Padraig McCarthy: Homosexuality, Catholicism, Quay Co-Op,
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He regrets that his early homosexual encounters were within the cottaging scene. He mentions places and pubs where gay men met. He mentions the Cork word ‘steamer’ used by the general public to describe a gay man or a promiscuous man. He talks about the harsh position of the Catholic Church towards sex, but he speaks gratefully of a Catholic priest who advised him to accept his nature.
He remembers the emergence of a gay scene in Cork associated with the Quay Co-op and with Loafers bar. He talks of coming out as a gradual process and tells a story about his fellow teachers taking him to a gay club. He comments on whether or not there is such a thing as the gay community. He criticises the Gay Pride events as not representing ordinary gay people and giving the general public a misleading impression.
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CFP_SR00502_kay_2014;
CFP_SR00516_browne_2014;
CFP_SR00518_dee_2014;
CFP_SR00519_casey_2014;
CFP_SR00521_mccarthy_2014;
CFP_SR00532_davis_2014;
CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014;
CFP_SR00547_curtin_2015;
CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015;
CFP_SR00549_neville_2015;
CFP_SR00555_whelan_2015;
CFP_SR00556_lynch_2015;
CFP_SR00558_doherty_2015;
CFP_SR00561_kerrigan_2015;
CFP_SR00576_odonnabhain_2016;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s
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SD Okay and when did you first discover the gay scene, or was there a gay scene, or how did you meet other homosexuals?
PMc Well in the 1960s, 1970s in Cork, there was no scene, I don’t even know, I never remember hearing the word scene, I discovered that people who felt like me, met in public toilets and the Nell MacCafferty thing obviously reinforced that, and the Nell MacCafferty court cases never put me off going into public toilets and meeting people and when I think about it now, it all sounds terribly sordid and I know it has become a kind of a subculture within the gay community, the whole cottaging the scene, and though it isn’t kind of necessary anymore I think there are still people who like to do that, almost for old times sake I suppose, that was my, that was all I was aware off in Cork. In the late 60’s early 70’s and, you know because of the nature of the situation like you went into a toilet and you met somebody and it was usually for sex and nothing else. Because you were meeting other people, who were every bit as isolated and lonely and maybe repressed, and maybe terrified that somebody would see them, as I was, and that was it. And in a way I mean I was relatively young, and I suppose anybody that I went off with, could actually have been in very serious trouble because essentially I was underage and they weren’t so it was quite an abusive situation but I didn’t see it like that you know, and it is something that I look back on now, with sadness and [pause] and I don’t think it is the most healthy way for anybody to develop their sexual identity. But that was all that was there, that was all we knew, those of us who frequented public toilets as I said, we weren’t aware of any scene, I am not sure if there was a scene, I certainly wasn’t aware of it. And one of like there is nothing you can do now. It is a, it is been, it is a huge source of regret to be now, that my formative sexual years, were carried out in that kind of environment that kind of situation, it is when, when I look now at people, growing up in their teens and, and, coming to terms with there identity and seeing all the support that is there for them, the fact that it is talked about in the schools, that is on in the school curricula and there are books TV programme etc all sorts of things around the place. And most importantly of all, places where they can go and meet other gay people and relate in a normal natural healthy way that I didn’t have growing up that and it is not just me, nobody in Cork had, as far as I know, at that time.