PrideProject

Ciara Ní É / Bilingual Performer / Writer / Activist

Ciara Ní É

Bilingual Performer / Writer / Activist

Photo by Hannah McGlynn

Award-winning TV presenter and writer, Ciara Ní É, has been a regular presence in Irish national television and literary circles for a number of years. An ambassador of The Irish Writers Centre, her work has been published extensively in journals including Icarus, Aneas, and Comhar, and the recent anthologies Bone and Marrow/Cnámh agus Smior, Queering the Green and Washing Windows Too. She has written poems for UNESCO City of Literature, The Linenhall Arts Centre, RTÉ TV, BBC Radio and TG4, and has performed them everywhere from Sweden and London to Brussels and New York. 

Photo by Hannah McGlynn

Born in Clontarf, Dublin as the middle child of five children, Ciara Ní É did not grow up speaking Irish at home, but rather was inspired by two of her teachers who taught it through music, theatre and fun when she was in sixth class. Her interest in the language was further encouraged by her parents who began sending her to the Gaeltacht (Coláiste Chamuis, Ros a’ Mhil) every summer from when she turned 12. It was here and at Trinity college where she studied English Literature and Modern Irish for her undergrad, that she developed a real grá for Gaeilge.

Ciara speaking at Listowel Writer’s Week

Following a year in London working as an Editorial Assistant for publisher Dorling Kindersley, Ciara returned to Ireland to pursue a job working with the Irish language. But first, she needed to improve, so she signed up for UCD’s Scríobh agus Cumarsáid na Gaeilge where she took classes in editing, translation, and writing. Outside of her academic pursuits, Ciara founded REIC in 2015, a monthly bilingual, and sometimes multilingual, spoken word event featuring poetry, rap, music and storytelling. REIC (pronounced 'wreck') grew from a desire to give a platform to artists who write in Irish, and to create a relaxed space where performing as Gaeilge is expected and encouraged, which inspires more performers to make use of the Irish they have.

Crowds at Dublin Castle in May 2015 when gay marriage was legalised in Ireland. Source: GCN

REIC came about the same year as the Marriage Equality referendum which passed by 62% in May 2015, making Ireland the first country in the world to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote. As a member of the LGBT+ community (or, LADT+ as gaeilge), Ciara recognises how important it is to be able to identify yourself within a language. Initially, as someone who came into the Irish-language scene as something of an outsider, Ciara felt doubly ostracised by the fact that she was also queer in this space where 'queer people were not common and queer groups did not seem to exist'. But that all changed during the Referendum when she joined 'Tá Comhionannas' a group of LGBTQ+ Gaeilgeoirí and allies who got together to campaign for the yes vote.

Ciara performing in Whelan’s

Following the referendum, Ciara was involved in organising Bród events (Pride events in Irish) from 2017 onwards. From this, in February 2020, Ciara and her close friend and collaborator Eoin McEvoy founded AerachAiteachGaelach (translation: GayQueerIrish) - a collective of 60+ queer artists, writers, musicians, actors, photographers and drag artists.

Photo by Hannah McGlynn

AAG was selected by The Abbey Theatre to take part in The Abbey 5x5, their annual development series for community theatre projects that enables the 5 chosen communities to engage with their national theatre for the first time. AAG, along with the other chosen projects, received five days’ worth of space, technical assistance and €5,000 to help in the development of a theatre piece. During AAG’s 5×5 week, they developed a bilingual, multi-disciplinary piece of work across poetry, drag, dance, singing, verbatim theatre, video and mythology that sought ‘to examine the similarities between the challenges faced by LGBT+ citizens and other groups in Ireland, exploring marginalisation, minoritisation, invisibility and erasure.’ AAG made the video below during lockdown to celebrate Bród 2020:

“This pandemic is a testing and bizarre time in all of our lives. It is abundantly clear that art and creativity are crucial in providing relief. When else has a national news broadcast ended with a poem?”
— Ciara Ní É

Ciara is also a YouTuber, where she shares her popular video series What the Focal in which she answers a variety of questions on the Irish language and explores various dialects from around the country. From 2017-18 she taught Irish to students at Villanovoa University in Philadelphia as a Fulbright Scholar and just this year, she was chosen as one of the Irish Examiner’s ‘100 Women Changing Ireland in 2022.’ What can we expect from Ciara in the near future? Well, she is currently co-writing an exciting new TV series with Tua Films, and her first poetry collection is forthcoming. To keep updated on her work, go to her website miseciara.wordpress.com.

