No: 4 The Gay And Lesbian Equality Network GLEN
by Brian Finnegan
The cover of the June 1993 edition of GCN featured an iconic picture of a group of four people outside Dáil Eireann, celebrating the decriminalisation of homosexuality with glasses of champagne. Three of those people were members of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN) – Kieran Rose, Chris Robson and Suzy Byrne – and they were not only ringing in a new era for gay and lesbian people in Ireland, they were toasting the culmination of a campaign that had been happening mostly behind closed doors for five years, only reported on in the pages of GCN and fleetingly in the mainstream press.
Pictured: Staff and board members of GLEN, receiving the Lord Mayor’s Award in 2016, left to right: Jeanne McDonagh (guest rather than board member), Alan Hatton, Simon Nugent, Marie Hamilton, Patrick Sweeney, Craig Dwyer, Kieran Rose, Sandra Irwin-Gowran, Davin Roche, Séamus Dooley, Ross Flanagan, Muriel Walls, Brian Sheehan