Community Update: LGBT History Month

February is LGBT History month and as part of this there are a number of events taking place in Dublin and Belfast listed below:

GAY HISTORY MONTH

FEBRUARY 2013

DUBLIN

Monday 4th February 2013
4.) Irish made Films/Documentaries with an LGBT Theme
Venue: Outhouse

Chaero (1994)
Directed by Matt Hayes
A portrait of two teenagers in Dublin
Starring Vincent Burke, Hazel Dunphy.

Chicken (2009)
Director by Barry Dignam
Two guys play a game of friendly Gay Chicken than it just gets crazy!

A Bit of the Other (2004)
Directed by Edmund Lynch
From its origins as a one-off extravaganza in Sides nightclub in 1987 to 2012 the Alternative
Miss Ireland was a annual entertainment highlight which packed out the Olympia Theatre in
Dublin each March.
A Bit of the Other is a documentary celebration of Alternative Miss Ireland and all its
madness and magnanimity as a highly successful charity fundraiser. The documentary
captures much of the music and mania of 2004’s spectacular tenth AMI, featuring entrants
from all corners of Ireland as well as France, England and the Philippines. Interwoven with
this footage are memories and musings from AMI originators, creators, organisers and
beneficiaries, judges past and present, former winners (and losers!) and AMI groupies and
addicts.
The production won the Audience award for Best Documentary at the 2004 DLGFF.

First TX on 11th February 1980

Stand Up – Don’t Stand for Homophobic Bullying (2011)
Anti homophobic bullying advertisement, created as part of BeLonG To Youth Services
annual Stand Up!
Organised by LGBT Project

Tuesday 5th – 15th February 2013
5.) Windows of our Lives:
Early gay marchers in Dublin in 1983 against the decision
of Mr. Justice Gannon in the murder of Declan Flynn.
Photographs taken by Derek Speirs

Civil Partnerships
Photographs taken by Shawna Scot

Transgender People
Photographs taken by Louise Hannon and other artists

Pictures of the GAZE Film Festival
Tells the story on their 20th celebrations.
Venue: Atrium Civic Offices
Launch Time: 6:30 pm on Tuesday 5th February
Organised by LGBT Synergy, GAZE and TENI

Saturday 9th February 2013
6.) Telling their Stories (My LGBT Recollections) – Session 1
Members of the LGBT Community tell a memory or two from the old days before 1993 to
camera and in front of a small audience.
Venue: Outhouse
Time: 2.00 pm
This event will be recorded
Organised by LGBT History Project

Monday 11th February 2013
7.) LGBT LECTURE -1
'Was Gaelic Ireland gay friendly'
Presentation by Brian Lacey
Introduction: Louise Hannon
Venue: Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street
Time: 6.15 pm
Organised by LGBT Synergy

Thursday 14th February 2013
8.) LGBT LECTURE - 2
25 Years of GCN – Past and Present
Founder of Gay Community News (GCN), Tonie Walsh, joins current Editor, Brian
Finnegan, to talk about the development of the magazine and its key role in the evolution of
the LGBT community in Ireland, since it was fist published on 10th February 1988.
Presentation by Tonie Walsh and Brian Finnegan
Introduction: Jonathan MacCumhaill-BinRosli
Venue: Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street
Time: 6.15 pm
Organised by LGBT Synergy

Saturday 16th February 2013
9.) A WALK IN DUBLIN’S LGBT’S HISTORY PAST
Host/Guide: Tonie Walsh
Venue: Meet outside Dublin Castle, Dame Lane Entrance
Time: 1.30pm
Organised by LGBT Synergy

Saturday 16th February 2013
10.) A Wilde Reading
The Acting Out group will be reading from one of their best loved performances, The Trials of
Oscar Wilde. The true story, the stage presents & love capture the audience.
Venue: Front Lounge
Time: 4:30 pm
Organised by LGBT Synergy

Saturday 16th February 2013
11.) Outing Exclusion Conference
The first conference in Ireland to examine the issues of poverty and social exclusion in the LGBT
community.
The event will explore how issues relating to poverty, economic inequality and multiple
disadvantage impact upon LGBT people, “those in the LGBT community history has forgotten”.
RSVP by Friday 8th February to: nlgfederation@gmail.com