You can follow Ciara on Twitter: @MiseCiara

You can check out An Foclóir Aiteach / The Queer Dictionary, developed by the USI, BelongTo and TENI, here.

Herstory by Katelyn Hanna.

Thank you to Ciara Ní É for providing information and photos for this biography.

Want to read about historical LGBTQ+ women? See our photo essay here.

Sources:

‘DCU Music and poet Ciara Ni É look to the future for project celebrating the end of COVID-19 crisis,’ online at: https://www.dcu.ie/news/news/2020/04/dcu-music-and-poet-ciara-ni-e-look-to-the-future-for-project-celebrating-the-end [accessed 13 Apr. 2022].

The Irish Times, 13 Mar. 2018.

‘5×5 2020,’ online at: https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/5x5-2020/ [accessed 13 Apr. 2022].

‘Ciara Ní É’, Seal le Dáithí, S4 E19, ar TG4, ar líne ag: https://www.tg4.ie/en/player/categories/entertainment-shows/?series=Seal%20le%20D%C3%A1ith%C3%AD&genre=Siamsaiocht [accessed 12 Apr. 2022].

‘An Foclóir Aiteach/The Queer Dictionary,’ online at: https://usi.ie/focloir-aiteach/ [accessed 13 Apr. 2022].

‘Pride2020 Video by AAG,’ online at: https://miseciara-wordpress-com.translate.goog/2020/07/08/fisean-brod2020-le-aag/?_x_tr_sl=ga&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc [accessed 13 Apr. 2022].

Taryn de Vere / Bisexual Fashion Activist / Performance Artist / Writer

Taryn de Vere

Bisexual Fashion Activist / Performance Artist / Writer

Taryn de Vere is a Bisexual fashion activist, performance artist, and writer living in County Donegal. Originally from Australia, Taryn first moved to Belfast in early 1998 and later settled in County Donegal, where she has lived since 2004. Taryn comes from a family of activists and recalls going to school with a 'No nukes' sticker on her lunchbox, aged six. Her family was involved in Indigenous rights, women's rights, and environmental issues, all subjects which remain important to Taryn. "My goal is to tread lightly on the earth and leave little trace that I was here," says Taryn. "I was shocked that no one recycled when I first came to Ireland, and that people didn't seem to know much about the environment or climate change. Thankfully that's all changed and there is much more awareness now." 

Taryn was one of the founding parents that set up Donegal's first multi denominational school, Letterkenny Educate together National School. The school now has over 300 students and has been running for over 15 years. Taryn says, "Being involved in creating the school was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. Every time I see people dropping their kids off there, I feel a huge sense of pride. It's one of those things that has affected the lives of thousands of people, I was so fortunate to be able to contribute to it happening."

Taryn has been involved in various campaigns for social change, including the repeal referendum, decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland, the fight to make the National Maternity Hospital publicly owned, housing rights, disability rights and migrant rights. One of the ways that Taryn becomes involved is by the creation of activist headpieces and outfits. "I jokingly say that I started making these because my arms got too tired holding signs," laughs Taryn, "however with my background in PR I know what will appeal to a photo editor so I knew that the quirk-factor of a headpiece would make it into the papers and thus further the cause that I believe in. It was never about me being in the papers, it's always been about the cause. I'm delighted that some other people are now doing similar things and it's not just me in the papers all the time." Taryn calls these creations 'fashion activism'. "I use how I dress and the pieces I make to tell a story visually. Sometimes I add a performance art aspect, like with the Pro-choice Princess, who handed out cards granting the bearer bodily autonomy." Some of Taryn's fashion activist pieces are now in the collection of the National Museum of Ireland. 

Taryn came out as Bisexual aged 40. "I had had a lot of sexual experiences with women but I never put two and two together until I was talking to a friend and she said it sounded like I was Bisexual. I felt silly for not realising it sooner. I think it was the internalised biphobia, that I just assumed I was heterosexual, as I grew up in a heteronormative society. I've always been attracted to women, I just never examined it very closely. Now I'm out and proud." Taryn is involved in LGBTQIA+ rights, especially trans rights as she is the mother of a trans child. "In all the activism I take part in, I'm trying to build a fairer world for those of us in it now, and those to come. I want a better world for my children."

