Abstracts: April 2002

April 4, 2002
Lap dance bar for Edgeworthstown
Longford Leader
John Donohoe
According to this article:
Dubliner Martin Rossiter, who is involved with two other promoters in the running of the Chicken Ranch in Rochfortbridge, is bringing the lapdancing club to Longford. Similar clubs are also set to open in Meath and Kildare in the coming weeks.

April 8, 2002
Lap dancing club to open in Clare 
Clarefm.ie
Mark Dunphy
According to this article:
A number of locations in Clare are being considered as possible lap-dancing venues by the lap-dancing club franchise Lapello. 
Currently there are lap-dancing clubs in operation in Cork and Limerick with further plans to establish clubs in Galway, Clare, Belfast, Kilkenny and Waterford. Peter Clarke, Head of Marketing says that Club Lapello is expanding its operation across the country based on the demand for the services that it provides.

April 12, 2002
Trafficking in women and girls
United Nations Report of the Secretary-General
Excerpt:
On 12 April 2002, a new offence of trafficking for prostitution was introduced to the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  Under the amendment to the bill, penalties of up to 14 years' imprisonment will be mandated for crimes related to trafficking in persons. 

The Government had also supported the European Union Framework Decision on combating sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, aimed at harmonizing criminal law and sanctions on the protection, distribution and possession of child pornography and engaging in sexual activities with a child, as well as the involvement of children in prostitution. 

April 14, 2002
SEX SELLS AS CHARITIES GO FULL MONTY! 
Ulster fundraisers booking strippers 
People 
Joe Oliver
According to this article:
Charities in Northern Ireland are hiring adult entertainers from a strippogram group for their fundraisers. Angel's Promotions - slogan: 'We'll take you to Heaven' - only opened for business last month. Owner Geoff Dowey said "But it's not just stag, hen or birthday bashes where adult entertainment is taking off. "I've been taken aback by the number of charities who now want to hire our male and female strippers. "They tell me the charitable cake is getting smaller and smaller with so many different groups competing for funds. "But they feel they can raise a lot of cash with a Full Monty night.." "In the past week alone I have had three well-known charity groups all seeking our services." And those services include curvy 21-year-old Angela Brown, a former lap dancer, who admits: "I love being naked." There is also male strippogram 'Prince Dave', who has already had a few close calls with over-excited female fans.

April 16, 2002
Lap dancing club to open next week
Kildare Nationalist 
According to this article:
Promoter Martin Rossiter plans to open Kildare's first lap dancing club in Milltown next Wednesday at the Milltown Inn, which is one of series of new dancing club planned for Ireland. Rossiter says he has had greater interest in recruiting Irish girls to work in the clubs but that no Kildare dancers would work in their own locality.

April 10-16, 2002
Invite the DUP down
Irish Echo Online - News
According to this article:
Martin Rossiter, owner of the Westmeath-based Chicken Ranch lap-dancing club, has successfully negotiated a second, undisclosed location to open in Meath. Speculation is that the club will be in the Navan area, according to the Meath Chronicle. Two other clubs are about to open in Longford and Kildare. Private lap dances will be available, but no public contact is permitted between guests and dancers. The newspaper reports that many dancers have been hired from overseas agencies.

April 25, 2002
Lap-dancing all the way to the bank
Belfast Newsletter
Gemma Murray 
The author describes an interview between Jerome Brennan ("Ireland's self-proclaimed lap-dance king) and a woman posing as a potential lap dancer, hoping to be hired at the club he is opening in Belfast in four weeks.  The woman was interviewed at the Europa hotel.  She was instructed not to approach the hotel reception but to phone Mr. Brennan on his mobile to be given a room number.  Brennan said that, although most of his dancers come from Eastern Europe, he was keen to hire girls from the Belfast area. 

"No-nonsense Mr Brennan – who owns lap-dancing clubs in Dundalk and Cork – said he intends to have all his "i’s dotted and his t’s crossed before he opens his doors in Belfast". He said: "I cannot tell you where it will be, but it will be a city-centre location. Only a handful of people know where it will be."

"The Belfast club will be upmarket and professional. Nothing will go wrong. It could be open from 8pm or 9pm to 2am and girls will work when they like. However, there will be the occasion when we are short of dancers and you will be asked to work."

"I would prefer if you could travel to Limerick because it is more professional, the way I intend the Belfast club to be," he said." Give me a ring any time between 2pm and 6am. Those are my operating hours."

April 26, 2002
'Degenerate' woman tries the Tarot after brothel-keeping business fails
Irish Times
According to this article:
An American woman set up a brothel in Dublin in what she told a court yesterday was "a get rich quick scheme gone wrong". Tonja Marshall (33), Camden Street, Dublin, said she was "just a degenerate" but hoped in the next couple of years to be a productive member of society by giving people Tarot card readings rather than sexual services. She pleaded guilty to keeping a brothel at Camden Street between October 11th and November 5th last and was fined €500. Marshall had a male partner in the operation who left the country following a police raid along with the majority of funds from the brothel.

April 27, 2002
Location of Belfast strip club unveiled
Belfast Newsletter
Gemma Murray
According to this article:
Goldfingers at the bottom of Hill St.  is the venue of the lap dancing club due to open its doors in central Belfast in four weeks.
Self-proclaimed lap dance king Jerome Brennan dismissed claims from business people who feel concerned that the area might become flooded with "undesirables".  He said he felt "very sorry for them". Mr Brennan would not say whether he had a drinks licence.

"But they have no need to be concerned. I am aiming for an upmarket clientele. "I stayed in the Europa Hotel. Every room in that hotel was full. "It’s not necessarily people from Belfast that I am looking for. "I’m looking for the people who are staying in the three- and four-star hotels. "There is plenty of the clientele that I am looking for. "There will be no riff-raff allowed into my club so the people have no need to be concerned."

On Wednesday, the Free Presbyterian morals committee said that it will stage a picket outside the club. Group convenor the Rev Alan Smylie said he expected the committee to come out "en masse" to protest.

April 29, 2002
MSP calls for limits on lap dancing
Scotsman
According to this article:
Sandra White, MSP called for councils to be given powers to stop more lap dance clubs opening in their areas. It was claimed that proposed new venues meant Edinburgh could soon have one lap dancer for every 250 people . Ms White said the clubs were demeaning and treated women as sex objects.  She has now tabled a motion in the Scottish Parliament urging greater controls. 

"I went along to a club with an open mind and I was absolutely disgusted," she said.  "The girls may tell you that they make good money, but they don’t tell you that they give a percentage of it to the club" 

Several new lap dancing clubs are planned for Edinburgh over the next few months. And US-based lap dancing chain Spearmint Rhino plans to open a "sex multiplex" in the Capital by the end of the year.