Gavin Friday attended and spoke at the opening of “A New Form of Beauty: Dublin youth culture, street style and subculture history, 1960s to 1990s” at The National Museum of Ireland. This exhibition of photographs featuring images from 1960s through to 1990s youth culture was curated by Garry O’Neill.
The exhibition is accompanied by a text written by Gavin, which you can read below:
“Sweet Jesus died on the Cross. Sweet Jesus died for our Sins. The life we lead is here today and the love we need is far away. No way of getting there. Is there any way of getting there? Oh, we are we are so Young. Oh, we have so much to look forward to…”
The Virgin Prunes – A New Form of Beauty Part 2.
Some 44 years ago The Virgin Prunes released A New Form of Beauty a seven-part project that included four Eps, an Exhibition, a Live Concert and a Film. In many ways this project would encapsulate the true essence of what the band were about.
We were born out of the Punk Ideology. We were the Bastard Sons of Bowie and Rotten intent on implementing a DIY Philosophy. Why not Do It Yourself?
A ripped and torn smash and grab stance and with this in mind I can see why this Exhibition’s Curator Garry O’Neill has, in true Punk manner, borrowed the title A New Form of Beauty for this compelling collection of Photographs of Young Dubliners from the 1960s to the 1990s.
I was very much a Child of the 1970s and it was music that changed everything for me. Starting with Glam Rock and Punk, I had for the first time, an Identity … A Stance … A Shield and with that Stance came the clothes, all gelling in one big dirty MOFO kiss … I didn’t dress to impress I dressed to be but I wasn’t alone as this Exhibition compellingly displays.
When I look at this collection of Photographs, my overall feeling is one of Joy. Certainly, we all suffer from a touch of the ‘back in the day’ romanticism or nostalgia, but you just can’t deny what these images reveal. They evidence the innocence, the innovation and the defiance of Working-Class Youth at a time when Ireland was a suffocating place still under the Stranglehold of Emigration, Unemployment and the theocracy of the Catholic Church.
When oppression occurs, there is always resistance. Resistance is often best seen in the creative spaces that youth create. The Young Dubliners in this exhibition turned their Ordinary into Extraordinary, identifying with various subcultures including Mods, Skinheads, Teddy Boys, Bootboys, Punks, Hippies Goths and New Romantics. There is not debate in my mind that Music was the common glue, the instigator for all these young Dubliners to hold their own, to be their own, showing the North and Southside of Dublin that they existed, and they had something to say.
At a time when Youth Culture was basically outlawed or silenced, the only weapon of defence these Young Dubliners had was through owning their Own Identity.
The Armour and Shield took the form of the clothes, the shoes, the hair and the make-up. Their resistance took the form of sartorial elegance and the rituals associated with whichever sub-culture they identified with. Yeah, many a head got kicked in for ‘looking different’, but that was alright because there was a safety in numbers and one felt they belonged.
Four decades ago Dublin was a rough tough and poor place. The Past is a different country they say and it sure was a very different Dublin back then, but it was a great time to grow up in and boy did we have fun. For me and my tribe, music and art more generally was the key. The key to our imaginations, to be ourselves and to resist the imposition of orthodoxy by the Catholic Church and a redundant political system.
You can literally feel the Joy, the Love and Freedom that pours out of this collection of images. Young Dubliners in Love with Life expressing the ownership of themselves. Truly, this was their New Form of Beauty.
Gavin Friday on a Good Friday April 2025