Taryn has been married eight times. "The first time was a conventional marriage, the last seven times I've married the same person. Our first wedding was a surrealist themed wedding ceremony. All the guests had to wear a surrealist head. We basically wrote a piece of surrealist theatre, with an Irreverand who married us, a Responsorial Salmon hand puppet and a Eucharist of cheese singles. Following that we wrote vows based on equality and freedom, removing all obligation and we now get married in front of strangers. We put into our vows a commitment to grow as people, and so when we have both grown and changed we ask ourselves and each other if we still choose the relationship, and if yes, do we still choose the marriage. If it's yes then the new 'me' marries the new him. We walk the streets of a town or city, dressed as a bride and groom and we invite people to our ceremony. We get married somewhere public, like a gallery or a park. At the ceremony, we work at communicating the sense of love we have for each other. People tell us they find our weddings very moving. Some people cry. It's always really beautiful."

Taryn describes herself as 'probably the most colourful woman in Ireland' and is especially known for her colourful and outlandish attire. Her creative projects and outfits have appeared in media around the world including tv appearances in Hollywood and on Iranian TV. Taryn is currently working on her first book and her project #365daysOfJoy, where she is dedicating a year of her life to joyful practices.

You can find Taryn as @TaryndeVere on all platforms.


Thank you very much to Taryn for taking the time to share her story with us.

Want to read about historical LGBTQ+ women? See our photo essay here.

Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan / Writer / Performer / Cultural Consultant

Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan

Writer / Performer / Cultural Consultant

Image: Tristan Hutchinson

Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan was born in new Delhi in 1988. Her mother, Chitra Narayanan, is a career diplomat who later became an Ambassador of India to a number of countries, and her father Prasad Chandra Mohan worked in the World Bank for many years. Chandrika moved to the US as a child for three years before spending a longer time in New Delhi. During this time, she lived with her mother’s parents, former Vice President and former President of India KR Narayanan, and Usha Narayanan. All the people who brought Chandrika up had roots in art and literature: her parents both worked in publishing, her grandfather studied literature, and her grandmother translated Burmese short stories. Chandrika’s father’s side of the family includes renowned art historian Krishna Chaitanya.

In 2001, her mother was appointed Ambassador of India to Sweden and Latvia, and so they lived in Stockholm from 2001 to 2004. There, Chandrika attended international schools with students from many other countries, and this remained the case when Chitra was made ambassador to Turkey in 2005. About thirty years previous, her grandfather had been posted to Ankara, living in the same residence. Despite only spending a few years there, Chandrika felt embedded in Turkish culture, from how it influenced her mother and grandparents from before, and while she was there herself. To this day her closest friends are Turkish and still live there. It has been harrowing for her to watch a country, and people she loves, regress and suffer under a dictatorial government that destroys so many people’s lives and human rights.

Following secondary school, Chandrika moved to the UK where she graduated with a BA in Art History and English Literature from The University of York. Subsequently, she and a group of college friends moved to London together where she attained an MA in Art History from University College London. She began working in the arts sector there, through internships in places such as Christie’s Auction House and The Victoria and Albert Museum, before working at the Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery and the Be Smart About Art Academy. Through these roles she realised she enjoyed working in the space between business development and the arts, supporting arts organisations that both supported artists while providing an impactful experience for the general public.

In 2012, Chandrika began the process of applying to do a second Masters, this one in Arts Management, but a change in immigration regulations across the UK meant that a new student visa was not eligible, and so she was forced to leave the UK at very short notice. Within a few weeks she found a similar course in Dublin, and by the September 2012 she moved to Ireland, to study Arts Management and Cultural Policy in UCD.

Image: Basil Lim

After graduating from UCD, she realised that she wanted to continue working in business development in the art world. She worked at Business to Arts, and was appointed fundraiser for the Irish Architecture Foundation. However she once again hit immigration-related barriers, and was forced to leave her role as, like most arts jobs, it did not meet Ireland’s restrictive work permit requirements. She was offered a role eligible for a Work Permit as Arts and Culture Manager of The Liquor Rooms, where in addition to programming cultural events in the venue she produced a talk series which was shortlisted for an IDI (Institute of Designers in Ireland) award, and co-founded the Irish Craft Cocktail Awards. After three years in the drinks industry, she was offered a role eligible for a work permit back in the arts sector, and worked in marketing and fundraising for Fishamble: The New Play Company until 2021. Over the years she participated in two RAISE fundraising training programmes run by the Arts Council, and was also part of the Business to Arts Fundraising Fellowship Dublin training programme.

