W2C-013 Sunday Tribune-1.txt
Diceman hangs up his tights

Halloween auction for the human statue
By Susan McKay
THE Diceman told the judge he 'd never wear them again, but someone else can now have that pleasure because the black fishnet tights which led to an indecency conviction in 1991 will be auctioned tonight at a Halloween benefit performance for the 42-year-old street artiste who has had to stop work because of illness.

"I can't work. The last gigs I did, clients were complaining: I was having to sit down," said Thom McGinty, better known as the Diceman, whose flamboyant costumes and spectacular statuesque stillness have made him a famous part of the street furniture of Dublin, whether advertising a shop or a show, or glamorising the platform of a political parade.

Street work is his living but he's choosy about the causes he 'll promote: "I 'm pro-life - in the real sense".

Thom McGinty is gay and associated with the gay rights movement - for which he created the What's Another Queer? performance after the murder of a gay man in a Dublin park - and has promoted safe sex in the Department of Health's Aids awareness campaign.

The Diceman is credited by groups like Galway-based Macnas as the inspiration for the new, highly visual style of Irish street parade and has been the glamorous centrepiece of arts festival parades all over the country.

The indecency conviction in 1991 came after he advertised a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show wearing a G-string and the fishnets. "The main conention was that I had nothing on underneath, but I did: I had a pair of very fine denier pink tights," said McGinty. "I 've worn less: once I had nothing on but for a lot of silver and gold paint and a contraption on my cock. There was no trouble about that: it must be something about fishnets."

That episode cost him a few thousand pounds - no small consideration for the Diceman. He's famous, but he isn't rich. "As a matter of fact, I 'm badly broke," he said, wondering whether to have another coffee or get 10 cigarettes. The proceeds of tonight's benefit will be used to set up a trust fund.

McGinty has been in Ireland now for 18 years. "I was born near Glasgow, in a mining village, but I believe I was conceived in Baltinglass, in Co Wicklow... in the fields. My mother was from there and we used to spend our summers there," he said.

Studying chartered accounting in Strathclyde University, he became involved in theatre and began to work as a model in art school. "That trained my stillness and my patience. We had to hold poses for six hours," he said.

He moved to Ireland in the mid 1970s for a modelling job that didn't transpire. Having sold his possessions, he started posing in a Chinese chrysanthemum jacket - "like something out of the Mikado" - in the Dandelion market, holding a piece of brown paper declaring that he was "in love with the country, unable to gain employment".

Phillip King of Scullion introduced him to Mark O'Brien who had a shop called The Diceman. McGinty was hired to promote it, wearing a royal blue musician's costume and a turban, and his career took off.

He has promoted wellingtons in Cyprus ("it was supposed to be the rainy season but it was blazing sunshine"), played the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, headed the St Patrick's day Parade in Moscow, and was the judge in the Parade of Innocence after the release of the Guildford Four.

He has been, among other characters, God, the Devil, Dracula, an angel, a clown and Ronald Reagan - the latter two in separate performances, incidentally. "For company, I prefer the pimps, the prostitutes, the junkies and the thieves to the hypocrites," he said.

He's always been open about being gay, saying: "I 'm into love and romance. You take guys out and wine and dine them, but it scares them off".

He is now seriously ill and has been for some time. "It was a big shock," he said. "But my condition is stable."

He plans to paint masks and watercolours and has acquired a body-building exerciser but jokes: "The most I 've done with it so far is to carry it home".
Apart from a brief, impoverished spell in Spiddal, he has lived in Dublin. "It's been good to me and I love it. Dublin has a centre and a heart. I would like to die on Grafton Street, along by Bewley's. I 'd be dressed as Cleopatra and escorted by a host of Nubian slaves wearing next to nothing.
"Songs are very important to me. Songs like Marianne Faithfull's'sister Morphine'," he said quoting: "Things are not what they seem, turning nightmares into dreams..."

The Diceman Cometh is in the Olympia Theatre tonight at 8pm.
