GROUP of pro chastity campaigners are roving around the country in an effort to dissuade young people, including students, from doing the bold thing until marriage.

The group, called Challenge, are trying to encourage students to remain virgins until they marry or, if they are already sexually active, to start over again by becoming "secondary virgins".

Last week they lectured to students in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, a college whose line on contraceptive devices was once summarised in a headline in UL's student newspaper as "No Rubbers In Mary I".

"The story is that with AIDS in the 1980s, they came to the conclusion that chastity before marriage is a good idea," says David Blake, a lecturer in Mary Immaculate College who assisted the group with publicity in the college.

"It attracted a lot of young people who were interested in the idea. Not all of them were virgins, although some wished they were.

According to Blake, the group believes chastity is not just for "geeks and nerds. The virgin geek is out."

The Challenge group started in Ottawa, Canada, and has mainly concentrated on secondary schools in the past, but Blake believes that the chastity message needs to be promoted at third level.

"Here in Ireland, I would argue that the real sexual crisis hits around first year in college rather than in sixth year of secondary school. The real pressure occurs when they are away from home for the first time and first year students in particular can be exploited."

Leaving aside the possibility that significant numbers of students might well find the idea of being exploited rather attractive, Challenge will be spreading the message in various areas over the coming week.

They may well have their work cut out. Surveys of student sexual attitudes in TCD and UCD last year revealed that 88 per cent of students in TCD and 49 per cent of students in UCD claimed to have had sex, with most of those in TCD claiming to have lost their virginity between the ages of 15 and 19. They get about, these students..