This coming Wednesday (30th August), Lube are  having a special Forum on Bear identity in OUThouse, 6 South William Street, Dublin 2.

The presentation will be multi-media presentation including a video screening of hot Bears! It will start at 8pm. Non-members and newcomers are particularly welcome.

TG4 are to screen another gay documentary, next Wednesday (August 30th) at 7.30pm, the half hour programme will focus on the Outhouse as a queer community space. The programme is part of a series made by OPEN channel TV last year about 'place' and local communities.  Click here to visit our Outhouse page.

Next week is the closing date for entry forms for the Tranny of the Year contest hosted by Gemini. 1st prize is a week in Gran Canaria in March 2001 for Transvestkarnaval, a whole week of Mardi Gras. The Final to be held on 28th September. There will be only 6 finalists. For more details contact Gemini. Click here to visit our Transgender pages.  

Coming out groups can be quiet awkward - sitting around in a circle talking about yourself is not the easiest way to meet new people. 

Introducing  "Dinner for 8 at 8" a new social forum for meeting people in a relaxed atmosphere. The group will meet for dinner in a gay friendly restaurant in Temple Bar. It is a means of developing friendships and would suit a variety of different situations i.e new to the scene, alternative to the scene. Dinners are not mixed, guests are expected to provide some details about their personalities, interests, hobbies, etc.. to match people at dinner..

The maiden voygage took place on the 17th August and was a tremdous success. Closing date for booking of the next dinner is 29th August 2000 but you can also book future dinners.  Contact Clare on 087 629 1274 or email clare_mhurchu@hotmail.com for more information.

Lets connect is the new computer column in GCN (gay community news) - The column (written by gay-ireland.com) hopes to cater for the growing Gay Irish community online at the moment. The first article covers internet chat rooms. Covering gay.com, IRC, cycosmos and more. Click here to visit the IRC chat room 

Reports of Waterford Pride 2000 were fantastic, there was great community spirit and it attracted huge crowds..
The festival launch made 2nd news item after the russian submarine on WLR fm. There was television coverage (launch & interviews) 
during the week on Waterford's local Cable tv station..

The highlight was Gloria @ Garter Lane, with their Karaoke rendition of 'I will survive' at 
Mr Pussy's karaoke competition in the pub on Saturday night.

What was really positive was the feedback from the mainstream population - there
were even families at the Gloria concert. The launch, movie and Sat night
mixed pub nite had a fairly mixed crowd. This is a key part of the community
development model - helping to break down barriers! Click here to visit our Waterford Pride 2000 page.

The Outdoors Eire group held their third event last Thursday (August 24th) Eleven people turned up for Dog Racing at Shelbourne Park - the group numbers are increasing for each event. This months GCN carries an article on the group which is sure to swell their members. The group are already planning event number four, possible events are Splatoon, clay pigeon shooting, camping, go-karting. Click here to visit the group's website.

The Cork heat of Mr. Gay-Ireland will be held tonight (August 26th) in The Other Place (which has recently changed management) , 6/7 Augustine Street, Cork. There is free entry from 10pm and £5.00 after. The winner of tonights heat will appear in the All-Ireland final in Dublin on September 3rd. Click here to visit our Cork pages. 

The front page of today's Irish Sun Newspaper (August 26th) carries an unusual story on popular footballer David Beckham. It is revealed that he loves being lusted after by men. David admitted to going to gay bars quiet a bit and loves the attention he gets from it. He beleives that men wolf whistle him rather than his wife Victoria. Earlier this year the footballer caused a stir when it was revealed he likes to wear his wifes underwear.

Several more changes have been made to Dublin's northside Gay bar, the most shocking one is 
that the pub is to now a men only zone on Saturdays, this has upset a lot of lesbians that 
went to the club on Saturday nights. The second change to the door policy is footware, out 
on the liffey is the latest gay venue to disallow runners. Now all three gay bars in Dublin 
have a Shoes only policy. Other changes to Out on the liffey include a rainbow flag collage 
painted on the back ceiling, the pub is also planning entertainment for different nights. 
Click here to visit our out on the liffey page. 

