As we approach the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day, and take a moment to acknowledge almost 35 years of HIV/AIDS activism in Ireland, it’s also time to critically acknowledge how we negotiated what I call ‘the war’ - our experience of the AIDS pandemic in Ireland.

Since the first notified cases of AIDS in Ireland (in 1985), there have been over 300 deaths and thousands upon thousands of HIV infections. Globally, over 30 million people have died of AIDS complications.

People are still dying of AIDS somewhere on the globe. People are still acquiring AIDS somewhere in Ireland. The reasons behind global AIDS deaths are self-evident, generally a combination of poverty, lack of sex education and decent health care and a moribund religious ideology. Closer to home, it’s more often ignorance around sexual health and lack of access to sexual health education resulting in late diagnoses that underlines new cases of full blown AIDS.