Paul McCallister: Homosexuality, Catholic Church, Decriminalisation

Paul McCallister: Homosexuality, Catholic Church, Decriminalisation

Stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County

Paul talks about the challenges of being gay in Ireland, coming out, family reactions and the evolution of social attitudes toward homosexuality in Catholic Ireland. He talks about the club scene in late 1990s Cork and the legalisation of homosexuality in 1993.

9 April 2015

CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015

Cork, Ireland, 1990s-2010s

CFP_SR00502_kay_2014;
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CFP_SR00532_davis_2014;
CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014;
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CFP_SR00549_neville_2015;
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CFP_SR00558_doherty_2015;
CFP_SR00561_kerrigan_2015;
CFP_SR00576_odonnabhain_2016;

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive.

English

Sound

1 .wav File

30min 29sec

To the side of the Wolff Mardyke Pedestrian Bridge

.wav

24bit / 48kHz

DC And did you ever go on the scene before you came out or did that all happen after?

PM No, no I started going to the Otherplace at twenty-seven, twenty-eight, kind of, every Saturday night, sneaking in and sneaking out, I knew nobody so I was just going there, I used to get the last bus up, hop in, down the dark alley, sneak in the door, mortified, knocking at the door, please let me in, and going in so for the first kind of I’d say two days before I came out to myself I was kind of dabbling, not meeting anyone, just going to the club and stuff and then met a few friends and it got a bit more regular every week and then it was going to Loafers every week and then it kind of worked from there.

SD Can you tell us a little bit more about your first time going to the Otherplace, the atmosphere, the feelings?

PM Oh nightmare, nightmare, I used to stress, I don’t drink so I used to go up on the bus and I used to be getting ready at home and I used to get the twenty past ten bus now cause at that stage I knew no one so I used to go on my own and its down in the middle of town but its down a very dark street so you walk down, its two kind of doors and one is kind of closed off but not knowing it I used to knock at the wrong door so for the first few weeks I was like slow, knocking at the wrong door with no one coming out to me and eventually I kind of cased the joint and go out again and come around and eventually I learned that there was cameras inside so they were all watching me, laughing at me because over the time they said you were always going to the wrong door why did you keep picking the wrong door, and you had to be a member at that time so the first few times was a nightmare, walking in and this big blurry, burly bouncer said do you know where you are and I said yeah cringing, then the people behind the counter taking your coat and I’m saying I  hope I know no one, you walk up a stairs, then you open a door and everyone turns and then you die, and then after a while you kind of, once I’m in there then I’m fine its just initially getting inside the door was a nightmare, for about a month, it took me months to get used to walking in there, hated it, cause you could open the door and see anyone, it could be a woman dressed as a man, or a man dressed as a woman, sorry, and it could be a bit intense so yeah, nightmare, but after a few months of that it was grand.

DC What year would this have been around?

PM I’m now forty-four so twenty eight how long ago is that, sixteen years ago, so it would have been 1990’s, late 1990’s, so I was doing the club scene from the 1990s onwards and then I was doing Loafers now and again, like once, depending on who I was with and hanging around with but yeah it was around that time, 1990’s, late 1990’s when I started to kind of dabble in that part of life.