In Ireland, there’s a “Dublin Boys Club” that encourages men to share their real feelings, to explore healthy masculinity and offers a safe place to be vulnerable.
The Dublin Boys Club is a place where something very radical happens: men, strangers initially, come together with one purpose: to practise real talk and grow into the most authentic versions of themselves.
Real talk means dropping our masks. It meets answering the question: “how’s it going?”, not with “grand”, “nothing” or “sure, you know yourself”, but with a genuine, heartfelt analysis of our feelings.
Young and even not-so-young men in Ireland are incredibly vulnerable to isolation, and then addiction and then suicide. By practising vulnerability together, the club creates a community of brothers who act as a safety net for any member who might stumble along the way.
The average meeting lasts a couple of hours and the key ingredient is vulnerability. It’s the difference between this club and every other football, darts, walking club. They start off a meeting with a group meditation and then they talk in a circle. Sometimes it’s about the relationship with dads, or friendships, or what it means to be a man.
They take a hammer and a saw to everything we’ve been taught as men: we can’t show weakness, you can’t open up to your mates, you can’t be indecisive, you can’t say you’re feeling low because you’ll be a buzzkill, and from the salvage, they’re constructing a more authentic, sustainable masculinity.