An account of Kinsale in 1514

From a European source

So that most young women and girls have their chests naked to the waist; it is as common there to see or touch the breast of a girl or woman, as it is to touch her hand. And so, there are as many different fashions and customs as there are countries. Over here we would mock this because it is not the usual custom,except in secret when Robin and Marian are in an amorous embrace.

There I saw all sorts of breasts according to age. There I saw nipples of girls aged twelve years; afterwards the nipples that they have when they are fourteen or fifteen years old, until they begin to develop in size and shape. Also I saw some completely developed, so very round and pert that it was a pleasure to see them, as here have the marriageable girls of eighteen years and above. I also saw all sorts of tits, middle sizes, big, shapely and in the open hand one would call them firm but yielding. And I saw some so disgusting and unsavoury that I marvelled where the little children could receive their daily nourishment. Also I saw others which were not at all worth looking at, so ugly and wrinkled were they and only deserve the name of flaccid udders.

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I am not sure what is being described here. This is from an Imperial (Holy Roman Empire) traveller to Ireland. Possibly he is describing the brothels of Kinsale. Or he has been riding about the country side, and is seeing Irish women working in the fields. There was a moral panic in Victorian times, about women working half nude in gangs, in the field. If the men, are away attending cattle or sitting about at home. Then there is not so much need to be modest.

Or it may indicate slave girls. I would assume the warfare of the heartland sent many people to the ports.