The windows of the White Horse on Dublin's Burgh Quay are covered to keep out the early-morning sun. Three bouncers at the door keep an eye on the dancing crowds.
The DJ spins another banging electro house tune for the breakfast massive. You check your watch and find that, yes, it really is just 10am.
Operating from 7am to noon on Saturdays and bank holidays, the Early House club is the place to be for those who never want those long summer nights to end. Time was when an early house had very different connotations. It meant a spit-and-sawdust pub where you'd be hunched up among the dockers, shift workers and hardcore drinkers. But at this early house you're dancing wildly with some of the city's trendiest types, and bumping along to the latest dance tunes.
The club was started up by the White Horse's bar manager, Bernard Kennedy, two years ago and since then it has become an institution among diehard Dublin clubbers. "When the smoking ban came in we needed to think of ways of bringing punters into the bar, and I thought, let's give this a try and see if it takes off."
Early House's clientele are people who like to stay out all night long - and people who have to stay out all night, because it is their job.
Kennedy doesn't welcome those who don't know when it's time to go home. "If someone rolls up here off their heads after a night on the lash, they won't get in. We have three bouncers on the door, and they won't let messers in."
The White Horse has an early-morning drinks licence but Kennedy also had to apply for an early-morning dance licence. It is weird arriving in a darkened nightclub on a bright Saturday morning, and the joint is jumping as though it's midnight.
DJ Eoin Clarke is spinning the discs and the punters - mostly in their late 20s and early 30s - are showing little signs of fatigue. Iain, from Donaghmede, has been here since 7.30am; he went to the Ri-Ra club the previous night, then went home for a while to recharge the batteries. Alan, from Ballymena, is well used to staying up all night, having once played in a band, and he's planning to party right through the weekend, at least until reality kicks in "some time around next Thursday", he laughs.
At 11.30am, the DJ spins his last tune, and the staff take down the blackout curtains, letting the dreaded sunlight flood in. The weekend has just begun.