Keynote International Guest: Anna Grodzka, MP, Poland, trans-rights and LGBT
campaigner
Venue: The Wood Quay Conference Venue
Dublin City Council Civic Offices
Time: 10am – 500pm
Organised by NLGF with the Dublin City Council Social Inclusion Unit and The
Community Foundation for Ireland

Tuesday, 19th February 2013
12.) Stories of Marriage Equality
Marriage Equality, LGBT Noise and NLGF would like to invite you to help document the
history of the marriage equality movement in Ireland to date.
Venue: Seminar Room, National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street
Time: 6:30 pm
Chairperson: Gráinne Healy
Organised by Marriage Equality, LGBT Noise and NLGF

Thursday 21st February 2013
13.) LGBT LECTURES - 3
Transformations: Progress for Lesbians and Gay in Ireland: 1993 -2013
Presentation by Kieran Rose (GLEN)
Introduction: Ailbhe Smyth
Venue: Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street
Time: 6.15 pm
Organised by LGBT Synergy

Saturday 23rd February 2013
14.) Telling their Stories (My LGBT Recollections) – Session 2
Members of the LGBT Community tell a memory or two from the old days before 1993 to
camera and in front of a small audience.
Venue: Outhouse
Time: 2.00 pm
This event will be recorded
Organised by LGBT History Project

Monday 25th February 2013
15.) LGBT LECTURE - 4
The Cult of the Sexless Casement
Presentation by Jeffrey Dudgeon
Introduction: Mark O’Donovan
Venue: Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street
Time: 6.15 pm

Thursday 28th February 2013
16.) Closing Ceremony
Closing words from individuals and organizations, GCN, NLGF, GLEN, Dublin Pride to
mark there anniversaries.
Plus singing from Gloria and piece from Dublin Pride Musical Group
Venue: City Hall
Time: 7:30 pm
Organised by LGBT Synergy

AMONG OUR CONTRIBUTORS ARE:

Jeffrey Dudgeon
He has held office in the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA) since its
foundation in 1975. He was the successful plaintiff at the European Court of Human Rights
in a six-year case whose 1981 judgment on Article 8 relating to the right to a private life led
to the 1982 decriminalisation of male homosexual behaviour in Northern Ireland. This case
was the starting point and foundation stone for a number of other and, in time, more radical
Strasbourg judgments.

Jeff was awarded an MBE in the 2012 New Year Honours List for “services to the lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender community in Northern Ireland.” His book on the life of
Roger Casement and the authenticity of his famous diaries was published in 2002, entitled
Roger Casement: The Black Diaries – With a Study of his Background, Sexuality, and Irish
Political Life. It is a 650-page biography with diary transcriptions including the never-before-
published erotic 1911 journal. His website jeffdudgeon.com carries much material on the
continuing Casement controversies and current LGBT issues.

Brian Finnegan
The editor of GCN. Prior to that he worked at In Dublin magazine and GI, a gay fashion and
lifestyle magazine where he was editor and co-creator. He edited a book of gay short stories,
Quare Fellas (Attic Press, 1994) and wrote a non-fiction humour book, Camp As Knickers
(Marino Books, 1995). Over the past 16 years he has been a regular contributor to many of
Ireland's newspapers, magazines, radio and TV channels, writing and broadcasting on gay
politics and culture. He has ghostwritten a number of celebrity autobiographies and his first
novel, The Forced Redundancy Club was published by Hachette Books in 2012. His second
novel, Knowing Me, Knowing You will be published, again by Hachette Books, in May
2013.

Louise Hannon
She has been involved in Transgender advocacy for over ten years. She is Community
Development Director of Dublin Pride Ltd. where she has served now for three years. She
ran her own limited company for a number of years and has been heavily involved in equality
and human rights issues. She is a member of Labour Equality Co-coordinating Council and is
currently co chair of Labour LGBT. She is a professional photographer.


