In what an Irish HIV/AIDS expert calls a "very worrying trend," the STD rate is booming in Ireland, and the education needed to combat that has been pretty sadly lacking. This is perhaps not surprising given that Ireland was the last of the Western nations not only to get the message about safe sex, but to even allow condoms to be sold - legally - in the Green Isle. Many thanks to Bono and his group's support of the small but determined movement to sell condoms, the nation finally was "allowed" to make that choice in the 1980s, but it is still not something that has been embraced by the Irish government. AND, there is a scary new movement to bar ALL forms of contraceptives in Ireland, one led by a former chemist and a famous footballer. They clearly do not understand their own social history OR the fact that in just the last year alone, the HIV rate in Ireland has risen by over 25%. This is a "worrying trend." More worrying in some ways is a desire on the part of some to drag the Irish back into the dark days of illegal contraception, disease, and unwanted children.
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