![]() ![]() ![]() For a few weeks, he survived on his small savings and by selling various personal possessions. In 1976, with £40 in his pocket and the hope of work as a life model, Thom arrived in Dublin. His first job was, he later remembered, “hanging naked from a balcony in a crucifix position, balancing on my left toe.” However, he failed to complete the course, and in order to earn money, he became an art school model. Instead, he went to Strathclyde University to study accountancy. Thom served as an altar boy and briefly considered becoming a priest. His father was from Donegal, his mother from Wicklow, and every summer the family would holiday in her home town of Baltinglass. Thomas McGinty was born in 1952 in a village outside Glasgow. Time and again, bang in the middle of Grafton Street, Kennelly found himself “gazing on this figure, utterly immobile or moving with a slowness so perfectly measured as to be almost imperceptible.” So who was the Diceman? Professor Brendan Kennelly once observed that McGinty’s gift was to mesmerise his audience. His real name was Thom McGinty, and he died exactly 25 years ago. The Diceman belongs to that honourable tradition. People like Zozimus and Bang Bang became famous far beyond the city’s boundaries. DUBLIN HAS LONG been renowned for its street characters. ![]()
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