Gráinne Healy
A long time feminist activist with serious involvement in campaign for women's rights
in Ireland, including reproductive health rights, violence against women, prostitution and
trafficking and anti poverty issues. Chair of the European Women's Lobby's Observatory
on Violence against Women for over a decade, she is also former Vice President of the
European Women's Lobby, a former Chairwoman of the National Women's Council of
Ireland; Chairwoman of the National Domestic Violence Intervention Agency and a previous
Ministerial appointee to the Board of the Equality Authority and the Women's Health
Council.

A self-employed Projects Manager, Gráinne has devised and delivered numerous EU-
funded social inclusion initiatives with transnational partnerships across the EU, including
the Dignity Project which seeks to support development of Inter-agency service delivery for
victims of sex trafficking and the Equal Project which sought to deliver innovative solutions

to work place inequality thus creating a more equal workplace in the Dublin region. She has
managed budgets in excess of £1m and has also published evaluation reports and strategic
plans for many community and voluntary organisations.

Brian Lacey
Studied Celtic Archaeology and Early Irish History at UCD, graduating in 1974. He obtained
his DPhil from the University of Ulster in 1999 for studies relating to St Colmcille. He
lectured at Magee College, Derry (1974-86), and later founded Derry City Council’s Heritage
and Museum Service, including four museums and an archive service. He directed a series
of salvage excavations at bomb-sites in Derry in the 1970s, and the archaeological survey
of County Donegal 1980-83. From 1998 to 2012 he was CEO at the Discovery Programme
– the Irish institute for advanced archaeological research. He has been editor of: Museum
Ireland, the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and Discovery Programme
Reports, and is the author of 10 books as well as many booklets, book chapters and articles.
His publications include the book Terrible Queer Creatures; homosexuality in Irish history
issued in 2008. He was a gay activist and a founding member of several gay organisations
and facilities in Derry between 1975 and 1990.

Edmund Lynch
He was one of the founder members (11 people in all) of the Gay Movement in Ireland in
1973 and in 1977 was the researcher on the constitutional action against the Irish Government
taken by David Norris arguing that the laws on homosexuality were repugnant to the 1937
Constitution. He was also a founding member of the IGA now known ILGA (International
Lesbian and Gay Association) and ran its Information Secretariat here in Dublin. He has been
involved in LGBT issues for nearly 40 years.

He started working in Irish Television (RTE) in 1969. He produced and directed CEARTA
DAONNA A SARU (Human Rights Denied) for TG4 in 1996. He was responsible in
2000 for the daily TV programme, 100 YEARS, which told the story of Ireland, its people
and events in the 20th Century. He was responsible in 1999 for the 16 part TV series
REMEMBERING THE CENTURY and the 6 part series IRISH PEOPLE FLYING
WELL TO JAPAN.

In 2003 he produced and directed DID ANYONE NOTICE US? Gay Visibility in the Irish
Media 1973 - 93. It won the audience award for documentary at the Dublin Lesbian and Gay
Film Festival and a jury award at the Cork International Film Festival in the same year.
In 2004 he co-produced and directed A BIT OF THE OTHER, a documentary on the
Alternative Miss Ireland, which also won the audience award for documentary at the Dublin
Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and was subsequently transmitted on RTE 2.
He has just completed a Certificate in Local History for NUI, Maynooth. The paper was titled
The History of the Gay Movement in Ireland 1973-1993.

Mark O’Donovan
He has volunteered for many LGBT organisations! He founded the Dublin Devils FC,
Ireland's only gay football team, in 2005. He was also instrumental in the establishment of
Dublin Pride in 2007. He has worked for Outhouse, the LGBT community resource centre
for a time.

He is a qualified engineer with 15 years experience in the industry. His current role is for
a gaming studio as an iOS designer. He makes games for the iPhone and iPad. He is also a
qualified event manager. He attended to the first leadership course run by LGBT Diversity in
2012. In 2011, he founded LGBT Synergy a community development organisation. With the
LGBT Synergy team, has has achieved some major and minor successes for the community.

LGBT Synergy helped turn around Dublin Pride 2012 and tied in with Europe to bring LGBT
History Month to Ireland.

Dr. Katherine O’Donnell
Director of the Women's Studies Centre in the School of Social Justice, UCD. She has
published widely in Irish literary studies and the history of sexuality. She is currently
Principal Investigator on a number of funded research projects including directing a team
funded by the Irish Research Council: Magdalene Institutions: Recording an Archival and
Oral History. She is a founder member of the Irish Queer Archive Advisory Board. She is a
licensed acupuncturist.

