Cats show claws in bid to ban lap dance club

When the news first went round, it seemed little more than a rural storm in a D-cup.

Kilkenny city was to have its first lap dancing club.

Initially, it was something for the local papers, hardly worth stopping the presses of national publications for.

Now, after two months of legal wrangling, the case could become one of national significance, potentially giving local authorities the power to decide whether such premises should be allowed to open.

Kilkenny Borough Council is serious about stopping this -- last week, it called in An Bord Pleanala, who have been asked whether or not the proposed club constitutes a "development".

If it does, the operators will have to apply to the council for planning permission.

With every councillor opposing the development, this would block the opening of the club. The case has been adjourned until January 22.

Councillors have rounded on the proposed club, which the operators, Whispers Entertainment Ltd, say will feature girls from Ireland and Europe.

Whispers want to transfer their licence to a pub formerly known as The Widow McGraths on Parliament Street, with a sports bar downstairs, and women dancing and stripping for men upstairs.

"Kilkenny's different," said one protester on a radio show.

And they were right. It has been a year where the place became the driest city in Ireland, closing earlier than every other, with bars and clubs shutting at 1.30am by law.

The move was made as a way to rid Kilkenny of its "Stag City" tag, with loud parties descending on it every weekend.

Blow-up penises, L-plates and rowdy groups of men were common sights on the narrow streets -- until word got out about the early closing. It worked.

Now, with city development plans to transform the medieval city into a cultural hub, responsible Cats are vehemently opposed to anything that may bring back the Stag Central image.

Even worse, the proposed club is in a part of the city that is known as a music and theatre spot for locals -- the Dubs and hen parties don't make it that far off the train.

Some feel that the authorities are becoming too strict -- throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Artist and creator of Kilkenny Arts Week Ramie Leahy said: "Where is the fun in Kilkenny now? They've become too conservative. You can't get a drink anywhere after half past one -- and now this."

Strip clubs are undeniably exploitative of sometimes financially-desperate women, but isn't it a bit anti-democratic to oppose them or to go as far as trying to prevent them from opening?

No, says every councillor -- from 27-year-old Fianna Fail man Andrew McGuinness to grandmother and Mayor of Kilkenny Marie Fitzpatrick.

Cllr McGuinness said: "I'm a young politician, but I don't want this in Kilkenny because I think it is both morally wrong and bad for the image of the city. We're trying to get rid of stag parties, not encourage them."

He said he had never been in a strip club himself.

"They are not for me personally, because I don't see the attraction in paying to watch a woman dance for you.

"She's doing it for the money, not because she is enjoying it. I don't see what's sexy about that -- I think it's degrading."

Mayor Fitzpatrick said: "Everyone I have met is against the opening of the club. People in Kilkenny don't want it. Parliament Street is one of the most historical and cultural parts of the city."

She pointed out that lap dancing clubs get men worked up and then turf them back out on the street, frustrated.

"There is a real danger there. Lots of alcohol, then into a lap dancing club to be drunk and frustrated. Rape statistics are high enough without this."

Cllr Martin Brett said he believed the clubs represent old ideas, saying: "They are not progressive in a modern country."

A Whispers Entertainment source said: "Whispers would not be opening in the city if they didn't think they had a market. Whispers PR John Sullivan said the attempt to block the club was "against democracy".