I’ve been editing GCN for 15 years this month, exactly half of its existence. Before that I was hugely connected to the publication, having worked here on a FÁS Community Employment Scheme during the early ’90s, a stint that began my career as a journalist. Back in those days there was always a sense that GCN could close down at any moment. We were at the mercy of government cuts to FÁS, who annually held us under the wringer as we waited to hear whether we’d got funding for another year.
Times have changed, of course, but in the years that have followed, one thing has remained the same – GCN has always had to work harder than other publications to survive. At the beginning it was because advertisers didn’t want their products or services to be associated with the ‘gays’, or because they didn’t think there were enough gays in Ireland to bulk up sales of their products and services.