'Splash' the twice monthly caberet style club is to change venues next month. September 3rd
will see the club leave Vicar Street and try its luck with the Red Box (sittuated above the POD)
The club first openedin June and so far has had several pop acts play live such as scooch, Fragma and ATB. Watch out for Mr. Gay-Ireland on September 3rd.

Last Sunday (August 21st) The Sunday Tribune carried a three page article on Gay-Ireland
the piece gave one page to the RTE documentary 'The Love that dare not speak its name'
the following two pages contained a mixture of articles on equality, the pink pound (or dorothy pound
as its known in America), the coming out of Irish TD's, public affection, gay sucide and a listing of nine
Gay Irish Icons, strangely Sinead O'Connor, Shirley Temple Bar or David Norris didnt make the list.. Here are the
nine that did.
1/ Vincent Hanley, Rte DJ
2/ Emma Donoghue, writer
3/ Oscar Wilde, writer
4/ Brendan Behan, Writer
5/ Micheal MacLiammoir + Hilton Edwards
6/ Steven Gately, singer
7/ Graham Norton, comic
8/ Anna Nolan, new Tv Star (ie:- girl from big brother)
9/ Pat Buckely

It is impossible to ignore big brother, the newspapers have been covering nothing else 
for the past few todays. The program has created Ireland's newest star - Anna Nolan,
an ex-nun lesbian skateboard company manager from Dublin. The meida coverage surrounding
Anna has been astounding - this weekend alone, she has appeared on the front of the Sunday
Tribune fronting a Gay-Ireland special. Her story made the front of the Sunday World and she
also appears on the cover of the next GCN magazine. All this and she hasnt even left the 
big-brother house yet. Click here to visit the big brother website.

Brendan Courtney is Irelands first openly gay presenter, he is to present a new dating program on Network two 'Wanderlust'. Enda Storey AKA Vada interviewed him last week. Read the interview here

Rte have claimed that public reaction to their first ever gay documentary 'the love that dare not speak its name' screened last week, received a surprising amount of phone calls. Only two complaints were made about the program. Click here for the full story.

Waterford pride kicks off this weekend -  if you have any reviews or stories from the weekend please send them into us - in the meantime check out our events page to find out whats on over the weekend. Also check out the official site here.

The hike in Wicklow with the 'Outdoors Eire' group was such a success that there is a 2nd event already planned - the group are off to Shelbourne park on thursday (August 24th) for a nite with  the dogs - Meanwhile the 'Out and about' group are hiking on Slieve  Bloom on August 27th. For more information on these groups visit our organisations page.

A portion of the sales of '1984' from Voyant Publishing will go to Robert Drake, the 37-year-old author, beaten in a homophobic motivated assault in Sligo. Robert Drake has battled many severe 
complications resulting from this vicious attack. In October of 1999, he was discharged to a Philadelphia apartment he shares with his lover, Ciaran Slevin. The pair are receiving support from a core group of volunteers and the local Quaker community in their efforts to generate the personnel and finances required to fund Robert Drakes lengthy, ongoing recovery. Robert  Drake is a close friend of the publisher and was an instrumental figure in  the launch of Voyant Publishing. For more information about the fund,  contact Robert Drake Health Fund, c/o Arch St. Meeting, 320 Arch St., Philadelphia, PA 19106 

Click here for the original story

Click here for court case story (Jan 2000)

We have received a mail asking why TNT is no longer listed for Wednesday nights, We removed the link over a month ago as we received a report that the club has closed. We phoned Fraisers on O'Connell Street to confirm this and unfortunatly the club has been closed for two months now. Click here for old TNT Flyer

The Tivoli has once again opened it's doors - There is a new Saturday night club called 'delicious', promoted by Jennings entertainment (of Splash night club). Doors open at 11.00. Watch this space for more information on the club. Click here for a picture of the Tivoli theatre.

Earlier this week Gay-Ireland.com had its 50,000th visitor, the mailing list is still averaging 400 members, The archives for the mailing list are currently being worked on - there should be a more complete archive by the end of the month. 

