Goths, Cureheads & Psychobillies of Dublin City, Ireland 1989

A poser’s paradise? Grafton Street is the location for this report on Dublin street style, fashion and music.
‘Head to Toe’ presenter Mary O’Sullivan talks to Irish teenagers about their style and how it is influenced by the type of music they like.
Filmed in the Grafton Street area of Dublin, the programme takes a look at youth culture, fashion, and trends in Dublin. O’Sullivan talks to “goths”, “cure-heads” and teenagers who prefer not to be labelled about their clothes and music. They discuss why they dress the way they do and where they get their clothes.
Teenagers featured in this report include Emma Keogh, Síona Ryan, Beibhinn Byrne, Lolo Wood, Mandy La Combre, Linda Hanlon, Aisling O’Doherty and Yvette Brock.
This report for the programme ‘Head to Toe’ was broadcast on 3 February 1989.
‘Head to Toe’ was a weekly lifestyle programme which focused on clothes and fashion. ‘Head to Toe’ ran for 10 series between 1988 and 1997. The first show was aired on 21 October 1988 and was presented by Francis Duff, Mary O’Sullivan, and Marty Whelan.
Mary O’Sullivan described the show as
a magazine mix of everything to do with clothes, people, the rag trade in general, personalities, swap shops, the nostalgia scene, people’s private collections, country shopping and dressing and budgets and even problems.

[@finolaomurchu8217]

I remember a lot of those faces from Bartley Dunns pub. Myself and two sisters would go in every Saturday. All the black and white potrait photos of legendary filmstars spotted the walls. Fantastic days.🧚‍♂️☘🇮🇪🙋🏻‍♀️

[@raygreen5926]

Ah, wish I could go back into Bewley's cafe in 1989 and have a coffee and a bun and see all those characters who used to go there. Where are they now ? I see one of them still around but time makes ghosts of us all

[@stuartkelly3106]

Bewleys is now filled with upper middle class woke people from Dublin 4 ordering pear salads, it's ruined, your vision of Bewleys is long gone.
No Dublin people go there now, its now a sterile homogenous hole.

[@Jen-lg4hp]

Closing down Bewley's Westmoreland Street was absolutely criminal! No coffee shop or Starjunk franchise now has one millionth of the atmosphere that beautiful restaurant with its garden rooms had!!! As usual, the best monuments and institutions are always destroyed for quick profit in the city!

[@alanbourke4069]

That was me, once. And now they're the doctors and lawyers and business owners, and tutting at their kids for the mad stuff they're wearing, and so the world turns.

[@finolaomurchu8217]

My children are teens now, giving me guff. It's great. I was 30 getting married, so older having children. The clothes teens wore then were far more interesting. And yes, I have my Cure tickets for December 🤣🙋🏻‍♀️

[@allgood3322]

That is a brilliant one, my da is in this when he was a youngfella street dancing for . im 20 and hes nearly my age in this. Got a proper shock when i seen him and laughed to myself, definitely sending it on to him. and I love going through this channel full of good stuff. Keep it up.

[@danielnewton7357]

I seem to keep coming back to this video. These kids look amazingly cool!!!!

[@iknowyoureright8564]

That girl is at the end is beautiful……or was beautiful, god knows what time has made of those young people now.

[@ChrisConnolly-Mr.C-Dives-In]

This is all priceless. My grandparents left Galway in the 1920s, married in Chicago, and my first trip to Ireland was in 98. So this is just a wonderful bit of Irish history for me, and a great cross comparison to how people dressed with the same influences over here in the states.

[@petermurphy9968]

All of these middleclass kids will be pushing into mid mid fifties now. And a lot of them will be grandparents.

[@natashadandeli]

the way the cure heads look like robert smith mini-mes is too funny

[@luasdublin]

In 89 I would have gotten into metal just started growing out my hair and spent my time growing out my hair and wearing a West German ex Army shirt (via Army bargains) and Metallica T Shirt ... I'm always a bit grumpy that all the 'tribes of the 80s/90s' cover the middle class "cool kids" who were all goths and the like , and ignored us Rockers (there were dozens of us!! Dozens!!) .

[@speakertreatz]

I remember youz. There was a lot of crossover between Goth, Punk and Metal and some of the guys in my scene took elements from all three, it's a shame you've been overlooked in the late 90s Dublin, you were an integral part of the overall scene.

[@danielnewton7357]

Irish girls were so beautiful.

[@bigword3744]

The last girl cute af

[@danielnewton7357]

Goths always denied being goths!

[@speakertreatz]

unless they were called Cureheads

[@zenden6584]

Gas ❤️

[@keithwhittygmail]

I remember my sister decided to dress like this and when I recognised her I went to her and all her friends were wondering how I was going to react as the older brother and were all surprised I told her I nearly recognised her but that she looked amazing. Imagine a national TV station out to make young people feel bad about themselves and have ignorant people laugh at them. That's RTE for you. Gay Burn was the same. RTE is a propoganda machine and a free Mason opporarion. Watch the symbolism on their shows. Pillars and black and white squares in lots of their stage set ups. Puppets to the corporatocracy.

[@brianm2881]

Don't worry. I have decoded a secret message in the Bible which says David Icke will be appointed Director General of RTE in 2027 by popular demand. He will install a giant crystal antenna in Montrose which can capture God's healing energy, and out MIriam O Callaghan as a lizard. Then, he will put egg and chips on the RTE canteen menu every day, instead of just Fridays, bring back the Den and the old style Angelus.

[@keithwhittygmail]

WoW even in 1999 RTE were horrible cxnts to children expressing their own need to identify with music. What a Bee Otch the presenter is.

[@churlishbeardo]

Yes, this. Exactly!

[@max__pain]

1989

[@speakertreatz]

children?

[@keithwhittygmail]

@@speakertreatz Yeah children are.people below 24 since 1985 or so

[@stuartkelly3106]

This was before post modern wokeness when Dublin was punk.
I hope the next generation will rebel against the orthodoxy the establishment and corporations are now imposing on us.