visit the area. However, as word has spread about the practice, groups of young men have begun visiting the area to launch attacks on the perverts. Gardai have also been mounting undercover operations to detect the activities, and the Mayo Echo understands that a number of men have been arrested for crimes connected with the scandal over recent weeks. However, the Gardai operation is both ineffective, and barely discreet. Many of the men who use the area are already aware of the vehicles used by the Gardai. The undercover operations tend to be mounted at night, so the men increasingly visit the area in the daytime. Within the first day of watching the area, the Mayo Echo was able to detect the Gardai undercover operation.

On one occasion, the Mayo Echo came across two men in a sexual embrace in a public place, just a few metres from the car park, at 4.30pm in the day. Whilst these men were at this, a number of very young children were feeding the ducks with their parents, only 40 feet away.

The Mayo Echo managed to speak with a small number of the men who are taking part in the practice. Some complained that it was getting more dangerous. Many of the men have been attacked and robbed whilst taking part in the activity. Naturally, they do not report these attacks to the Gardai. They say they carry out the activity for the thrill of it, whilst some say they are married with children.

The Mayo Echo would like to give the men engaged in these practices fair warning. We shall be publishing pictures of the men engaged in these activities. It is completely unacceptable that ordinary decent people cannot enjoy a stroll with their children without coming across such disgusting scenes. These going ons are attracting criminals into the area, and are putting our children at risk. The acts are also putting the men's own health at risk. Innocent teenagers are now being propositioned for sex by older men, and this might lead to sexual attacks in the future. But most worrying of all is that these perverts are engaging in these activities whilst overlooking children playing in the nearby playground, and also looking at images of young boys from magazines strewn about the area. Extremely worrying, a boys' magazine is discarded in the den where the men gather.

Source: Mayo Echo. (Online link unavailable, as article was sent via email after site went down)

Am I pissed off? Yes I am pissed off. I don't care about the cruising. Cruising will happen despite any Garda Operation, effective or ineffective. So long as we live in a society which considers homosexuality as a deviance from the norm and endorses homophobic actions such as the actions of vigilantes which the Mayo Echo has reported on, nothing will ever change and cruising will continue. All any Garda Operation is going to do is to move the problem to another location and all things being equal of course, Will any Garda operation be required to make the same crackdown on heterosexual couples who fornicate in our public parks and upsetting my view from time to time by throwing their heterosexuality in my face all of the time.

No what I care about is the fact that the Mayo Echo has taken it up on themselves to be the Vanguard of the Good People of Mayo and to expose these "perverts" in their Paper. The piece is littered with homophobic bigotry dressed up in the language of "will somebody think of the children". It is completely unacceptable. For the record I am not and will not defend Child Abuse, nor the cruising of Minors. If it is non-consensual sex, then it is Rape & abuse. End of.

I want to know how extensive their research was. I want to know if they in fact interviewed these men to find out why they cruise these areas. I want to know if the Mayo Echo is aware of any services for Gay Men in the West and NW of the island. My own personal opinion is that they don't know and don't necessarily care. This piece is entirely disgraceful and is worthy only to become pulp for concrete in a sewerage drain pipe.


I don't even know if any of that made any sense. I am still quiet Irate about it. I will have to see in the morning how I am feeling to see what else can be done. This time, you will not be let get away with using such homophobic and backward thinking. If you think this is over Mayo Echo, I would not rest on your laurels too much. I can do threats too and It aint over till this queen says it is.

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