I realised I was gay when was ten, although didn’t have a term to put on it, when started getting crushes on guys in the class. One in particular, his name was David and wanted to be with him all the time. But it was pretty difficult to cope with because Ireland was such a Catholic country.
The Corpus Christi processions were the most visible manifestations of overwhelming Catholicism. A whole area would be full of Papal flags and bunting and there would be a procession through the streets with an army escort. Public religious devotion of a type that nobody under 60 would remember at this stage.
I was in the Phibsborough Library when was 14 and reading the Robert Frost poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ and realising was going to take the road less travelled. Any notion that had beforehand of getting married and having kids was just gone out the door. You had to pretend that being gay didn’t exist. The repressive nature of the laws, the attitudes of society in general, school friends telling queer jokes as you would feign laughter while you blushed and realised you were one of 'them'.