The Charles Self murder seems to have been forgotten. Earlier in the same year a gay set designer from RTE was murdered in his home in Monkstown. The 1982 Declan Flynn murder and it’s aftermath features in ‘Down Down…’ the book by Eamonn Sweeney. (The doorman was a disabled guy who used to get asked ‘How can you know you are gay when you are disabled?!!!) Once in you had to be ‘signed in’ by a member, we didn’t know any but after a frosty reception from the receptionist we got through. On my first visit there in 1982 there was a guy walking around feeling the walls and anyone standing against the walls! The front door was locked and had a peephole for the doorman to look out at you and decide if you should be let in. Flikkers the disco was a depressing place which stank of poppers by the end of the night. Like a gay version of The Bailey! The Hirschfeld had a cafe during the day (circa1983) which served good food and had people hanging around there for long periods doing nothing in particular. The Viking was tiny and very poserish as I remember it from my one visit in 1985. (now The Mercantile) on Dame Lane, the legendary acid house nightclub which started out as a gay club and the tragic events surrounding the 1982 murder of Declan Flynn, a 31-year old gay man, in Fairview Park by a gang of thugs. There are lots of aspects to Dublin’s LGBT culture that I’d like to cover in the future including the four-storey gay Hirschfeld Centre (1979 – 1987) in Temple Bar, Sides D.C. Eventually, I just forced myself in, got a pint (I never drink pints, I just thought I could make it last, and not have to move again), and went and hid down the back. A couple of drag queens cottoned on to me at one stage and started laughing at me. about 20 times trying to get up the courage to push in through the door of the Viking. One night in the early eighties, I walked the entire length of Dame St.
I first went in there around 1980 (and) I have no recollection of any Garda harassment.įourcort recalls plucking up the courage to visit the place for the first time: īecause it was beside the Olympia there were many amusing incidents when straight people, especially from the country, went in and quickly began to feel very uncomfortable … The Viking was a great spot.