“After 11, there’s nothing.” When i-D visited Dublin in 1985 they found a backward and grim city beset by unemployment and emigration.

This photo, taken in May 1968 at the top of Grafton St, shows six lead singers and four DJs from the Dublin beat scene – all young, all looking smart, all looking mod, all very style-conscious.

“The Bay City Rollers were my first crush, my first love. They were a sexual awakening for most of us.” Mary McNally recalls her teenage years as a Rollers fan in 1970s Beaumont, Dublin

With revamp building work now underway at the closed Central Hotel, it’s hard not to get nostalgic and reflect on the good times spent there.

The decor at Creation House took inspiration from Berlin too. It was modern, elegant, sleek, sophisticated – just like Creation magazine, whose office and photographic studios were conveniently located on the third floor of their Grafton Street building.

From tins of biscuits and tobacco to packets of cheese and nylons, Brian McMahon of Brand New Retro takes a quick look at vintage adverts for Christmas gifts produced by leading Irish manufacturers.

Rent or buy? Betamax or VHS? Brian McMahon asked Greg Molloy, the man behind the KillianM2 TV Archive, to tell us more about the early days of video and this new and exciting period in home entertainment.

“Without central heating it was almost impossible to keep a home warm. The main room could have a roaring fire of coal, slack, turf or wood but the rest of the house remained cold.” – Brian McMahon, Brand New Retro

The Brand New Retro exhibition on Dublin Discos 1965-1980 goes on display at The Other Hand Bar (The Circular) 536-538, South Circular Road.

It’s ice pop weather right now so, what better time than to revisit pops from the past courtesy of Brand New Retro.

Discos first surfaced in Dublin during the beat club scene, of the mid 1960s… but the game changer came in 1968 when two young entrepreneurs, Michael Ryan and Michael Murphy opened Sloopys, a club with lavish sound and lighting dedicated to the disco, with live music coming second.

In the early 1980s, young bands like Duran Duran, ABC, Japan, Spandau Ballet, Freeze, Modern Romance and Haircut 100 stormed the Irish pop charts with a new kind of dance music. Our only successful homegrown counterparts were Tokyo Olympics, Ireland’s most famous new romantic band.

Best read while listening to a red headed woman playing a harp.

Brand New Retro collates some top tips for the perfect Christmas…

The unearthing of an old computer hard drive containing hundreds of Irish logos and designs from the Celtic Tiger era has led to the production of a new zine and t-shirt.

Brian McMahon talks Irish advert records with John Byrne the DJ, record collector, writer and archivist who put together the excellent Quare Groove compilation album in 2018.

While strolling through a deserted Dublin city centre during lockdown, Brian MacMahon bumped into barfly Ben Walsh, so naturally the conversation turned to pubs.

“While reading Surviving in a Nuclear War, I couldn’t help noticing how similar the messages were to those delivered during the Covid-19 lockdown.”