I'm actually a piece of flotsom myself. I'm a Brit who moved to Ireland a few years ago.

But as you can tell, I've taken a bit of an interest in the place.

From the very beginning, Sheelas have fascinated me. The first time I saw one I thought ... "Wow! A pagan goddess on a church!" I wanted to know more so I have spent quite some time (but not a massive amount) reading everything I can get hold of and talking to people who have studied them in great detail.

I am not trying to say to everyone that they never represented a pagan idol, I just want people to be open minded about them. You travel about Ireland and see some crude (crap) carved crosses and immediately assume they are earlier and that the good ones are the later ones, but it's not the case. After the 12th century the skill seems to have been lost and only poor imitations of the earlier stuff was produced. Sheelas look old because most of them are crudely carved, but this could just indicate that they were carved late on by poor masons.

Lawks! I do waffle don't I!!!