I grew up in Mayo, in the very west in a place called Louisburgh. remember when was 10 or 11 and two girls from the school asked to go to the toilet at the same time. Someone shouted ‘lesbians’ at them. was like ‘What? Are lesbians people who go to the toilet together?’ had never heard the word, didn’t know what it was. These things weren’t very visible in the ‘80s and ‘90s in West Mayo.
I had a growing awareness in my late teens, early 20’s. came to Dublin for college in UCD and began to realise who was. At that time in Dublin there wasn’t a huge amount happening, especially for women. moved to London for a career and our office was in the middle of Soho. That’s where discovered gay life. I joined the Diversity Choir and was in the GLEAM (Gay and Lesbian Employees At Microsoft) Network. That’s where got involved with community work. It was a way to get to know people and a way to understand what you could be. When came back to Dublin was more confident, was more sure of who was and immediately auditioned for Gloria (Dublin’s Lesbian and Gay Choir).
Everyone got involved in campaigning for Marriage Equality in 2015 in various ways. knew a few people who were in the NXF. At the time they had a lot of people who had been involved in big projects like Marriage Equality, Section 37. There was a recruitment drive and was part of that.