Baby 2k is to celebrate its first birthday next week. The club originally started on Saturday nights in the mean fiddler but soon moved to its regular slot on Monday nights in the refurbished Club Mono. The club has been host to several original party nights, one of which included a carnival complete with clowns and bouncey castles. Doors for the birthday bash open at 11pm on December 4th.

THE age of consent for homosexuals in Northern Ireland is to be cut to 17 years. But Tory peers have protested at the Government's decision to deploy rare powers to achieve its objective.

Baroness Jay, Leader of the Lords, confirmed that ministers will deploy the rarely-used Parliament Acts to force the measure into law. Conservatives complained that the measure was being "railroaded" through
without proper debate in the Commons.

The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill will cut the age of consent for the full homosexual act to 16 in Great Britain and from 18 to 17 in Northern Ireland. Peers have spent 48 hours in debating the proposals and, once again last week, defeated the Government.

By using the Parliament Acts, the Bill will now proceed to the Statute Book without further Commons debate on the Lords amendments. Lady Jay said that Home Secretary, Jack Straw, had agreed to meet Conservative peer, Lady Young, who has been the leading campaigner against a lower age limit, to discuss her concerns.

The legislation, to equalise the lower age limit between homosexuals and heterosexuals, is seen by its opponents as weakening the protection for vulnerable teenagers. See the Belfast Telegraph 24/11/00 for more info

The Gay-Ireland mailing list, currently has over 400 members, up until now it has been possible to check all messages posted to the list dating back to September 1998 however Listbot - the company that hosts the mailing list will begin removing all archived messages older than one year old. From Dec. 14th onward, messages older than one year will be deleted on a monthly basis. To join the Gay Ireland Mailing List click here 

Top pop band 'Destiny's Child' popped into Q+A at Eamonn Doran's last Tuesday (21/11/00) - The band had just played the point and had headed to the well known venue in Temple Bar. The band managed to mingle in with the crowd almost un-noticed. They are probably the last group you would expect to find in a gay indie club. The band are currently number one  in the charts with the song from the current Charlies Angels movie. Click here for more info on Q+A 

The new look Out on The liffey gets its official opening tomorrow night (20th November). Mr. Pussy will be headlining the celebrations. The pub which is recently under new management has changed its image considerably over the past few months. 

The folk at the funky new club Q+A - Queer and Alternative (in Eamonn Dorans) are trying to confuse us - We just got used to Q+A being held on the 3rd Tuesday of every month but  they've changed their Christmas date to the 2nd Tuesday of the month. So while this months club falls on the 3rd Tuesday as advertised (21st of November), next months will be a week early on the 12th of December. Click here to visit the Q+A website.

Tonight (19/11/00) see's the launch of the Alternative Mr Gay Ireland competition at the Playground in the Ormand hotel. The playground used to hold the original 'Mr Gay-Ireland' comeptition until the rights to use the name + logo were attained by the promoters of 'Splash' nightclub. Doors open at 10.30 tonight with DJ Kenny Kane.

The Dundalk Outcomers group held a successful Black Tie Ball and Disco last night in the Westcourt Hotel. Drogheda. The tickets were a hefty £30 but for that paid for a 4 course meal - live music (by atomic) and a Late Disco. For more on Dundalk Outcomers phone (042)9339444

Enda McMullen - alias Siobhan Broadway appeared on RTE's exciting new dating game show Wanderlust on Monday. The idea of the game is to find a partner online - you are then flown over to meet them and have 2 days to make an impression. Enda was flown to Brighton to meet his date 'Troy'. The two got on well, however there was no romance. The show visited some of Brightons tourist attractions and gave a good report on the gay sceme there. Catch Wanderlust every Monday on Network Two..

Today's Sunday World (Nov 12th) has listed the george in the 'top ten pulling bars' Ranked the number 5 bar in Ireland to find a one night stand, the paper says 'depending on your sexual orientation, this landmark pub proves highly popular beween certain dating categories' 

The top 4 pulling bars are Club M, Zanzibar, Club 92 in Leopardstown, with  'The wicked wolf' in blackrock taking first place.

The Bi-Irish group have decided to change their post meeting pub, the group who meet on Tuesdays in the Outhouse, on Sth William Street would follow  meetings in the Front Lounge but the sub-committee have chosen a new watering hole due to the crowded nature
of the Front Lounge on Tuesday nights. The group will now continue on to the IFC on Eustace Street
in Temple Bar.

