Dublin’s Best Gay Night

Mother, Saturdays at Copper Alley, Dublin 8
The spirit of the early New York disco scene is alive and dancing at Mother, Copper Alley's weekly gay night. Stripping back the pageantry usually associated with gay clubs, Mother has won a sizable audience of die-hard synthpop fans, gay, straight, and everything in between. Founder Conor Wilson chats to us about the KISS factor.

Give us a little background on Mother.
About three years ago, the recession was starting to hit GCN (Gay Community News) hard, as we were losing some of our advertising clients. We always wanted to do a gay club, something dancey and community based. So we were at the after-party for Alternative Miss Ireland in this little basement club called Copper Alley. None of us had ever been there before, it was this cool, exciting place hidden away. I met with Cormac Cashman, who was promoting some other clubs, like PrHomo and FAG, and I ask, "Do you want to do a club?". He took one look at the space and said he was up for it.

So we started to create the brand with Will St Leger (street artist) with a view for it to fund the downturn in advertising so we could still have a magazine out there for the gay community.

Mother's raison d'être is keeping things simple. Would you agree that its success is down to its regulars?
From the get-go it was a real house party vibe. As the nights went on we could see that people were just loving dancing to Björk and Grace Jones, music that wasn't really heard in other clubs, and climbing up on the banquettes and the DJ booth and really giving it socks. We always wanted to keep it that vibe; the people are as much the focus of the club as the music.

I've noticed that there's a real engagement with not just the gay community, but a straight clientele too.
That's a lot down to the DJs. We have DJs who have a great set of followers behind them. Mother's not really about cruising, it's about dancing with like-minded people who are really into their music.

What's the definitive Mother anthem?
Ooh, that's a tough one. It'd probably be Larry Levan's Stand On The Word. It's funny to see a club of 250 people singing along to every word of a religious song, there's something so strange and brilliant about that. DG

Honourable mentions: Queer Bash at Club Nassau, Tuesdays at The Front Lounge, Dive, The Panti Show, Crush