Unique nightclub hits the right note

Lifestyle – Bounce, a nightlcub for people with intellectual disabilities, takes place every month in the city’s Róisín Dubh. As it celebrates its second anniversary, the DJs, VJS and organisers tell DENISE McNAMARA about its growing success.

It’s a Monday on a wet, miserable February night. Galway City is deserted.

Except for the Róisín Dubh. The weather makes not a jot of difference to the tribe who have gathered in the city’s West End. They arrive by the busload, travelling from as far afield as Dublin, Clifden and Ballina.

Welcome to Bounce, the monthly nightclub for people with intellectual disabilities.

But this is not some tokenistic night out for the community. The people behind the decks have trained as DJs, some of them for years. The videos being shown here have been shot by adults attending the Brothers of Charity facility in the Woodlands Centre in Renmore.

Unique throughout the 26 counties, Bounce celebrates its second birthday this month. And it’s just about to go national.

“We’ve been invited by the Dublin Dance Festival to bring Bounce to the Button Factory in May – the Button Factory, imagine!” exclaims Laura O’Connell, one of the initiative’s key organisers.

Laura is a support worker with the Brothers of Charity who moonlights as a DJ and is responsible for training the Bounce DJs.

The idea of holding a monthly nightclub so that people with intellectual disabilities could socialise together in a safe, fun space while working as DJs and VJs (Visual Jockeys) was born out of Club Tropicana, the annual club night that’s been held at the city’s Black Box every summer for seven years.

Club Tropicana attracts up to 250 adults and features live bands as well as professional DJs. The Black Box is transformed for the event with a host of elaborate props created by a team of 30 people who attend the Woodlands Centre on a daily basis. The night also features a performance by Electric Dreams, a six-piece indie pop outfit consisting of four people with intellectual disabilities and two professional Galway musicians who together write their own music.

“There was a real demand there for more clubbing events but we struggled to find a venue,” explains Andrew Madec, music coordinator of That’s Life, the Brothers of Charity arts programme.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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