In May 1980, during the course of reaching out to individuals seeking their support for the decriminalisation of sexual activity between males in Ireland, David Norris received the following response from one individual: “I write to inform you that it is my considered opinion that all homosexuals should be shot.”
In the context of 1980’s Ireland, this response might not have come as too much of a surprise to Norris. It was, after all, a time when the Irish government was defending the laws which criminalised sexual activity between males, and the hierarchy of the Irish Roman Catholic Church could unashamedly declare that homosexual acts were “morally evil” - something the Irish judiciary would later support. It was a time when five individuals could walk free from court despite being found guilty of killing an individual simply because they believed he was gay – their defence being that they were trying to clear the park of queers who they understood went “after children from five years and up”. It was a time in which one could spout ignorant vitriolic comments about minorities without any fear of prosecution.