During the 20th century in Ireland, girls had to repress their inner sexual thoughts and desires because the personal lives of Irish girls were dictated and controlled by the Catholic Church. and the state. Ireland socially accepted female inferiority by humiliating and torturing young girls because they loved another partner. As shown in Seamus Heaney's poem Punishment and the documentary Sex in a Cold Climate, Irish girls' views on love and sex were forever tainted due to the public treatment and ridicule they received . In Punishment, Heaney describes a personal experience of seeing a young girl tarred and feathered in public for loving a British soldier. Additionally, Sex in a Cold Climate focuses on four women and their tragic experiences in the Magdalen Asylums in Ireland. Furthermore, drawing on the themes of Punishment and Sex in a Cold Climate, I will discuss the relationship between sexual desires and punishment and argue that Irish girls were deprived of normal love and sex lives. In Punishment (1975), Seamus Heaney remembers a specific but terrible moment in his life. The Irish rebellion against Britain remained important to the nationalism of Ireland and the Irish people; moreover, those who betrayed Ireland were severely punished. According to Enda Duffy, Heaney observed a young woman naked and bald, ready to be hanged in front of the church where she was tarred and penalized for being in love with a British soldier (Duffy 04/06/10). Heaney calls this woman a “little adulterer” and “[his] scapegoat” to show the woman’s betrayal of her country (Heaney ln 23, 28). This situation is biased due to the soldier's nationality: if the soldier was Irish, the couple would be socially acceptable but because...... middle of paper ...... are deprived of this and having love and sex life becomes a privilege. Works Cited Crowley, Una and Rob Kitchin. "Producing 'decent girls': governmentality and moral geographies of sexual conduct in Ireland (1922-1937)." Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 15.4 (2008): 355-372. Academic research completed. EBSCO . Internet. May 28, 2010. Heaney, Seamus. Selected Poems from Seamus Heaney (York Notes Advanced, 2000). Christie, Sean Colgan, Daniel Costello (II). Miramax Home Entertainment, 1998. DVD Smith, James M. “The Politics of Sexual Knowledge: The Origins of Irish Confinement Culture and the Carrigan Report” (1931). of the History of Sexuality 13.2 (2004): 208-233. Academic research completed. 2010.