By Sally Collins

In the back corner of a Galway pub on a Sunday evening, there are grown adults surrounded by crayons, colourful paper and glue sticks.

They’re all gathered round the tables making zines – small self-made magazines compiled of cut-outs from newspapers, drawings and writing.

This crafty corner is Zine Club, a creative event where attendees can make their own.

The publications made at Zine Club can be a political project, designed to circulate specific ideas, or just a fun idea you want to see expressed in a creative physical format.

Clara Higgins, who goes by the pseudonym Mot Collins, has been organising Zine Club in Galway Westend.

Every few weeks, on a Sunday, participants gather at Massimo from 6pm to 8pm to cut, glue, paste and draw their hearts away.

Some leave one session with a finished zine; others take weeks working on their project. The free gathering allows all those over 18 to learn how to make a zine and express their creativity.

Mot provides all the materials out of her own pocket, from scissors and glue to stickers and old magazines.

The zines made at Zine Club are a quirky and unconventional form of self-expression, examples including “How to Name your Ugly Dog” and “The Humour You Had as a Twelve-Year-Old”.

Mot, who is from Tuam, says her love for creativity really came to the fore when she started studying TV and Film Production in GTI. She mentions it was around this time that she started creating Zines.

“I liked the freedom of self-publishing, actually putting something together, making it yourself, distributing it yourself, and no one’s telling you what to do,” she says.

“There’s like, no holds barred…I have funny little goofy things to say, I think I can do funny little drawings and put them in a magazine.”

Caption: Ross Clifford, Brian Naughton, Claregalway, Ardaur T, Daniela Okopoka and Jamie Chambers at the Zine Club evening presented by Stray Cats Press at Massimo Bar, William Street West, which takes place every second Sunday from 6-8pm. Photo: Brian Harding.

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