During her years in Ireland, Chandrika was also building up a writing career. Upon arrival in Ireland in 2012, she applied to write for LeCool online magazine, and so was able to attend a variety of events such as Milk and Cookies, spoken word events and theatre festivals. Her introduction to Ireland, and Irish history, was largely through art. Up until October 2019, when she secured a Stamp 4 permission (meaning she could live and work freely in Ireland without work permits), it was illegal for her to do any paid work outside of her full-time job, meaning she actively could not pursue a writing career or be paid to write or perform.

In 2019, her poems were published in Dedalus Press’ Writing Home: The New Irish Poets anthology, which like a number of other migrant poets, launched her writing career. Since then she has also been published in Local Wonders from Dedalus Press, the Irish Chair of Poetry’s Hold Open the Door anthology, Banshee, Honest Ulsterman, and Poetry Ireland Review amongst others. As a queer writer, she also has had poems published in anthologies such as Queering the Green by Lifeboat Press, and Green Carnations, Glas na Gile: 25 Young LGBTQ+ Poets from Ireland. Chandrika was been selected for the Irish Writers Centre’s XBorders programme twice, she has been featured on The Moth and Mortified podcasts, with work aired on NPR and RTÉ radio, and regularly performs at literary and cabaret events in Ireland. In 2020 Chandrika won 3rd place in the Fingal Poetry Prize, and was editor of Poetry Ireland’s Trumpet issue 9.

In 2021, Chandrika was a Poetry Ireland’s Introductions participant, and a Science Gallery Dublin’s Rapid Residency Artist. Before her career in arts fundraising, her passion was to work in the space between arts and science. Since leaving her role in Fishamble and becoming a full-time freelance artist and cultural consultant in 2021, she has been awarded Arts Council Agility Grant twice, to create a multidisciplinary installation that brings together poetry and solar flare research, and to begin a collection of essays. As a big fan of writing for children and YA readers, and speculative fiction, she is also a book reviewer for Children’s Books Ireland’s Inis magazine, and now regularly interviews authors at festivals about their books, particularly poets, debut authors, and writers who blur the boundaries between magic, dystopias, and reality. She hopes to one day be one of those authors.

You can follow Chandrika on Twitter @chandrikanm and find out more through her website here.

Many thanks to Chandrika for sharing her story with us.

Rebecca Lively / Mixed Media Artist

Rebecca Lively

Mixed Media Artist

My name is Rebecca Lively and I was born in Belfast in 2001, although I grew up outside of a small village in Newry in the countryside. My family is small and very supportive of the arts, with my brother Jordan being a talented musician and my mother showing me all she knows from her days of teaching art. 

When I was younger, I loved reading and I idolised writers like Jacqueline Wilson, R.J. Anderson, and Derek Landy, and so I thought that I wanted to be a writer too. I always got lost in the illustrations while I read and eventually, I tried drawing scenes from my favourite books. Once I discovered my love of art, I knew that I wanted to spend every hour doing it. My childhood was spent drawing, stitching, sculpting – anything I could do to be creative. Although it took me a while to make anything that looked good, my parents would proudly hang my pictures on the fridge, some of which are still there a decade later! 

My mother has had a huge influence on my art, as she has always been my role model. Not only is she an amazing woman, but her skill and knowledge about art is something I’ve always admired. It was my mother who introduced me to my favourite art movement, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which influences all my work. She showed me postcards that she had kept from her teaching days, featuring ethereal red-haired women surrounded by nature. I remember being enveloped by the beauty and serenity of those paintings, and I strived to incorporate it into my own work.

Another aspect of Pre-Raphaelite art that appealed to me was how the women looked like me – they were pale gingers with white eyebrows. Although I felt insecure about how I looked, I looked at these women like they were the epitome of beauty. I realised then the power of representation in media, because if you can appreciate the beauty of someone who looks like you, then you can learn to appreciate yourself too.