Jonathan MacCumhaill-BinRosli
Born in Dublin in 1983 as the march for freedom was underway for gay rights.
He has been engaged with fundraising and volunteer work from an early age from walking
from Dublin to Galway to co-founding both reach out an LGBT society in NCI Dublin.
He worked in banking for 5 years and in 2012 changed careers to work with Central Dublin
Business Association and other NGOs.
He is a Director of Dublin Pride, North Side Befriends and LGBT Synergy. As director of
finance with Dublin pride he has restored its financial health twice, and has served in that
position for 5 years.
In the international media he is know simple as "Jonathan" as his wedding made him a house
hold name in south east Asia. He and his husband, now an exile, live happily here in the
capital.

Kieran Rose
He is a Senior Planner with the Economic Development Unit of Dublin City Council. He was
rapporteur for the Lord Mayor's Commission on Employment (2010); a political response
to the economic challenges for the city. The final report was titled: Dublin: Working City;
Learning City; Open City; Global City; Liveable City. He drafted the economic policies
for the Dublin City draft Development Plan (2010 - 2017) that stressed issues such as the
challenges of the recession, the need for planning to be agile and responsive, to promote
innovation, regeneration and for Dublin to be globally competitive. He co-authored the
Economic Development Action Plan for the Dublin City Region (2009). He delivered a
paper on 'Diversity Powering Dublin's Success' to a Conference on 'Dublin: A Creative City
Region' (2007) at which Prof. Richard Florida was the keynote speaker. He co-authored a
paper on International Competitiveness and the New Economy: The role of diversity and
equality (GLEN, 2009). He is a member of the Board of the Equality Authority.

Ailbhe Smyth
She has been active in LGBT, feminist and radical politics for many years. She is currently
co-convenor of Feminist Open Forum, chair of the National Lesbian and Gay Federation,
and a board member of Marriage Equality, ERA (Equality and Rights Alliance, and National
Convenor of the People Before Profit Alliance. Formerly a senior academic at UCD, Ailbhe
co-founded the Women’s Education, Research and Resource Centre (WERRC) 1990 and was
WERRC director until she left UCD in 2006. She has published widely on feminist, political
and cultural issues. Ailbhe currently works as an educator and consultant with community
organisations and NGOs, mainly on issues of gender, sexuality and equality, as well as
poverty and substance misuse.

Tonie Walsh
He was heavily involved in the gay civil rights movement from 1979, spending his 20s
immersed in Dublin’s Hirschfeld Centre.
At the age of 24 he became the first openly gay person to stand for election to Dublin City

Council. Although unsuccessful, he was persuaded by newly-formed GLEN to stand for
election to Dáil Éireann in the General Election of 1989 (highlighting the need for law reform
and equality legislation).
A former President of the National Lesbian and Gay Federation, He was staff reporter
for OUT Magazine, Ireland’s first attempt at a mainstream, commercial gay publication.
Although OUT only lasted four years, it encouraged him to establish Gay Community News
in 1988. He edited GCN during its first two years. In 1997 he reorganised NGLF’s archives
into what would later become the Irish Queer Archive (IQA).

Katherine Zappone
Director of The Centre for Progressive Change, Ltd. She is an educator, public policy and
human rights expert. An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, appointed Katherine as a Senator to Seanad
Eireann in 2011. She was a Commissioner with the Irish Human Rights Commission for two
terms. Katherine and her spouse, Dr Ann Louise Gilligan are Co-founders of An Cos’n in
Tallaght, one of the largest community education and enterprise centres in Ireland. She has
been involved in the public policy arena since her time as Chief Executive of the National
Women’s Council of Ireland. She has also taught ethics, practical theology and education in
Trinity College Dublin. She has published research in national equality frameworks, effective
children’s services, equal opportunity in education, theology and spirituality, and human
rights.
Katherine holds a PhD from Boston College and an MBA from the Smurfit Business School
at UCD. Katherine and Ann Louise have been in the Irish courts since 2003, seeking the
human right to marry under the Irish Constitution.