I’m currently working on a project on Dublin in the 1930s, centered around the inner city and the emergence of a far-right and the religious crusades against all forms of ‘sin’ in the capital. I recently shared this 1934 anti-fascist leaflet distributed at a republican demonstration at College Green.
The news report below, from The Irish Press (May 09, 1933), is pretty typical for the period. The man involved was indeed at a ‘foreign dance’ event, but he only stayed an hour or so, and he wasn’t dancing, merely observing.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
One of the first references to homosexuality in official documents in contemporary Ireland occurs at around this time. The government set up a commission to (um … it’s years since I read this) make recommendations about the problem of prostitution, and one of the submissions was on the problem of male vice.
(I first came across this in a footnote in a book by, oh,… Keogh, maybe. I went to the National Archive about ten years ago to have a look at the original, to see all that was said. The file was a cabinet one, and only had a single line on it, and I could not find other files that would give more information — the only archived file seemed to be the report to cabinet.)
The anti jazz league from 1934 was actually quite large. De Valera was one of their supporters
Have you looked at any of the files on the Animal Gangs in the National Archives Donal? There’s some new stuff released recently I believe and there’s one on clashes with the IRA during a printers strike (that stopped the national press for two months) during 1934. (Jus 8/67 NAI)
Cheers Brian! Yeah, amazing stuff in the Jus 8’s.