Club culture in the 1990s: How Dublin danced to a new beat 

Sides, Columbia Mills, The Pod... a new exhibition looks back to the golden age of clubbing in the capital

 Analog Rhythms - A Celebration of Dublin Club Culture takes place at The Bernard Shaw.

Thirty years ago, Irish youth culture took its brains to another dimension. The 1990s was a golden age for clubbing all over the world, as genres such as house music and later jungle and trip-hop briefly dominated the zeitgeist. But in Ireland the shockwaves felt especially profound as a country that had spent the previous decades languishing in poverty, religiosity and grinding hopelessness stepped into the bright lights.

This cultural insurgency was countrywide. But it manifested in different ways in different places. In Cork, Sir Henry’s became the lodestar for a clubbing scene that would put the city on the international map. In Waterford, the short-lived South mega-club – previously the “Celtworld” theme park – became an epicentre (albeit slightly later in 2001) while the Bridge Hotel hosted Underworld during their Born Slippy imperial phase. Galway had the Castle in Salthill, with its regular Sex Kitchen evening.