Hotel Luxor, the oldest brothel in Hamburg, to close next month

I saw this and chuckled:

(HAMBURG) Internet pornography, foreign prostitutes and a growing number of cheap dance clubs have been blamed for the closure of the oldest brothel in one of the world's most famous red-light districts. (Guardian)

Cos it reminded me of this:

(BELFAST) The IRA today announced several hundred lay-offs, effective from tomorrow morning 9 a.m. The shocking move comes at the end of a period of intense market speculation, which has focused on the organisations' ability to compete in the new global terrorism market: a market which many cocaine-fuelled tabloid hacks and a small army of syphilis-riddled market analysts have begun calling 'Terrorism 2.0'. (Blather)

What's never talked about, is the "closure" of what must have been the oldest red light District in Europe - at Benburb Street, Dublin, now the location of the National Museum of Ireland's Decorative Arts and History section, which relocated there in 1997. Benburb street is in Stoneybatter, a singularly interesting part of Dublin which Daev has talked about before on Blather. In addition to being a hotbed of sixteenth century roguery, Benburb St. is the location of Collins Barracks, the world's longest serving army barracks. And where there are soldiers, well, there are prostitutes.

Benburb St. was a well-known location for Dublin's Ladies of the Night, that is until the museum moved in in 1997. It's been a while since I went there, but I'm told that the women (and their johns) have moved on to somewhere else. And no, I don't know where.

Anyway, in other news, the NMI have been accused of placing their collections in danger. The museum have responded by stating that they're under-resourced.