LGBT Collection
Title
LGBT Collection
Subject
Stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County.
Description
The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) collection was launched and created in August 2014 by Stephen Dee and Dermot Casey, researchers at the Cork Folklore Project. The Project was established to record and preserve stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County, with a focus prior to decriminalization in 1993 but also to document the important achievements and struggles that contributed to a society that today is far more accepting of LGBT people. This is proven today with the legalisation of same sex marriage through popular vote and the increased visibility of LGBT people in all areas of public life. The collection’s aims are to explore three main aspects: ‘Personal Recollections’ including but not limited to identity, coming out and experiences of homophobia; ‘Community Stories’ based on certain areas, streets, and forms of social interaction within the LGBT community; and ‘Political Movements’, chronicling political events, motivations and outcomes such as the creation of the Cork-based Irish Gay Rights Movement in 1976, Cork Gay Collective in 1980, and UCC Gay Soc in 1980. Each interview we conducted was unique with each interviewee covering some or all of these topics and with some areas being explored in depth. We hope the material can complement LGBT research in Ireland and also stimulate further interest amongst the public in LGBT history. To date we have distributed some of this material to the public with an audio visual presentation on YouTube and in 2016 in conjunction with Cork City Partnership for LGBT Awareness week we produced a public exhibition of our sound excerpts at Cork City Library. Special thanks to all our interviewees and also to Alvina Cassidy whose research also features in this collection.
This LGBT collection of interviews is stored within the Cork Folklore Project permanent oral history archive run in conjunction with UCC’s Folklore and Ethnology Department and Northside Community Enterprises, with both a physical and digital presence. As with all our material, access to full interviews is supervised through a variety of permissions and forms.
This LGBT collection of interviews is stored within the Cork Folklore Project permanent oral history archive run in conjunction with UCC’s Folklore and Ethnology Department and Northside Community Enterprises, with both a physical and digital presence. As with all our material, access to full interviews is supervised through a variety of permissions and forms.
Date
2012 and onwards
Identifier
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;
Coverage
Ethnographic interviews carried out with members of the LGBT community in Cork city and county
Relation
Youtube video showcasing interviews from our LGBT Archive Collection. Ten voices, eight topics, ranging from First Discovery, Coming Out, The Scene, Marriage and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s
Source
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Rights
Cork Folklore Project
Language
English
Type
Audio
Format
16 .wav files
Collection Items
Eddie Kay: Drag queens, Gay scene, Alternative Miss Ireland,
Eddie Kay was interviewed for an article on the Alternative Miss Cork competition that will feature in the Archive Magazine Issue 18. He was chosen as an interviewee because of his experience of organising and co-founding the Cork event. The…
Christine Browne: Homosexuality, Lesbianism, Gay Marriage.
Christine talks about realising she was gay, talking to boys but being attracted to women. Christine speaks about her experience of coming out to her family and friends. Christine also describes her time working in a laundrette, Duds n Suds on…
Stephen Dee: Gay life, LGBT, Loafers Bar, Coming Out.
Stephen talks about first becoming aware of feeling that he was gay, and the difficulty of acknowledging his realisation. He tells a story about seeing his dead grandmother, who told him everything would be okay. He points out that as a gay man he…
Padraig McCarthy: Homosexuality, Catholicism, Quay Co-Op,
Padraig talks about his experiences as a gay man.
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…
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…
Clive Davis: Gay life, The Other Place, South Main Street
Clive talks about his experience coming out as a gay man. He comments about helping others with their difficulties or with coming out but regretting that once out he would never see them again.
He talks about the role and history of The Other Place,…
He talks about the role and history of The Other Place,…
Finbarr Kiely: Loafers Bar, Homosexuality, Decriminalisation.
Finbarr Kiely describes life in Cork for a gay man through the early ‘70s, the ‘90s up to the present. He recalls first realising that he is gay and how he blends this part of his personal life with social and professional lives. He relates stories…
Ken Curtin: Marriage Referendum, Political Activism, Marriage Equality,
Ken was the campaign director for the Yes Equality! which campaigned for a yes vote in the marriage equality referendum in 2015. Ken, a heterosexual man, outlines his relationship to the gay community. en then explains his background in politics and…
Paul McCallister: Homosexuality, Catholic Church, Decriminalisation
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…
Jonathan Neville: Cork Gay Project, Cork Pride, Fatherhood, Gay Marriage.
Jonathan Neville was interviewed for the LGBT Archive at CFP. He discusses the challenge of being gay in Ireland in the 1980s to the present and the challenge of coming out. His discussion of the detrimental physical health ramifications of…
Edmund Lynch: Irish Gay Rights Movement, Marriage Referendum, Activism,
Edmund Lynch is a gay activist from Dublin. He came out to his family in 1974/5. He discusses the Irish gay rights movement from the 1970s through decriminalisation and the Marriage Referendum in 2015.
Tony Doherty: Rainbow Ramblers, Cork Gay Mens’ Cooperative, Cruising.
Tony Doherty was interviewed as part of the LGBT project. He describes his younger days in Cork in the 1950s and 1960s. He went to England in 1968, five years after decriminalisation in the UK. His father was a Special Branch Garda who believed in…
Cathal Kerrigan: Activism, Gay Scene, Quay Co-op,
Cathal speaks about first becoming aware of his sexual orientation in his teens. Mayfield mixed secondary school. Eglington St Baths. His father Patrick Kerrigan, Labour TD and senator and Cork Lord Mayor. The Irish literary magazine Hibernia. RTE TV…
Barra O’Donnabhain: Homosexuality, UCC, David Norris,
Barra was born in Shannon Co. Clare but moved to Cork in the late seventies to attend UCC at a time when the first student gay society was being set up. He had experience of gay life and the emerging gay social scene in Cork and Dublin in the early…