A Co Offaly man who denies raping one of his daughters and sexually abusing three others has told a jury that he became sexually attracted to his eldest daughter when she was 11.
The 63-year-old told Mr Paul Coffey SC, prosecuting (with Ms Dara M. Foynes), in cross-examination that he came across the word "paedophilia" only in recent years, and it could be used to describe his sexual attraction to his daughters, "if that's what you call it".
"I loved all my daughters," he said. He described his sexual abuse of them to gardaí as "fooling around" and denied having sexual intercourse with them.
"I would never hurt them", he said.
He has pleaded not guilty to eight charges of raping one of his daughters and to a total of 37 charges of indecent assaults on her and three other daughters on dates from 1973 to 1987.
He has pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault in relation to two of his daughters during the same period.
The man said he could not explain what he called his "sexual drive" towards his daughters which, he said, started when the eldest girl was 11 years of age.
He said it happened suddenly and went away just as suddenly when she was about 14.
Earlier, the second-eldest of his daughters, who claims she was raped and sexually abused by him from the age of six to 14, said she thought such abuse was part of every childhood.
"Until I was much older I thought that was what happened to children. I thought it was normal," she said, recounting to the jury several occasions when her father raped and sexually abused her.
The 32-year-old woman said her first memory of abuse was that, when she was six, he would regularly fondle her in the bathroom and make her perform oral sex on him.
He would also make her lie down on his bed where he would rub himself against her naked back.
She said the incidents occurred at least once a week. The hearing continues.