Gaelcon 1 – 1989
The very first Gaelcon took place on the October bank holiday weekend, 1989, in the RDS Industries Hall, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. Nobody knew it’d be possible to pull off. Nobody knew if it would break even. But the committee had faith, and years before “Field of Dreams”, they went with “If we build it, they will come!” – for which we are very grateful!
Venue: RDS Industries Hall, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
Con Director: There wasn’t one! Back in the day, there was just an organising committee! There is no definitive recorded Chair that we’ve been able to find. History is divided whether it was Tom Roche (who wrote the piece programme piece that is traditionally written by the Con Director) or Noel Mitchell. The Organising Committee was Noel Mitchell, Tom Roche, Joe Dineen, Jo Jaquinta, and Flann O’Cleirigh.
Guest of Honour/Special Guests: Science-fiction author Harry Harrison, and Wayne, of GM Magazine fame.
(Pic: Harry Harrison at a sci-fi convention in Moscow, in 2008. Photo by Dmitry Rozhkov, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Rob Brennan reports: “It was freezing in the huge RDS halls that weekend and there were less attendees than hoped. When we went to Harry Harrison’s talk, only about 10 people turned up so instead of staying in the cold, empty room allocated in the RDS, he took us all across the road to the pub and bought us drinks while entertaining us with stories and chat.”
Spirit of Gaelcon winner: ?
Quizmaster: Not recorded, but the quiz took place in the Horseshow House, across the road from the RDS.
Auctioneer: Although the charity auction proper did not begin until Gaelcon 7 in 1995, there was a small auction as part of Gaelcon’s closing ceremony – 2000AD artwork donated by a guest artist (artist(s) unknown).
Gaelcon 1 programme: watch this space
Gallery: watch this space
If you can contribute any missing information, anecdotes or reminiscences (that are fit to print!), photographs, or anything else, please mail them to archive@iga.ie.
(Last updated: 22 September 2024)