Civil ServiCe BanS anti-gay DiSCrimination
OCTOBER 1988:
The civil service is to ban discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, becoming one of the first employers in the State to do so.
Historic Decision
JANUARY 1989:
Both houses of the Oireachtas have for the first time passed a measure granting rights to homosexuals. The measure was required to enable the Government to ratify the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is now an offence to incite hatred on account of race, colour, religion, ethnic or national origin, membership of the traveler community or sexual orientation.
VIDEO BREAKS THE SILENCE
MAY 1990:
Stories From The Silence, an Irish-made documentary about people living with HIV/AIDS had its first showing and launch on May 16 at the Riverside Centre, Dublin. This Irish first was produced jointly by the AIDS Action Alliance and the Irish Family Planning Association.
Festival First
SEPTEMBER 1991:
The first Irish Lesbian and Gay Film Festival will take place in Cork on the weekend of October 11 to 13. A collaboration between the established Cork Film Festival and the newly-opened resource centre, The Other Place, it promises to bring together the best in international lesbian and gay cinema and to provide a forum for interested Irish filmmakers to air their views.
ALAF: DUBLIN’S LESBIAN ARTS FESTIVAL
Ireland’s lesbian arts festival, aLAF ran from 2002 to 2004, becoming one of the biggest queer cultural events on the calendar. It started over pints in a Dublin pub, where a few friends were talking about the dearth of opportunities for lesbian artists to exhibit their wares. The festival ran for four days each year, and it had an international presence. “That was one of our aims at the start,” aLAF committee member, Iris Elliott told GCN in 2003, “to not have just more Irish artists but artists from all over the world too.” aLAF was briefly revived in 2009, becoming dLAF, the Dublin Lesbian Arts Festival.
OUR DEMANDS
NOVEMBER 1988:
The Oireachtas must introduce new legislation following the Norris decision by the European Court in Strasbourg. GLEN calls on the Oireachtas to introduce full civil rights for all lesbian and gay citizens in Ireland.
UCC MAKES HISTORY
APRIL 1989:
When the governing body of UCC voted 13 to seven to recognise the college’s Lesbian and Gay Support Group, it became the first constituent college of the National University of Ireland to accept a lesbian and gay group as a legitimate student society.
ILGA: CONFERENCE FOR DUBLIN
AUGUST 1990:
The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) is to hold its 1993 Annual Conference in Ireland. The conference is expected to attract over 350 delegates from around the world and will pose a major organisational challenge for Ireland’s lesbian and gay organisations.
DIRTY LAUNDRY ON THE HA’PENNY BRIDGE
FEBRUARY 1992:
Dublin ACT-UP staged a public ‘wash-day’ on Saturday February 15 to air some of this government’s ‘dirty-laundry’ connected with AIDS and HIV. Starting at 4pm, activists hung a clothesline from the Ha’penny Bridge over the Liffey. Hanging from it were sheets detailing the Irish government’s recent record on AIDS issues. Overhead were flown kites, showing washerwomen busy with the grime of the last few years.
Youth Federation Launched
JULY 1991: