“We’re In This Together: Bark Of Millions”
“There are plenty of highs over the course of Bark of Millions’ four hours […] a quietly gorgeous ballad for the mythical Greek shepherd Prosymnus sung by the diminutive, mesmerizing Stephen Quinn, their bejeweled eyes and gold-glitter-caked mustache flashing in the stage lights.”
CLICK HERE | Feb 2024
“The hot new queer variety showcase streaming live from Dublin's Boilerhouse”
“Sauna culture is an important part of queer culture, the less “presentable” aspects of which get flattened out when certain parts of our community move towards mainstream respectability. There are things that happen in these spaces that are, in a way, sacred and that’s what drew me to the Boilerhouse, as a location. Why go to mass when you can experience divine ecstasy at a glory hole? (G)A(Y)men.”
CLICK HERE | June 2021
“There is hope and that is what revolution is': Overfired returns to Project Arts Centre”
“There is kind of a generational interplay. I’m very interested in legacy and passing of the torch and in folklore and the hidden history of the community that there seems to be a renewed interest in.
I think it’s fantastic the leaps and bounds we have made politically, socially, sexually but I also think we have a way to go. There are outer margins where people still feel like they didn’t benefit from the culture of respectability that went hand in hand with the marriage referendum in some corners.”
CLICK HERE | December 2019
“Dublin’s queer community is battling to save the city’s club culture”
“Grace is one of a number of queer-focused nights that have sprung up in the Irish capital recently. Not far from Grace’s headquarters, the Spicebag cabaret and club hosts top performance artists and poets every few months, while the feminist show Glitter Hole does a great line in experimental drag. They join more established club nights such as synth-playing Mother, the house-focused Sweatbox, and the musically mixed, female-oriented Spinster. Promoters of these clubs seem united in the view that queer spaces are more than just clubs – they are places in which the community comes together to have fun, and to feel safe.”
CLICK HERE | March 2019
“LGBTQI+ nightlife: Genre-busting, gender-bending gas”
“Inside, the aesthetic is positively parish hall. A wood-panelled bar offers pool tables and darts on the telly. On a Friday night in mid February, in the neighbouring function room, metallic streamers frame a modest stage; fairy lights haphazardly line the space’s perimeter; bunting, illustrated with abstracted butt plugs, among other motifs, traverses the ceiling. On one wall, set like a devotional icon, a gold shield bears the fiercely gurning face of Sinéad O’Connor. Welcome to Spicebag.”
[…] With a strong sense of time and place, these nights, their organisers and audiences, embody contemporary Ireland. Bound by a love of entertaining and the craft of performance, they celebrate the social change this country has produced while decrying the distances it has yet to go. Providing respite from a news agenda increasingly centred around division, an overwhelming togetherness reigns. For the ideas represented and the talent incubated, they should be seen as an essential part of any conversation around what Ireland is and what it wants to be. They’re here, they’re queer – get used to them.”
CLICK HERE | March 2019
'SPICEBAG: “And Sure Whatever You’re Having Yourself”’
“I think the social and political leaps forward we’ve made this last while have done us the world of good – if the gays couldn’t get married and move to the suburbs, Twink wouldn’t have anyone to walk the dogs with – but now that everyone can get hitched, if they so choose, I think it may be time for those a bit closer to the fringes to get all kinds of freaky again.”
CLICK HERE | July 2018
Listed in 'Ultimate Queer Guide To Live Collision Festival 2018'
CLICK HERE | APRIL 2018
Listed in 'Queer Irish To Watch Out For 2018'
CLICK HERE | JANUARY 2018
'"What I wanted to do was build a space that was about cultivating a sustainable, weird place for people to try out mad things. It grew out of a bit of a frustration that I had about the dearth of spaces for the kind of performances that I wanted to do. I think it was Panti who said [following the winding down of Alternative Miss Ireland], ‘the kids need to step up and do something new!’ – I took that as a provocation”.'
[…] Set up with “partner in filth”, Sarah Devereaux [the two bonded over a shared love of John Waters films and Shortbus], SPICEBAG takes its place amongst the likes of Glitter HOLE, UnderCURRENT and the collective Pussys, all of which are contributing to a new climate of queer in Dublin, each offering something unique to a scene where coexistence rather than competition comes first.’
CLICK HERE | August 2017
'At SPICEBAG, an anything-goes space for new queer performers'
'"We’re a non-commercial night, and we’re about providing a space for queer performing artists who don’t necessarily fit in, or have access to a lot of the other queer spaces,” he tells me, sat wearing a pink sequinned dress in an upstairs room of the venue.'
CLICK HERE | August 2017