Although I had learned to like my hair, I struggled to accept myself when I realised I was gay. It took me a while to discover this about myself, as I didn’t know you could be gay when I was younger. I had never seen a gay couple on TV or read about one. Everyone in my class was straight, with all the girls having crushes on boybands and actors, which I never understood. I was also raised Catholic, so it was never discussed in church and very rarely in school. My first introduction to the LGBT community was through a news report, which featured a flood of homophobic signs at a protest that read “God Hates F*gs” in bold black letters. I could not understand the concept of God not loving someone because they loved someone of the same gender, or that a whole group of people could be so angered by love that they would brandish signs with slurs painted on them. Later, when I took my Religion GCSE, I had to memorise homophobic quotes and explain why it was wrong to love someone of the same gender. It was just a small part of the module, but for my fellow LGBT classmates and I, it was very infuriating and hurtful. I grew distant from the Church for these reasons, as I personally couldn’t remain in an organisation who did not love it members unconditionally, despite claiming they would. 

I wonder how different my journey to self-acceptance would be if I had seen myself portrayed positively in media. I was so terrified to come out to my family (even though they had never been homophobic) because I had seen so many instances of people’s lives being ruined by being their true selves online. I If I had seen that a happy ending was possible for people like me, perhaps I would have had more hope for the future. I also wonder how it would affect my straight classmates and friends if they had grown up seeing gay people in media and were able to better understand the LGBT community and our struggles. If they could truly understand how difficult coming out can be, perhaps my straight classmates wouldn’t have casually outed my LGBT friends. If they understood the origins of the homophobic slurs they used so carelessly, perhaps they would not say them so often.

Rebecca’s illustration of early LGBT+ activist Marsha P. Johnson, 2020

Representation is something that everyone can benefit from, even if you aren’t part of the community being depicted in media. An opportunity to learn about another community is an opportunity to respect people, which I don’t think has any downsides.

In my artwork, I want everyone to feel represented and that their identity should be celebrated. As I worked with Herstory across different projects, I discovered how art can be used to tell stories in a way that really connected with people and made them understand other’s experiences in life.

I realised that the art I made could have a real impact on people and that I had an opportunity to provide the LGBT representation in media that I needed when I was younger, which is an aim of my current work.

‘Icarus’ - 2021

I also aim to keep exploring the experiences of women through my art and to shed light on the work of female activists throughout history. In the future, I would like to create books for children that have LGBT characters and stories, so that children could grow up normalising being LGBT and hopefully accept and embrace different identities more easily. Helping people to understand and love themselves and others is important to me, and I hope to achieve this goal throughout my career as an artist. 

You can follow Rebecca and her art on Instagram @rj.lively_art


Thank you so much to Rebecca for sharing her story with us.

Want to read about historical LGBTQ+ women? See our photo essay here.

Adiba Jaigirdar / Author

Adiba Jaigirdar

Author

Adiba.

Image credit: Lia Carlotti

Shortly after The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar was published in the summer of 2020, Times included it on their list of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time, alongside well-known classics such as Little Women, Lord of the Flies, and The Catcher in the Rye. Adiba’s debut novel, set in Dublin, about Nishat, a Bangladeshi Irish girl who struggles with bullying and coming out to her parents and develops a crush on her childhood friend Flávia, became an instant hit on BookTok. Dealing with many themes, from islamophobia and racism to sexuality and growing up, The Henna Wars was described by Booklist as ‘a wholly uncontrived story with lesbians who aren't just brown but diverse in a multitude of ways.’

‘I didn’t know I could be queer, because growing up I only really saw white queer people.’

Image credit: Steve Humphreys

The story has some similarities with Adiba’s own life. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Adiba grew up in Dublin, Ireland from the age of 10. ‘As a Bangladeshi Muslim immigrant in Ireland’ she often felt ‘intensely alone in so many of [her] experiences’ so turned to books as a way of escape. However, none of these stories had characters who looked like her, or had experiences that she had, with her later lamenting that ‘seeing queer characters of colour whose love is not a weakness, but strength, would have been incredibly affirming…’ Because of this experience, when Adiba first started writing, she wrote herself out of the story too. She wrote about ‘white characters, straight characters, non-Muslim characters. Characters who didn’t look like me…’

‘I often write thinking of the books that I didn’t have when I was younger […] The ones that give queer brown girls their happy endings, even if they don’t always look like the happy endings we may expect.’

