Mystery man wants Ireland to swing

SWINGING may still be a taboo subject in 21st century Ireland but one man, albeit anonymously, is trying to bring the promiscuity into the mainstream by hosting parties in city centre venues and even in a stately castle.

Under the pseudonym of Tom Hogan — even his wife doesn’t know what her husband is up to — the self-declared entrepreneur yesterday told how he had come up with the business plan “because there are no swinging clubs in Ireland that are run on professional lines”.

Last Thursday, his first party in a Dublin city centre venue attracted 32 participants aged in their “40 to mid-40s” all willing to part with the €25 each entrance fee to meet like-minded “consenting adults”.

“Tom” had hoped, given the number of phonecalls and emails generated by irishswingersclub.com in advance of the party, that the numbers would be four or five times that.

“Obviously people were curious and bit reluctant to engage,” he said adding that those who attended were mainly couples with two “invited males”.

Normally, single males are not welcome because they are less likely to obey the “no means no” golden rule of swingers.

At last Thursday’s event, there was no sex on the premises as the club where it was held is rented. However, in time, Tom hopes to open his own venue and he is not ruling out the possibility of sex on site.

While Tom paints a picture of an above-board commercial enterprise about which he is not ashamed, he is not willing to publicly associate himself with the venture. He admits that Tom Hogan is a pseudonym, that his wife and family do not know about it and that his wife would “not be too pleased”.

His website details parties on Thursday nights in Club Citi in Dublin, a New Year’s Eve party in Annabell’s Night Club at The Burlington Hotel and a planned “Swing in the Castle” at “a stately castle located in the centre of Ireland with a wonderful medieval atmosphere and a great setting on a lake”.