TD 1
The purpose and importance of Throw Away goes wel
l beyond providing a thrill of nostalgia, if you were there, or a shock of the old, if it was before your time. Although both sensations will be engendered by this collection of nightclub flyers, its real significance is as a record of the changing social fabric of nineties Dublin, told through its material detritus. It acts as a kind of visual psychogeography of lost spaces and the people who inhabited them. A dérive through a Dublin demi-monde, a window on Nighttown. The blast of energy and enthusiasm captured in these flyers runs counter to the dominant narrative of pre-Celtic Tiger Dublin, of austerity and endless greyness. Yes, there was plenty to rail against at the time, but the evidence here suggests that many embraced the mantra ‘party for your right to fight’. Dance as an act of defiance and communal self-actualization. Most, if not all, of the venues featured here no longer exist. Not replaced with new iterations of nightlife spaces, as would have been the case in previous times, but now filled with corporate offices (The Funnel), hotels (Ormond Multimedia Centre, [Rí-Rá], Andrew’s Lane Theatre, Sides DC, The Tivoli), apartments (The Olympic Ballroom, SFX), retail spaces (McGonagles), vacant property (Columbia Mills) and a hole in the ground (The Temple of Sound). Spaces of possibility and community surrendered to the invisible hand of the market. 18