[JohnMarston]

Originally Posted by adam88

How grown up of you.

Wexford called, they want their accent back

[Logical Fallacy]

Originally Posted by JohnMarston

Its true, you don't. But a lot of guys do that exact thing.
Imagine being stuck in a circle of friends who equate doing this every wednesday night or weekend with having a good time.
Peel away the pretentiousness and snobbery associated with these clubs and what you could have is a group who concentrate on self-betterment and the 'pursuit of manliness' as one poster just said.

The pursuit of manliness is not eating cheese by anyones standards except the French. And they are French so don't get a vote.

[recylingbin]

My answer is entirely dependent on the answer to the following question:
Do they sell beer?

[tempura]

Originally Posted by gosuckonalemon

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...314336237.html

"Pass the brandy and cigars – a new men-only club has opened in Dublin, but workshops and demonstrations are on these gentlemen’s agenda, writes ALAN O'RIORDAN

IT’S ALL ABOUT “the pursuit of things gentlemanly”, says James English of the Gentlemen’s Academy. English comes from London, so maybe it’s easier for him to say this kind of thing with a straight face.

But perhaps he and Chewy, co-founder of the Gentlemen’s Academy, a “learning institution devoted to style, manhood and merriment”, have a point. After all, the idea of exclusively male company hasn’t had fabulous press since about the time of Classical Greece. We don’t think high-minded pursuits and shared enthusiasms, we think stag weekends, lads watching the match down the pub, Toys 4 Big Boys.

This is where the Gentlemen’s Academy comes in. As Chewy puts it: “I don’t like Champions League night. No interest. And a lot of my friends do. They’ll sit there every Wednesday, 15 guys in the Portobello, almost in silence, skulling pints, and that’s the Wednesday night. But there’s a different way, one that’s not really catered for. I mean, we’re still young; we don’t want to be joining a golf club, but we do want to get together.”

The Gentlemen’s Academy have been getting together for a few months now. They’ve had a lecture on Irish literary history, a cheese night, and a dinner at the Sett Food Club. There’s an astronomy evening planned, a philosophy night, some fly fishing, and a hunter-gatherer weekend at a country house.

Each event has a contribution from a member, or from an independent business, such as clothing store Indigo Cloth, the Wine Buff, or Sheridans Cheesemongers.

Tonight’s event is Mixology, hosted by Paul Lambert, a world-class cocktail man who works in the Blind Pig bar. About 15 members are present: the kind of men you see in cardigans, jackets and perhaps sockless boat shoes going purposefully about Dublin 2 by night and by day.

We settle in with a spiced mule, before Lambert introduces two hours of demonstration, do-it-yourself, and drinking. It’s informative, fun and, dare I say it, an edifying way to get tipsy on a Monday night. There aren’t any strawberry daiquiris, only old school booze-heavy (manly?) cocktails, such as the bittered sling – it is one of the very first cocktails, and is so old that the name once described any mixture of spirits, sugar, water and bitters. See – you can learn something while lashing back cognac- and bourbon-based concoctions.

Peter, a first timer, says he’d been sceptical about the gender-segregation aspect. But by the end of the evening, he’s admitting: “I’m sold.” But there was a time, a generation ago or so, when young, style-conscious and aspirational young men were in revolt against patriarchy in all its forms. For them, the idea of a gentlemen’s anything would have been anathema. Now, ideas of manliness and manhood are back on the agenda.

As Chewy says: “There was all that BS of the last 10 years about the metrosexual: men asserting themselves by wearing pink. We’ve gone through all that, come out the other side, maybe harking back a bit. I never thought of it being sexist. Some of the girls we know do their own thing, we’re not invited. Women are good at organising. They go and do things together. We wanted something like that because our nights out just weren’t appealing any more.”

While membership has doubled in a few months, James and Chewy say they don’t want to be “too big too early”. But their website goes live this month, and they see that as being a “go-to site, for Irish men by Irish-based men”.

Like the events, James says the site will have contributions from members and experts, and will be an outlet for independent businesses. They are also planning Dublin’s first Man Fair.

“You’ve the wedding fairs, Toys 4 Big Boys,” says James, “so we wanted something tailored towards men with similar tastes: small Irish designers, food.”

“We’re not talking the RDS just yet,” says Chewy. And, no doubt, you’d probably want to look elsewhere for a woman in a bikini stretched over a Lamborghini. But if it’s a break from lad culture you’re after, a place for grown-up manly pursuits, then maybe the Gentlemen’s Academy will be worth keeping an eye on."

I have never read such pretentious wank in all my life.

The "pursuit of all things gentlemanly" for fcuks sake!

