The cover of the current Ann Summers catalogue - "Pamela Anderson meets Cher on a particularly unfortunate underwear day"

Like a small army of extras from Carry On films, they travel the sitting rooms of the State hosting women-only parties, flogging "naughty" knickers and novelty items such as "furry love cuffs" and "botty spanking cream".

They are party organisers for the Ann Summers chain of sex shops (the 23rd shop is opening soon in O'Connell Street, Dubli), and Avon Ladies they ain't.

Think Tupperware parties where instead of buying a practical lunchbox with a lifetime guarantee you can purchase sex toys or saucy underwear a la Barbara Windsor. It's all "good clean, harmless fun", according to one of the 100 party organisers in Ireland.

"It is nice to get friends around, with bottles of wine, to see some nice, sexy underwear rather than wearing Dunnes Stores knickers all the time," said the woman who, amid the current furore over Ann Summers setting up shop in our capital's main thoroughfare, did not want to be named.

About 200 Lambrusco-fuelled parties are estimated to be held here each week.

The latest Ann Summers catalogue features the type of product that will soon be on display in the O'Connell Street store and is already selling well in the one-year-old outlet in Belfast.

In Ann Summers land "naughty" lingerie sets have names such as Zoe and Annette for the slightly subdued, and Fever or Erotica for the more adventurous.

A dizzying array of vibrators, euphemistically dubbed "personal products", are spread across two pages of the catalogue and go by the monikers of Greek gods in some cases.

The Adonis is one of the better sellers "because it is more lifelike", a chirpy employee in the Surrey Ann Summers office helpfully points out.

Other top sellers include a colourful appliance called Flower Power. The Black Prince was a bigger seller here a few years ago, but has since lost out to products such as the Totem Pole.

Also popular is the Toad in the Hole and the waterproof Purple Pulser model.

On balance, however, the shops sell more glamour lingerie than novelty items. At its most racy, the current range could be described as Pamela Anderson meets Cher on a particularly unfortunate underwear day. Leopard print and PVC abounds while, true to their claim, there are some sets that could be found in regular underwear stores such as Knickerbox. That chain, unlike Ann Summers, draws the line at crotchless, peephole and edible undies, however.

In Britain such products are par for the course. The invitation for Prince Edward and Sophie RhysJones's joint stag and hen party urged guests to "bring something very rude", and observers said the evening was as close as makes no difference to an Ann Summers party.

Barbara Windsor has some of the Ann Summers underwear named after her and there are few British people who haven't been to an Ann Summers party or don't at least know a woman who has. Some 400,000 vibrators are sold at these parties each year.

The chain was opened in 1972 by two brothers, David and Ralph Gold. These days the company, worth an estimated £34 million, is run almost entirely by women, with Jacqueline Gold, daughter of David, firmly ensconsed as chief executive.

"We find that everyone is interested in sex," she said in a recent interview. "So the market is completely open."

Originally the name of the chain was chosen to depict a new kind of sex-shop that didn't cower shamefully behind blackened windows or sleazy shopfronts.

The existing sex-shops in Dublin and Limerick have also moved with that trend but are still situated in more out-of-the-way areas than the proposed Ann Summers store.

Meanwhile women aged from 18 to 80 continue to attend Ann Summers parties, sticking items of underwear on their head while wearing "naughty" name tags such as Peephole Pat and Rubber Rita. The women buy books such as How to Make Love to the Same Person For the Rest of Your Life (And Love It) and giggle a lot.

Like the woman in her mid-60s who told one party organiser that it had been her dream to see what a vibrator looked like and when she did declared "there was nothing disgusting about it".

Or the 79-year-old woman who bought a vibrator at a recent Ann Summers party in Dublin. She told the Ann Summers host in question that she would be using it for her arthritis.