"In early Irish society women could marry up and down the property ladder or the social structure, because their property rights were not affected by marriage," Condren points out. "Early Irish law had very clear rules and guidelines for determining the property relations. As patriarchal structures developed, property became invested entirely in the male lineage, which meant that rich people could not afford to let their daughters loose, mating with people from the lower classes, because otherwise their property would be divided and dissipated all over the place. The virginity of women then became a political issue rather than solely a sexual issue, although the sexual question became the means of enforcing the patriarchal lineage and structure. Not only were women who were going to get married forced to maintain their virginity until they got married, because otherwise their property rights would be affected, but women who could not afford a dowry then ended up in convents, where the ideology of virginity took on an entirely different meaning, which was anti-sex, and anti-body, losing its overt political and spiritual meaning."

Interesting interview with Mary Condren, a leading Irish Feminist. It discusses her ground breaking book The Serpent and the Goddess, as well as various 'hot' topics - abortion, church-state relations, women's history. I'm not so sure about the observations on suicide bombing though...