Rte1 are holding their first ever gay night next Tuesday (August 15th) programming includes a documentary "The love that dared not speak it's name" (a history of irish homosexuality), The programme took over 3 years to make and has 
been condensed into a 54 minute Documentary.
Afterwards 'Beautiful Thing' will be shown.
Beautiful thing is without a doubt the best gay themed movie ever made, if you
cant wait until Tuesday then jump over to Blackstar and buy the video at £4.79 or DVD at £14.99. The gay night comes in contrast to comments made at the opening of Dublins gay and lesbian film festival by Independent film producer Mr Ger Philpott, who accused the company, along with TG4, of failing to meet its public broadcasting remit as it did not adequately deal with gay issues in its drama output.

Other programmes with a gay theme coming to RTE include the station's new dating and travel show, Wanderlust, which will feature gay couples also 'The Fitz' is a comedy about a stereotype Irish family who also happen to have a stereotypical gay son. The Fitz can currently be seen on BBC2 (Northern Ireland) on Friday nights.

Click here to view RTE's schedule for Tuesday August 15th

How many times over the past three years have we had a headline that said 'biggest bingo.... ever'
I dont know, too many months to go back thru but bingo in the George just keeps getting bigger and better. Last Sunday (August 6th) truly was the biggest and best bingo ever. The night was in aid of
'The Ray of Hope' charity. Normally bingo has no cover charge, tonight tho' there was a £3 entrance fee. Altho the prizes certainly justified the cost, everyone in the pub seemed to be playing, with lucky winners getting the top twenty albums and more!!  Entertainment was provided by drag queens, Shirley, Vada and Panti. Panti had an old friend from Japan helping her out, the crowd
loved her, she definitly got the biggest applause of the night. Second biggest applause went to Eurovision star Linda Martin who made a surprise appearance. Click here to visit our Drag Queen pages.

Recently we reported that out on the liffey was under new management and already there are changes,
we were surprised to see a major revamp underway, the old law memrobila is finally gone, instead they have gone for a stylish look with dark wine red and large mirrors on the back wall. The walls of the snug have been knocked so the entrance is wider, making the whole area in the bar much bigger and brighter. Click here to visit our out on the liffey page

As part of Waterford Pride Festival 2000, a screening of the Oscar [Best Actress 
- Hilary Swank] winning 'Boys Don't Cry' will take place at Garter Lane Arts Centre, O'Connell st, Waterford on Sat Aug 19 at 8pm. Adm £4. We will have more information on Waterford pride very soon. Watch this space.

Mr Gay-Ireland Galway Round 1 takes place this Sunday (13th August) in Studio One 52, Galway, Round two will take place on the 20th of August in Zulu's bar. The winner will then compete in the Mr. Gay-Ireland final on September 3rd, We will print more on the final as the date approaches 

In other Galway news new bar, 'the west end' is hosting karaoke (with DJ Pat) on Saturday nights, reports are that upstairs attracts a very gay crowd while downstairs remains mixed.

Boyzone manager 'Louis Walsh' says he would never have signed Stephen Gately if he'd known he was gay. "I certainly didn't know Stephen was gay when we gave him the job in Boyzone. he said he  would have thought twice about it at the time as it wasnt considered cool. For more on this story click here

We are still adding to the new look site - the most recent change has been the IRC Chat Room - The new room is java based so is a lot smoother than our previous room - it is also easier to use as now you just double click on a person to chat with them. The previous IRC room is still present, as it is useable thru a firewall. We have also added a guide on how to download MIRC software for your PC. Click here to visit the IRC chat room

Belfast nightclub the Kremlin is to undergo a huge extension plan. The nightclub, which won gay club of the year, plans to extend the Club room up to a new level, with the creation of a balcony and toilet facilities upstairs. Because of the Kremlin's structural integrity, there should be little or no disruption to the running of the place. The extension looks set to be built on top of the existing club whilst it operates as usual. Then in a two day process, the 'roof' will be ripped off into the new club. Look forward to some festivities to mark the expansion around July/August. Visit the Belfast chat rooms here.

