The sex industry in Ireland is thriving. The authorities might like people to think otherwise, pointing to the trial and imprisonment, in February of this year, of Martin Morgan – who ran a brothel in Bachelor’s Walk from his base in London – as a major blow against prostitution in Dublin. But Hot Press has confirmed that massage parlours and escort services are operating here more successfully and on a wider scale than ever before.

It doesn’t take much in the way of investigative journalism to establish as much. Sexual services are widely advertised on the internet, with hundreds of independent escorts operating out of rented apartments and hotel rooms throughout the country.
Prices in Ireland are considerably higher than in many other EU countries. A half-hour with an escort in Dublin will set the customer back, on average, €150. Copenhagen, where you can enjoy a so-called “erotic date” of two hours for €500, is more expensive. In Germany, escorts charge €190 for an hour or €250 for two. The prices drop dramatically the further east you go, with Polish or Czech women offering their services for as little as €40 an hour, or €350 for the whole night.
According to sources in the sex industry, the high cost of living here notwithstanding, the going rates on offer in Ireland have prompted a significant surge in Eastern Europeans, along with Asians and South Americans, opting for Ireland as a prime destination for sex work. In fact, some Eastern European women advertise ‘tours’ of Ireland in which they fly into Dublin for a few days of lucrative business before traveling on to other cities, much in the style of a rock band or a theatre show.
The vast majority of these women are advertising their services online without restriction, with several websites hosting the pictorial portfolios of hundreds of young women, which are accompanied by mobile phone numbers and e-mail contacts. The most popular website appears to be www.escort-ireland.com, which lists almost 400 escorts, who are predominantly non-Irish. However, many so-called ‘up-market’ escorts, particularly those operating in business districts such as Dublin 4, have their own individual websites, listing comprehensive services and prices.
While the majority of escorts are obviously working full-time, there are also some women listed on the site who describe themselves as students – women who are attempting to generate extra money, or even make ends meet, while here to practice their language skills (see Samantha’s Story).
The women individually pay €250 per month to have their profiles hosted by escort-ireland.com, which operates from a UK base. On their individual pages, the escorts will usually give measurement statistics and sexual preferences, which often leave little to the imagination. The list of sexual activities – for which there is an online directory to translate – will typically include options like ‘GFE’ (girlfriend experience), ‘couples’, ‘deep throat’, ‘sex toys’, ‘uniforms’, ‘spanking’, ‘role play’ and ‘reverse oral’, which means that the client can give as well as receive oral sex. Other options include ‘water sports’ (urinating), ‘tea bagging’ (sucking testicles), ‘OWO’ (oral sex without a condom), ‘A’ (anal sex), ‘Age Play’ (role play as a minor, which involves a kind of emotional regression), ‘Russian’ (stimulating sex with breasts) ‘Facial’ (ejaculating on face) and ‘Messy Play’ (don’t even ask).
On the website, clients are encouraged to leave reviews (also known as field reports), which are remarkably common – do these customers imagine that they could never be traced?
23-year-old Katrin, a ‘model’ from the Czech Republic, apparently does a good turn as a ‘schoolgirl’. It seems that Irish customers can’t get enough of this brunette. One satisfied client, who paid €150 for 30 minutes in her company, described the meeting in graphic detail: “She is one sexy woman. I got a hard-on the moment I seen her, great in the sack, an(d) a excellent blowjob. She sucked me good, and then onto the sex, excellent top notch. She is very chatty and a good gfe exp(erience). I will be back no doubt. A top, top bird! Beautiful tits, very firm…”
Another reviewer, who is obviously a foreigner himself judging from the terrible syntax (unless Katrin herself was the author), had this to say: “I took shower and came to her room. She was naked on the bed, her owo was very good and she make me so quickly cause she was looking (in)to my eyes while I came, then we continue from behind, I must say that was so good time for me and I was very enjoy it…”
There are over 4,000 reviews on escort-ireland.com, and it’s a strange world indeed that emerges through them. The website estimates that these encounters cost a combined total of €1,010,728, or an average of €251 per visit. While the majority of the reviews are enthusiastic, there are also many disgruntled punters online, complaining mostly about fake photographs and amateurish sex. There are even some complaints of escorts “talking too much about her boyfriend”!
