Chambers Shuttered - Cork's Business Class Shows Two Fingers to LGBTQ+ Community
With the breaking news this week that Cork’s last gay bar ‘Chambers’ was rebranding as ‘Sinners’ to try to make more money from new students on ‘Fresher’s Week’ in UCC and CIT, Cian McGrath discusses the change and the general absence of public spaces in Cork.
Chambers in Cork was a dynasty of sorts, instantly recognisable for its bright paint, proud displaying of Pride flags and loud renditions of classic hits throughout the day. In fact, having reopened post-Covid restrictions, they had repainted to go all out, proudly displaying their pride through flags and colourful repainting showing their pride in the LGBTQ+ community, their customers.
Last week’s decision is no doubt a slap in the face for all members of this community who had, for years, shown routine support for the business. Their announcement of the rebrand was accompanied by the cancellation of their weekly drag show and the removal of Pride flags, posters, and decor from the venue.
In response, a number of the bar’s regular Drag Queens released the following statement
‘Changes have been made this week that we are all not comfortable with. We were not made aware in advance of these changes to accommodate the coming ‘freshers’ week. The removal of all traces of our beloved LGBTQIA+ safe space is simply appalling and we refuse to accept this. So it is with great thought that we the queens will no longer be performing in our former ‘safe space.’.
This two fingers from the owners of Chambers will have been a huge blow for the community in Cork is, especially the vibrant proud student community, who’s plans to celebrate ‘Freshers Week’ and a return to college are no doubt scuppered. This is a city who has rallied behind the library workers and LGBTQIA community that has been routinely targeted by fascist agitators. The decision made by Chambers represents the latest example of Cork’s business owning class showing little care for the city bar their bottom line.
Last year, just across from Chambers, a franchise of ‘Brewdog’ was opened, and met with severe public backlash due to their Elon-Musk-esque CEO. CEO James Watt and the company’s poor record on workers’ rights issues and history of egregious pink and green-washing was not acknowledged by local media or the franchise owner until PBP members led protests outside the opening of the bar to give people the full story on Brewdog.
Not long after, the Cork City Council voted to gift some of the scarce public land to the Order of The Freemasons, in order to facilitate renovations. The move was slammed by local socialist activists as the latest example of the reduction of public spaces in Cork, and the City’s shift towards supporting private interests. The Freemasons questionable history needs no introduction, yet the Council saw no issue with granting them a portion of the land in Bishop Lucey Park, Cork’s most central public space.
These exemplify a growing trend of the city shifting away from using its resources to match the needs of the communities within it. Within the city, frankly, there is very little to do that is not put on by community groups or student societies, and where activities are arranged, they are left to be staged in privately owned pubs, cafes or other venues.
The abdication of responsibility from Cork City Council and the councillors on it to provide meaningful services and resources within the city centre and her suburbs is only worsened by the frivolous spending on ‘robot trees’ and other such nonsense. The lack of public spaces is damaging to the wider Cork Community, with the absence of public music venues, meeting places and general event spaces.
The collaboration between City Council and private interests has unfortunately seeped into Cork Pride too. The newly active group ‘Alternative Pride Cork’ released the following statement condemning the ‘rainbow capitalism’ that has worsened year on year, with this year’s Cork Pride having Tesla and RedFM as sponsors, two companies with highly questionable records on LGTBQ+ issues:
Pride is a protest! Pride is about celebrating what the LGBTQ+ community has achieved, reminding ourselves that there's still more to fight for, and reminding everyone else that we're here and we're queer. However, Pride has become increasingly corporatised. Private companies see sponsoring Pride and flying some rainbow flags as a way to clean up their public image, and also as a way to advertise to queer people and make money off us. We should be able to have a Pride event without being bombarded by advertisements and promotions from two-faced corporations that wouldn't give us the time of day otherwise.
QUEER LIBERATION, NOT RAINBOW CORPORATION!
On September 14th, a crowd of several hundred took to the streets to show their contempt for the decision taken by the owners of Chambers, with many calling for a boycott of the bar and its sister businesses. If our city is truly to be representative of its people and its communities, we need to support initiatives such as Alternative Pride Cork and point out the hypocrisy of Cork City Council and the private business interests it continues to represent.
Marx and Engles illustration in 1974 magazine ‘Gay Liberator’
Private businesses will never put the needs of the people of Cork community and particularly its minority communities before their bottom line, nor can we expect them to. Cork City Council, and many other councils across Ireland are complicit in pretend that the opposite is true.
Only through the creation of public spaces which are free to use for all in the community in the interests of our communities shall we see cities which serve the needs of their people. The constant investment in building of often empty offices and hotels is galling.
The abdication of duty in providing public alternatives leaves all minority communities and working class people at the behest of private business owners who will make decisions such as the one made in Chambers this week. It's time to fight for social spaces that are publicly funded, publicly owned and democratically run.