"Shirley Temple-Bar", the TG4 documentary
broadcast earlier in the year, has been nominated in the Best Irish Language Documentary category in the up-coming Irish Film and Television Awards which will be broadcast on BBC N.I. and RTE in early December. An English language documentary has just being completed and should be transmitted on RTE1 before Christmas.

This week saw visitor number 'One Hundred Thousand' visit Gay-Ireland.com since its relaunch in February of this year. Hurray.

To commemorate the death 100 years ago
of Oscar Wilde a show 'Oscar and the Sphinx' will be shown at the Dublin Writers Museum,
Parnell square on November 30th, December 1st and 2nd at 8pm, The story covers the remarkable friendship between Oscar Wilde and Ada Leverson 
It is written by Glynis Casson and Michael James Ford
Performed by Glynis Casson, with Alan Stanford as the voice of Oscar Wilde - 'THE HAPPY PRINCE', Performed by Michael James Ford.
Tickets £12, tel. +353 1 86 8615281 or +353 1 2692746

A new Equal Status Act, which includes protections for gays and lesbians, is just part of the plan to make Ireland tops in anti-discrimination codes. The act is backed with a full scale advertising campaign. 

Tribades & Mollies, Sapphists & Sodomites, Romantic Friends & Inverts, Fags and Dykes... lesbian and gay love has been characterised in many different guises over the centuries. This course will review manifestations of love between women and men through three millennia: from pagan Ireland and classical Greece to the medieval age and Renaissance; from the European Age of Enlightenment to the Nineteenth Century and on to the current day of the post-modern Queer. This course is an introduction to that growing field of studies known as the 'history of sexuality' and theories of sex, gender and sexuality as they have been debated over the last decade. Each week focuses on a particular historical period and looks at its constructions of sexuality using key texts as exempla and providing readings from the most recent
scholarship.

Classes meet for ten weeks every Wednesday night at UCD Belfield from 7pm-10pm, starting on January 10 2001. The course costs £80, sliding scale available for Social Welfare recipients. Course instructors are Mary McAuliffe (Saor Ollscoil & Centre for Gender & Women's Studies, TCD) Michael O'Rourke (Dept. of English, UCD) and Katherine O'Donnell (WERRC, UCD).

The course can be taken for credit towards a Womens' Studies Certificate in Lesbian Studies & Queer Culture.

Stranos is a New gay bar & Lounge on Dominque St/William Street West, Galway. 
The name "Stranos" comes from the Italian word for "Strange"

The 3 storey building is painted in bright Turqoise so there is little chance of 
passing it by. The bar area is located on the ground floor, the lounge/chill out area is on
the 2nd floor complete with comfortable sofa's - making leaving a hard thing to do!
There is a games room on the funky third floor with two pool tables, the walls have been decorated 
by a group of art students with spray paint and imagination!! 

The bar will hopefully cater for all tastes young and old alike with each floor has its own unique look and feel. The official opening went ahead over the October bank holiday weekend with a host of parties that livened up the city. Been to Stranos? Send a review to hello@gay-ireland.com 

 Theres lots going on at the Kremlin in Belfast this month - It looks as tho they may win best gay venue in Ireland again next year with the amount of party nights and events currently in production - The best idea for a club night ever is on tonight (Nov 3rd) - Star Whores Hand Solo's revenge. Adverts for the night ask people to come along in costume for the spaced out theme night - hosted by Miss Alternative Ireland star - Revvlon (as Darth Trawl)

Other exciting news is that Building work on the new look Kremlin will begin next week, The Kremlin online reports that the Tsar will be converted into a cafe/bar. In more news from Belfast the Northern Ireland Goscars will be held this month - due to building work the event will have to move from the Kremlin - probably to the Art college to accomodate the large crowd that is expected on the night. Note:- that the Kremlin wont be closed at any stage during the building work. 

There will be another of the occasional pub nites in Waterford on Friday December 1st. Doors from 9pm, at Finnegans, above Kitty Kiernans, Barrack
St. There is a small cover charge on the door to pay security costs, with money raised helping to clear Waterford Pride's overdraft!

Former Bronski Beat and Communards front man, JIMMY SOMMERVILLE has been 
confirmed for this month's 'Divine' on November 11th. Currently working on material for his new album, he will, no doubt drop some new tunes as well as some old favourites, including his tradmark 'Why', which was recently released with new remixes. 

He's also been working on some TV soundtrack work, including the title track to the well-received BBC drama, 'Glasgow Kiss'. Jimmy Sommerville will be joined by The Copycats, Shirely Temple Bar, Dolly and Vada. Tickets are £14.50 and are on sale now  from the Olympia Box Office. Doors for Divine open at 11pm. 

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