For obvious reasons, the use of fake photographs is the issue which rankles most. Reviewers happily post warnings about this on particular escorts’ pages to warn others off. As a matter of policy, the website urges clients to call only those escorts who have reviews confirming their visual profile and there is a system of “confirming photographs” in place, run by the site itself.
They point out: “If you don’t like to gamble, read escort reviews before you choose. Not all escort reviews are reliable and no two clients have the same experience with the same escort, but if you want to play it safe, stick to escorts who allow reviews and have multiple good reviews that appear credible to you.”
Inevitably, some of the newly arrived escorts – who also conveniently enough happen to look the most ‘attractive’ – have not yet been reviewed.
For example, an escort named ‘Phabiana’, who claims to be a 20-year-old student from Belgium, is in fact a much, much older woman from Spain, who is working out of an apartment with another Spanish woman at the Marlborough Court apartment complex in Dublin 1. Technically in Irish law, more than one woman working on any premises means the venue is a brothel.
One of her neighbours observed: “This complex does indeed appear to have a lot of human traffic, but no more than other nearby apartment complexes. They are not doing me any harm, so I don’t care what they’re getting up to. I’ve heard that Parnell Street is much busier for action.”
After no more than half an hour of internet searching, Hot Press was able to find numerous brothels in the heart of Dublin, including several in the Temple Bar and Christchurch areas. Many escorts are also working out of suburban addresses across all parts of Dublin – with Ballymun, Clondalkin and Finglas all showing up on the websites.
The majority of Irish men using these services, according to a survey carried out by escortssurveys.com, are aged between 18 and 34 – with the majority of them “most likely in a relationship or married” and wanting “kinkier sex with escorts”.
Even though the women advertising on the Internet are obviously selling sex, the escort-ireland.com website is adamant that “escorts are not prostitutes”. The website somewhat bizarrely points out: “A prostitute charges for sexual services. An escort charges for her time and companionship only. Yes, escorts often have sex with their clients, but that is a matter of coincidence and choice between consenting adults… It is not the escort selling sex to the client!”
While it is a strange world, the impression given by the escorts is that it is a relatively harmless one. Both the extent of it, and its relatively ordinary character, make the case for legalising prostitution all the more obvious.
In the meantime, do the Gardai care? Clearly, there is the occasional flurry of activity – or indeed individual gardai in particular areas or towns may take it upon themselves to seek a conviction. In one such instance, in Kilkenny recently, a Chinese nurse Jing Jing Wang – who rather innocently advertised her services in a local newspaper – was convicted of running a brothel and sentenced to 4 months in prison. But in general, the attitude of the authorities offers a variation on the age-old theme of an Irish solution to an Irish problem. One Garda source told Hot Press that it would be impossible to clamp down on escort activities – so what would be the point in trying? “It is all about priorities" he said. “It makes more sense for us to be focusing on serious crimes, instead of trying to catch women selling sex in the privacy of their own homes. Also, catching them in the act would be impossible. You’d have to get a warrant, match the girl in the photo with the phone number, and have evidence of sexual activity for a cash transaction. Besides, I would imagine that a lot of these girls are only coming here for a short time to make some money before going back to their own country. How can you regulate that?”
The escort-ireland.com, which has an idiot’s guide to escort services on its website, also advises that you should never try to barter, nor should you “get the money out, like you’re at the checkout in Dunnes.”
Instead, they recommend the more subtle approach of placing an envelope discreetly down on the bedside table. One other important thing to remember, they say, is not to fall in love with the escort.
Probably sensible advice, that…