Marking 25 years since 'Sweat' night in Sir Henrys

The story of Sir Henrys and its famous Sweat night has been well told in the past. How a weekly dance night in the Cork venue grew into one of the best house events in Europe in the 1990s, attaining quite a reputation for its amazing atmosphere and the quality of music on offer.

What is really incredible, however, is that the tale of Sir Henrys is still being told. And the two men most responsible for its success, Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson, are still mixing top quality house music. Several events to celebrate 25 years since the first Sweat will culminate this weekend with two sold-out parties at the Pavilion in Cork.

But where did it all begin? Back in the recession-ravaged days of the late 1980s, Cork was a city of emigration, and links with the UK should never be under-estimated in the development of local music culture. While visiting emigrant siblings in London, Johnson would go to the Record and Tape Exchange in Notting Hill and dip into the shop’s slowly-expanding house music section, alongside his regular hip-hop browsing. Back in Cork, Dowling, a Dubliner, had been building a reputation among the city’s ‘alternative’ set for playing music that was a whole lot more attractive than what was on offer at the more conventional meat market discos. Introduced to Johnson, he was struck by the enthusiasm and knowledge of this slightly younger record collector, so invited him to play a few tunes at a night he was running in Redz on Liberty Street. And so the relationship began.