When she was a little older, Adiba graduated from University College Dublin with a BA in English and History, and then from the University of Kent with a Masters in Postcolonial Studies. Moving back to Ireland after university, she became a teacher, but never stopped writing. At the beginning of 2018, after a ‘rough couple of months,’ she set out to write a romantic comedy in what would become The Henna Wars. Following revisions and re-writes she secured an enthusiastic American agent by the end of the year and in May 2020, a few months into a global pandemic, it was finally published to much critical acclaim.

‘Writing as a person of colour often means writing with no blueprints set out in front of you. It means navigating new territories in writing. Navigating the responsibility—and burden—of representing not just yourself, but everyone who shares your culture, religion, language, ethnicity.’

In the months that followed, Adiba took on a mentoring role to new authors, and specifically, authors of colour, helping them with their manuscripts and the submission process. She also wrote her second novel, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating, which was described as: ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets LGBTQ romance in this funny, heart-warming rom-com about first love and identity.’ Published in May 2021, Hani and Ishu follows an enemies-to-lovers storyline and just like in her first novel, explores themes of racism, family relationships, sexuality and growing up, as well as biphobia. Once again, Adiba’s novel was a great success and was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, nominated for Best Young Adult Fiction in the Goodreads Choice Awards and was a finalist in the 34th Lambda Literary Awards.

‘I want those who are different to me to celebrate my identity with me, because as a hijabi Muslim woman you are put in boxes both inside and outside of your community.’

2022 is set to be another big year for Adiba as she releases her highly anticipated third novel, and first YA historical A Million to One, set onboard the Titanic, in December, with a fourth book slated for release in 2023.

You can find out more about Adiba and her books on her website here. Or:

Follow her on Twitter: @adiba_j

And Instagram: @dibs_j

 

 

Herstory by Katelyn Hanna.

Want to read about historical LGBTQ+ women? See our photo essay here.

Sources:

The Irish Times, 5 July 2021.

Khan. Mariam, ‘Author Adiba Jaigirdar didn’t realise Asian people could be queer – now she hopes her book will help other people of colour embrace who they are,’ online at: https://metro.co.uk/2021/06/16/pride-2021-queer-muslim-author-adiba-jaigirdar-discusses-her-newest-book-14716679/ [accessed 7 Apr. 2022].

Jaigirdar, Adiba, ‘I…Have…An Agent!!!!,’ online at: https://adibajaigirdar.com/blog1/2018/11/17/welcome [accessed 7 Apr. 2022].

Jaigirdar, Adiba, ‘Pitch Wars 2020 Wishlist!’ online at: https://adibajaigirdar.com/blog1/2020/9/12/pitch-wars-2020-wishlist-zfsh6 [accessed 7 Apr. 2022].

SteveDunk, ‘Everything Is Canon: Hani And Ishu’s Guide To Fake Dating,’ online at: https://www.cinelinx.com/off-beat/everything-is-canon-hani-and-ishus-guide-to-fake-dating/ [accessed 7 Apr. 2022].

 

 

Dr Lydia Foy & the long fight for gender recognition

Dr Lydia Foy

Trans Rights Activist

TW: Transphobia

Photo by Louise Hannon

When the Gender Recognition Act was passed in 2015 allowing trans people in Ireland to apply to have their true gender legally recognised by the State, some believed it was ‘snuck in’ under the radar alongside Marriage Equality while the country was ‘distracted’ by the latter. But this is far from the truth as one woman in particular can attest to. For over twenty long, enervating years in which she undertook three court cases, Dr Lydia Foy fought for the right to have her gender recognised by the State. 

“I knew I wasn’t allowed to be myself and I couldn’t tell anyone.”

Born into a family of seven children in Westmeath in 1947, Lydia, from an early age, was conscious that she ‘should be seen as a girl’ which continued as she reached her teenage years in the ‘60s. Relentlessly bullied throughout her school days, she made it through boarding school in Kildare to move into college in Dublin, eventually graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Dental Surgery in 1971. Six years later, Lydia was married and by the 1980s, she had two children - but she couldn’t go on pretending to be something she was not. 

