http://www.independent.ie/national-news/sexhungry-women-posed-biggest-danger-to-gis-based-in-north-222070.html
'Sex-hungry' women posed biggest danger to GIs based in
North
By Alan Erwin
Wednesday May 21 2003
AMERICAN GIs faced many dangers in wartime Europe. And the most
unusual emerged for the first time yesterday - sex-hungry women in
Northern Ireland.
A new study reveals that the authorities in Washington went to
extraordinary lengths to protect the GIs who were stationed in the
North during World War II.
They urged troops to keep out of certain pubs in Belfast and Derry
and vetted any women dating the soldiers on a regular basis.
Details of the vetting are revealed in a University of Ulster
study.
Checks were carried out to make sure that any potential brides were
suitable for marriage to Americans, according to researcher of the
report, Leanne McCormick.
"Girls who were invited to events such as dances were vetted," she
said. "The authorities did not want troops mixing with women who
were deemed unsuitable or whose morals were in question."
At one stage GIs accounted for a fifth of the Northern Ireland
population, with thousands attending regular weekend dances in
search of love.
Records held in Washington revealed military chiefs feared their
men keeping company with fast and loose girls.
"The concern was always about the health of the troops which led to
women being controlled and regulated," said Ms McCormick.
"Troops were warned of the dangers of venereal disease."
The researcher will present her report entitled 'One Yank and
They're Off' during a three-day conference at the University of
Ulster Magee campus in Derry which will start on Thursday.
She discovered that women's morals were subjected to intense
scrutiny during the war years.
If women complained that they had been sexually assaulted,
prosecutions were dropped if there was any suspicion they had been
involved in prostitution, according to the report.
Ms McCormick's investigations of the sexual history and politics of
Northern Ireland also discovered there were tough regimes for
working class girls whose morals were questioned or for those who
fell pregnant outside marriage.
They were regularly put in homes run by the Catholic Church, the
Church of Ireland or the Salvation Army, Ms McCormick
claimed.
"They might have been sent there by families concerned by their
behaviour - or by priests or ministers," the researcher said.
"Although legislation covering issues like venereal disease was, in
theory, gender neutral, in practice it was targeted mostly at
women.
"Men who contracted the disease had to reveal any relationship
thought to be responsible. In that way, women were in effect blamed
for the spread of the disease," Ms McCormick said.
- Alan Erwin