Is the journalist a brother of Alison by any chance?

This has given me a huge laugh !

[gosuckonalemon]

Originally Posted by GabbyJay

These guys have been watching too much Sherlock Holmes, they've gone the wrong way about it altogether. Devoted to "style, manhood and merriment" and, by the sounds of it, style really does come first to them.

These guys want to know their cheeses, their wines, their cigars. No doubt they will talk about the best brands of watches, and different types of hats. These are all interesting topics, I would not consider it pretentious to try to gain a broader understanding of these things. The problem is when these pursuits are simply a means to an end where "style" is the underlying goal.

Perhaps it is a badly researched article, but every quote leads me to interpret that the taste of delicious cheese, the genuine appreciation of a fine wine, the thrill of a salmon on a fly line, etc., are of secondary importance. What really matters is achieving a greater sense of of superiority over their colleagues who drink Heineken and don't know how to wear cufflinks.

To call this a "pursuit of manliness" is a giveaway in itself. In my opinion, trying to "pursue" manliness would be its own undoing. Real manliness is indulging in your own interests and not feeling the need to shape yourself into what other people think is sophisticated. People have more respect for "a man who is his own man"; nobody respects you because of your taste in cigars or your knowledge of cheese.

Nail.On.Head

All style, no substance.

You can just picture these gimps having their crash course in cheese on a Wednesday night and chomping at the bit to go out at the weekend and burn the ear off whoever is unfortunate to suffer them!

[Sleepy]

I think the idea is great but would, like most posters, have an issue with style / showing off being the foremost goal.

A men's club dedicated to learning interesting stuff I could definitely get into: a cocktail masterclass sounds good, basic instruction in poker strategy another night, get a chef in to teach you how to prepare the perfect fillet steak at home, a maitre D or someone to teach you a bit about wine, whiskey expert, photographer to teach guys how to use the expensive SLR's they leave in auto, a "how to service your car" night, a homebrew / craft beer night etc.

I'd LOVE something like this that didn't cost a fortune to get me out of the house on a Monday night tbh.

[ScumLord]

Originally Posted by Dostoevsky

I don't like the idea of a "gentlemen's club" and this one sounds like a particularly anglocentric one which doesn't give me hope in its openness to other cultures, including Irish culture.

Gentlemen is a state of mind and being, it's not a particular culture. Every culture in the world probably has there own word for gentleman. Dressing up for it is a bit silly and does make it a bit of a mockery of itself.

[Nothingbetter2d]

women have women only clubs so why can't men have men only clubs?

when is the last time u saw a man at an ann summer's meeting?

[pragmatic1]

Thinking of joining the freemasons instead.

[smash]

Originally Posted by Nothingbetter2d

women have women only clubs so why can't men have men only clubs?

when is the last time u saw a man at an ann summer's meeting?

Men only clubs would be great. But not this kind of tripe.

[tempura]

Originally Posted by Nothingbetter2d

women have women only clubs so why can't men have men only clubs?

when is the last time u saw a man at an ann summer's meeting?

Yes, thats what we do, we are all obsessed with ****e underwear and sex toys, thats us wimmen for ya. Giggle, giggle, giggle, oh, look at the big vibrator !

[Sky King]

Originally Posted by GabbyJay

These guys have been watching too much Sherlock Holmes, they've gone the wrong way about it altogether. Devoted to "style, manhood and merriment" and, by the sounds of it, style really does come first to them.

These guys want to know their cheeses, their wines, their cigars. No doubt they will talk about the best brands of watches, and different types of hats. These are all interesting topics, I would not consider it pretentious to try to gain a broader understanding of these things. The problem is when these pursuits are simply a means to an end where "style" is the underlying goal.

Perhaps it is a badly researched article, but every quote leads me to interpret that the taste of delicious cheese, the genuine appreciation of a fine wine, the thrill of a salmon on a fly line, etc., are of secondary importance. What really matters is achieving a greater sense of of superiority over their colleagues who drink Heineken and don't know how to wear cufflinks.

To call this a "pursuit of manliness" is a giveaway in itself. In my opinion, trying to "pursue" manliness would be its own undoing. Real manliness is indulging in your own interests and not feeling the need to shape yourself into what other people think is sophisticated. People have more respect for "a man who is his own man"; nobody respects you because of your taste in cigars or your knowledge of cheese.

Absolutely bang on. You can educate yourself discreetly without surrounding yourself with tosser-gentlemen trying to out-posh each other, if indeed education is the goal, (which it isn't).

[John Doe1]

In trinity we have the newspaper-reading society which is basically this