Church-goers have vowed to picket a lap-dancing club planned to open in Belfast city centre within the next few weeks.
Donegal businessman Jerome Brennan already owns a similar club in Limerick in the Republic of Ireland.
But he will have to open the Belfast venue as a "restaurant" to get round the North's stricter licensing laws.
Brennan believes there is a huge market in the city and says he already has a venue which can accommodate up to 600 people on three floors.
He has also recruited a team of blonde dancers, mainly from Russia and the Baltic republics.
But members of the Rev Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church are furious. Spokesman David McIlveen said people were "much more puritanical" than in the South and "won't want this kind of thing in their province".
Lap-dancing, he added, "demeans women" and "appeals to the baser instincts in man".
The Observer 24/02/02 page 15
Donegal businessman Jerome Brennan already owns a similar club in Limerick in the Republic of Ireland.
But he will have to open the Belfast venue as a "restaurant" to get round the North's stricter licensing laws.
Brennan believes there is a huge market in the city and says he already has a venue which can accommodate up to 600 people on three floors.
He has also recruited a team of blonde dancers, mainly from Russia and the Baltic republics.
But members of the Rev Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church are furious. Spokesman David McIlveen said people were "much more puritanical" than in the South and "won't want this kind of thing in their province".
Lap-dancing, he added, "demeans women" and "appeals to the baser instincts in man".
The Observer 24/02/02 page 15