“The case became much more than just me looking for a birth certificate…”

Lydia c. 1997

Over the course of the next few years, Lydia lost her job, her family and her home. She was at breaking point, but by 1991 she was living authentically as the woman she is. The following year she traveled to London for gender confirmation surgery and in 1993 she applied to the office of the Registrar General for a new birth certificate to reflect her gender, but was refused. Following many years of fruitless correspondence, she initiated High Court proceedings in 1997, represented by FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centres), ‘a human rights NGO that provides free legal information and advice’ in order to compel the Registrar to provide her with a new birth certificate. What followed were years of hostility and isolation for Lydia who initially fought on because she felt she ‘had nothing left to lose.’ Eventually, however, her motivation changed when she realised just how important her case was to the LGBT+ community, and to the general human rights of everyone in Ireland. 

“I was told to hide when I was coming out of court, to hide my face and everything, and to try and get out the backdoor, but I said I’m not going to do that. I decided I’d just stick my head high and wave my hand. I was called everything under the sun for that [...] but I said no, put on a brave face and try carry on.”

Sadly, the High Court ruled against Lydia in 2002 but the judge did express concern at the position of trans people in Ireland and advised the government to review the matter immediately. Just two days later, in Christine Goodwin v UK, the European Court of Human Rights held that the UK (which at the time had the same laws as were in place in Ireland) had violated the rights of two transgender women who, like Lydia, had also been refused new birth certificates. Contrary to Ireland though, the UK moved quickly and introduced a Gender Recognition Act in compliance with the European judgment. 

Lydia c. 2005. Photo: Courtpix

The following year, the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 (the ECHR Act) was enacted, bringing the European Convention into Irish domestic law which meant that Lydia could now follow the same road Christine Goodwin in the UK had gone down before her. Once again, she applied to the Registrar for a new birth certificate, arguing the obligation under the ECHR Act to respect the demands of the European Convention, but again was refused.

Lydia c. 2007

So, she turned to the High Court once more and initiated proceedings and ‘on 19 October 2007, the High Court gave its judgment, finding that the failure to recognise Dr Foy’s female gender was a violation of her rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.’ Unfortunately, this was not the end of Lydia’s struggles though, only recognition that Irish law was incompatible with the Convention. As well as that, the judge ‘expressed considerable frustration at the failure of the Government to take any steps to assist transgender persons in the five years since the European Court’s rulings on the UK cases.’

“Ireland as of now is very much isolated within the Member States of the Council of Europe … [and] must be even further disconnected from mainstream thinking.”
— Justice McKechnie

Lydia with Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton at the launch of the Gender Recognition Advisory Group report, 14 July 2011. Photo: Damien Eagers Photography

In 2009 the State appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court but by this time, with considerable work by groups such as TENI, public opinion was beginning to change and by October, the Government ‘promised to introduce legal recognition for transgender persons.’ The following year, an inter-departmental working group - the Gender Recognition Advisory Group (GRAG) - was established to advise on the best course of action. 

The Advisory Group report was published in July 2011 and while it did call for legislation and advised against making gender reassignment surgery a pre-condition for recognition, it was otherwise very cautious and conservative. It proposed a psychiatric diagnosis of “Gender Identity Disorder” as a basic condition for recognition, despite the fact that transgender persons felt this suggested that they were mentally ill or disordered, which they are not.

It also proposed ‘compulsory divorce’ – that married trans persons must divorce before they can be recognised in their true gender – to avoid the possibility of same-sex marriages. This had been opposed by all submissions dealing with this issue and was particularly problematic in Ireland, given the exacting conditions to be satisfied when seeking a divorce.

- FLAC

Lydia in 2014 following her legal victory

By 2013, despite numerous promises from Ministers that gender recognition legislation was a high priority and on the way, there was little to show for it, so Lydia - along with FLAC - returned to court and settled the case in November 2014. Finally, 22 years after she first requested a new birth certificate, the Gender Recognition Act was passed in July 2015 and commenced that September, with Lydia becoming the first person to be legally recognised by the Act.

“Sometimes people who don’t like to see a change or a difference are quite reluctant to be properly informed.”

