01/02/2026
Sides Dance Club | Dublin
John Nolan opened Ireland’s first commercial gay dance club on St. Brigid's Day 1986, with financial backing from another Kerryman, Cyril O’Brien, owner of gay sauna, The Gym; and who had opened two gay bars, The Loft & The George, across the street in 1984/1985.
The venue fed off an increasingly dance-literate audience raised on earlier clubs like Flikkers and an emerging demographic of moneyed and better travelled, self-aware gay men and women.
The club poached two Flikkers stalwarts for its opening night; Liam Fitzpatrick on decks and this writer on lights. Liam Fitzpatrick, considered the best of his generation for flawless beatmixing and an eclectic music taste, was hired as resident dj on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon tea dance.
The venue had enviable frontage onto both Dame Street and Dame Lane. In the club's basement, The Ouzel Galley café served brunch during tea dance; a café menu (sandwiches, burgers, fries, coffee and tea) during club hours as it transformed into a chill-out space.
A week after the Hirschfeld Centre was destroyed in Nov 1987, it suffered a catastrophic fire and was sold on to Dubliner John Murphy.
In later years, the venue became the focus of Dublin's emerging house music scene, seeding a significant number of top flight djs, including Billy Scurry, Liam Dollard, Johnny Moy, Martin McCann, Pat Hyland, Tonie Walsh, Warren K, Paul Webb and others.
The club fell into decline by the mid-90s, by which time its originator, John Nolan, had died of AIDS complications. Fondly remembered by thousands of Dubliners, the club's footprint is now occupied by the Mercantile Hotel.
The designer of the invite pictured here is unattributed, possibly Oliver Stanley.
Tonie Walsh
***rclubbing