Today is phase one of the new look Gay-Ireland.Com site, If you are a regular reader you will notice a lot of changes, we have changed some of the old features and added a ton of new ones. The site can be navigated from the four buttons at the top of the page 'News', 'Out & About', 'Features' and 'You'. While the majority of the site is now online there are still a few pages being polished, We still have to put the new look chat channel online, expect to see this over the weekend. A big thank-you to everyone who has helped on the site, some of the articles received are brilliant. We will need articles for future updates to the site, If you have something that will fit on the site please send it in. We have prizes to give away for  articles each month plus you'll be helping to build a huge resource for the whole community. Send your articles to lucky@gay-ireland.com

 The Cliteratae Erotica Ball is happening as part of Belfast pride, tonight Thursday 3rd August in The Front Page, Dongall St, Belfast admission is £5.
Live performances by 'in your space' and 'the angle grinder men' 
The poster for the event especially requests the following clientel

"switch hitters 
ethical sluts 
bull dykes 
boychicks 
femme tops n' butch bottoms 
wannabes n' not sure 
short n' tall 
old n' young 
pure as the driven 
dirty as f*ck 
.....and the frankly curious 
we welcome you all 
(dicks with chicks as guests)" 

More information on Belfast Pride

Now in its eighth successful year, the Dublin Lesbian & Gay Film Festival will be launched by film-maker and playwright Gerry Stembridge tonight (3rd August) at the IFC at 6.30pm on Thursday 3 August. This years festival is showing movies that will appeal to a wider audience than normal. Included amongst the list of movies is the current hollywood hit "But I'm a Cheerleader!" Our Vision section has a preview of the festival, with a press release and links to the official site and an unofficial site with 100's of links that review each movie. Click here to go to the Vision pages.  

Libida are having a cheerleaders party to coincide with 'But i'm a cheerleader' at the IFC - The popular club is now mixed - It was once just for girls. The event will be held in Chief O'Neills hotel in Smithfield - keep your cinema stub for a discount!!

Click here for our Libida page
Visit the 'But i'm a cheerleader' page

The Fetish group - Lube, which started on the internet are hosting a party this friday (4th August) in Lynch's bar on Thomas Street. 
There is a strict dress code for the night, which includes, rubber, leather, denim, boots, uniform and skin!!! 
Admission is £3.00 

View the flyer for this event
More information on Lynchs pub
More Information on Lube's dresscode

It`s time to put those handbags away, take off the shirt and get sweaty on the dance floor. 
UK`s premier gay club TRADE is currently touring Ireland. 
TRADE on tour is usually not as gay as it is at its London home, It is not being listed as a gay club in most of the venues it will visit but still it is rare 
opportunity to experience a stomping set which will have you on the dance floor all night. 

Trade currently holds the largest gay paying membership in the UK, currently exceeding 3700

The next TRADE Éire events are: 

6 August: Tivoli Theatre, Dublin. DJs: Pete Wardman, Gonzalo, Mark Kavanagh. 

Saturday 19th  Rose of Tralee 
DJs': Alan Thompson - Steve Thomas 

Visit the Trade (Ireland) Website

 Check I-Gig's site for Trade tour dates

Outdoors Eire - The outdoors group formed because people on the Gay-Ireland mailing list felt that there were not enough opportunities for gay women and men to meet in surroundings other than pubs/nightclubs. There has been much talk about organising an outdoors event - It has been decided that the first event will be a barbeque/picnic in Wicklow on August 12th. To join the outdoors eire group click here.

Basic Instincts of South William Street, Dublin have launched a new video catalouge, It has 16 pages crammed with videos, Categories include'general', 'leather', 'fetish','specialist' and 'maso men series'. Copies of the catalouge are available in the store.. Visit our Basic Instincts Page.

Teeny Boppers 'Scooch' are to play 'Splash' nightclub this weekend, Splash are similar to steps and are tipped to be big chart hoppers. Their career to date consists of four singles  'When My Baby.' , 'More Than I needed to Know.'  'The Best is yet To Come.' and  'For Sure.' 

for more information visit their official site