BEHIND THE SCENE

With so much talk of London’s 'lesbian renaissance’, Keev Ó Baoill wanted to uncover Ireland’s impact on the movement. They sat down with Oran Keaveney, one of the Irish trans dykes organising some of the English capital’s most sought-after queer and dyke events.

Oran, a trans non-binary, bisexual, butch dyke originally from Limerick and now based in London, runs some incredible trans and dyke events. They spoke to me about their move to London from Dublin, almost four years ago now, and how that move gave them the space they needed to “make mistakes and try things, you know… London is a great kind of training ground for organising events.” And with all London has to offer in terms of the queer nightlife scene, it is no surprise that that has been Oran’s experience. They are ready (and eager!), however, to start bringing those events back to Dublin.

Photos by Keev Ó Baoill.

“I always say I moved to Dublin to become a lesbian and I moved to London to become transmasc. It felt like those two moves were big jumps for me understanding different parts of myself ”, Oran opened our chat.

Now, Oran is organising events across London—PopUp Dyke Bar, Trans Sauna, Booters—all of which focus on creating safe spaces around the experiences of lesbianism, dyke culture and transness.

Having moved to London, Oran described how, freshly out of university and in a grad job, they suddenly realised: “Okay, when I finish my nine-to-five, I don’t have to study or whatever, I can literally just spend the whole time at queer parties and events.” And with London’s rich queer nightlife scene, that is exactly what they did: “I felt like London nightlife was amazing. I could be going out three, four, five times a week which was just incredible after being in Dublin. Nights like TransVisions, Butch Please and spaces in East London like Dalston Superstore, VFD Dalston…

It was amazing. I loved it. I met so many other dykes and trans people and trans dykes… and dated so many of the above!” they added laughing.

But Oran still felt there was something missing, and after the thrill of being in such a rich queer, trans capital began to settle down, they realised they missed the feeling of just having a chat around a pint like you would in Dublin.

In their own words: “These spaces and experiences really opened my mind to how important these scenes are, and then after a while, I think I started to realise that these spaces are only one part of making community and understanding yourself. As someone who is at that intersection of trans and dyke—and bi and butch and poly too—and also being Irish and a leftie, it felt like I had more opportunities to meet new people in London, but actually having proper conversations with them about topics we had in common was really hard… I actually found myself missing being in pubs in Dublin, complaining about how there were no lesbian nights.”

From there, Oran began to think to themself: “Oh! London has this amazing queer, trans and dyke community with this huge appetite and market for queer events, but the events aren’t quite hitting the mark, you know?”

It wasn’t long before Oran was thrust into the world of trans, dyke event organising, getting involved with Camp Trans, and then subsequently Trans Sauna. Coming up to two years in March, Trans Sauna is a Finnish-style sauna event for trans people that runs monthly in Hackney Community Baths. While not a nightlife event (and not a sex event either), Trans Sauna gave Oran a glimpse into what a more community-oriented space and event could look like: “We use Trans Sauna as an opportunity to give back to the community by donating to trans fundraisers.” Last year, they donated about £1,000 to various trans fundraisers, and they are on track to do the same again this year.

Oran explained how important it is, as a trans person, to “be around other trans bodies. See what other trans bodies look like. Feel comfortable showing your own trans body, you know?”

Noting the significance of Trans Sauna being “an incidentally sober space”, Oran explained how that sober aspect “is one of [their] favourite things about it. It’s a place where you can socialise and chat and, especially if you’re more socially anxious, you can just sit there in silence and not feel out of place, without alcohol involved at all.”

Following on from the feeling of coming together in community that Trans Sauna lends itself to, Oran was still “missing that vibe of just being in a pub talking to dykes”.

“People had been complaining for years that there weren’t any dyke pubs in London. If you actually look at why so many of the lesbian bars in London closed down, it wasn’t because they weren’t doing any business. It was because, with Candy Bar for example, the landlord doubled the rent. It had nothing to do with this myth that lesbians and dykes don’t spend any money because, you know, they find a wife and bunker down and start crocheting. Dykes do spend enough money to keep a regular bar going, but if a landlord is trying to squeeze the absolute maximum profit out of these spaces, they have no chance of surviving.”

From there, Oran wondered: “Does it need to be a lesbian bar? Because we’ll need some rich lesbian to open one and I don’t necessarily want to go to a lesbian bar owned by a rich lesbian.” And so, the idea of a Pop-Up Dyke Bar was born!

In developing Pop-Up Dyke Bar, Oran looked at how, “pub culture in Ireland lends itself to generally free-entry spaces and finding a queer, dyke community in that way.”

They thought to themself: “I think we could do it, I think we could take a pub over with dykes!” And with that, in October 2023, they found a random pub and booked it for a lesbian event. “The owners of the pub were like ‘We’re only putting two people on the bar, we’re still going to have the football on and we’re still going to let our regular punters in for the England match.’ and I was like, you know what? Let’s see what happens.” Within half an hour, the pub was absolutely rammed with dykes.

Laughing over an anecdote from the night itself, Oran described how “the funniest thing was the contingent of straight lads there to watch the football - all huddled up in one corner. One man looked around and went ‘Lots of ladies here tonight!’” and Oran was relieved.

“Straight people don’t expect us to take over their spaces, they don’t really know what a dyke looks like.”

Pop-Up Dyke Bar went from strength to strength, with events in pubs all over London. They even organised an event in July of this year, which was a crossover with Cubbyhole, one of the oldest remaining lesbian bars in New York. Cubbyhole reached out to Pop-Up Dyke Bar following their success to organise a trans event with them in London.

Booters, or ‘Butch Hooters’, another London-based dyke event run by Oran and their co-organiser Ariane Trueblood, is an American diner-style event where butches perform and serve delicious grub to their adoring customers. It was at Pop-Up Dyke Bar that the idea for the event came to Oran and Ariane, with the pair joking about what Hooters might look like if it were run by butches. With subsidised tickets available for dykes on low income, the event is a bit less casual than Pop-Up Dyke Bar but just as fun with butch drag performers to entertain you as you dig into your burger and fries.

They are hoping to bring Booters (and possibly Pop-Up Dyke Bar) to Dublin in the future, and as Oran made a point of telling me: “If anyone ever does want advice on running events, and bonus points, top of the queue if you are an Irish queer, you are always welcome to reach out.” They are keen to see more events like Pop-Up Dyke Bar across Ireland, as an accessible way to organise events for dykes everywhere.

Another incredible event in London that I have to give a special shout-out to is Joyride, a queer sex-positive party led by Irish creatives, which will be coming to Dublin on December 21.

MJ Fox, Irish co-founder of Joyride, had this to say: “Joyride is rooted in Irish queerness. From the beginning, we’ve platformed Irish artists and creatives because it felt true to our identity as a party and is a point of pride for us to have so many phenomenally talented Irish artists involved in the project. It’s an integral part of our ethos, which is very playful, cheeky and warm.

“The face of Irish sexual expression has evolved a lot in recent years. We’re so excited to be a part of this cultural moment as we look to expand and grow our presence at home in Ireland.”

If you are looking for a sex-positive, queer event in Dublin be sure to check Joyride out. As MJ articulates so well, we have some amazing talent coming from Ireland, and it’s about time we brought it home with us! Wink wink, hurry up Pop-Up Dyke Bar…