Remembering the Diceman who brightened a grey, dull Dublin

Thom McGinty’s appearance on Grafton Street in the grey 1980s of recessionary Dublin was a bright light on what was then a mainly dull commercial street. The Diceman, as he became known from his costume for the games shop, was a piece of human art that would typically remain utterly still in his ridiculous costumes.

He might totally ignore passersby but sometimes he rewarded them with a wink or, more often, a mocking expression. Children or drunks might pinch or poke, but the statue that he was would not react.

Dublin had not seen anything like it before. His fame grew and a walk down the street without spotting McGinty was a disappointment, especially for photographers like this one seeking an image for the following day’s paper.

McGinty was born in Glasgow in 1952 and was a member of the Strathclyde Theatre Group. He came to Ireland in 1976 and worked initially as a nude model at Dublin's National College of Art and Design.

His street performances attracted big audiences and when gardaí sought to move him on, he did so in the slowest of slow motion.

A big part of his performances were the costumes themselves, always eye-catching and sometimes provocative.

He could be the Mona Lisa, Dracula, a light bulb, a teapot or a clown. A particularly skimpy outfit attracted Garda attention and he was charged in 1991 with a breach of the peace for wearing a costume that could offend public decency.

When McGinty acquired a manager, Aidan Murphy (and street protector against those pinching children), he did more corporate work. His costumes, however, rarely succumbed to commercial crassness and there always remained a surreal streak, a rebel spirit sometimes sending up the very product it promoted.

As a gay man, McGinty appeared, in costume of course, at various events promoting gay rights before it was popular or fashionable. In 1990, McGinty contracted HIV and he died on February 20th, 1995. Friends gathered last week to mark his birthday and, 20 years after his death, we salute the Diceman with a gallery of images from The Irish Times archives.