In the end, the requirement for ‘supporting evidence’ from a psychiatrist was removed and replaced by a self-declaration approach, however the Act, as passed, did include ‘the requirement that applicants for Gender Recognition Certificates must be single, with the result that married transgender persons would have to divorce to secure recognition.’ All this to avoid the creation of same sex marriages. Following the majority Yes vote to Marriage Equality in May 2015, this aspect of the Act was dropped by the time it commenced in September, making it ‘one of the most progressive regimes for legal recognition of transgender persons’ anywhere. But there is still a ways to go, however, as the Act does not provide adequately for those under 18, and in fact makes the process far more onerous. 

But thanks to Lydia’s perseverance, an incredibly hard-fought foundation has been set for activists and trans people today. A week after the commencement of the Act in September 2015, she received her birth certificate, and on the very same day received the honour of becoming Ireland’s only recipient of the European Citizen’s Award. 

“This is a great day for me and for the trans community in Ireland. With this piece of paper and after 22 years of struggle, my country has finally recognised me for who I really am, not for what other people think I should be.  I am especially pleased for young trans people – that they will not have to go through the pain, the isolation, the lack of understanding and the abuse that my generation had to endure.”

Listen to Lydia discuss her journey in this 2021 episode of ShoutOut’s ‘Know Your Queer History’.




Herstory by Katelyn Hanna.
Want to read about historical LGBTQ+ women? See our photo essay here.

Sources:

Muldoon, Molly, ‘Lydia Foy speaks of difficulty growing up transgender in Ireland,’ online at: https://www.irishcentral.com/news/lydia-foy-speaks-of-difficulty-growing-up-with-trans-gender-syndrome-in-ireland-125520858-237399441 [accessed 3 May 2022].

‘Gender recognition - Dr Lydia Foy,’ online at: https://www.teni.ie/gender-recognition/dr-lydia-foy/ [accessed 4 May 2022].

‘Briefing note on the Lydia Foy case: The case that won recognition for Ireland’s transgender community,’ online at: https://www.flac.ie/assets/files/pdf/briefing_note_on_foy_case_2015_final.pdf [accessed 4 May 2022].

Linehan, Alice, ‘Dr Lydia Foy describes her 20 year struggle for gender recognition in new ShoutOut interview,’ online at: https://gcn.ie/dr-lydia-foy-20-year-struggle-gender-recognition-new-shoutout-interview/ [accessed 4 May 2022]. 

The Journal, 9 Jun. 2019.

‘Profiles in Pride: Dr. Lydia Foy, Irish trans-rights activist,’ online at: https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/pride-lydia-foy [accessed 3 May 2022].

‘Legal recognition of your preferred gender,’ online at: https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/birth_family_relationships/changing_to_your_preferred_gender.html [accessed 4 May 2022].

Irish Examiner, 3 Nov. 2014.

‘ShoutOut: Know Your Queer History Episode 10: Dr Lydia Foy,’ online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xzVf4Drxc0 [accessed 4 May 2022].

Casey, Jane, ‘Dr Lydia Foy Wins European Citizens Award,’ online at: https://gcn.ie/dr-lydia-foy-wins-european-citizens-award/ [accessed 4 May 2022].

Joni Crone / Playwright / Gay Rights Activist

Joni Crone

Playwright / Gay Rights Activist

Photo credit: pocketmags.com

TW: Homophobia

In February 1980, 26-year-old Joni Crone walked onto the set of The Late Late Show and announced to the nation that she was a lesbian, making her the first gay woman to come out publicly on Irish television. Another 13 years would pass before homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland and 35 years before gay marriage was legalised.

“I was determined to make the most of this chance to speak up for lesbians and gays in Ireland who had been forced to lead secret lives in shame for too long. I wanted to […] talk about the movement to give other gay people the courage to come out.”

Joni on the Late Late Show in 1980

A year prior to this, Joni was supposed to have appeared in an interview on The Live Mike Show, a short-lived comedy, variety, and chat show on RTÉ, however the production team had ‘got nervous about having a lesbian on the show and decided to drop the interview.’ And even though she had done other radio interviews, walking onto the set of the Late Late – which had an estimated one million viewers at the time - was ‘stomach churning’ for her; and before the night was out, her relatives, co-workers and neighbours would all know that she was a lesbian. She thought at one point she might faint, but ‘a sympathetic member of the Late Late Show team’ gave her a double vodka and told her she would be ‘grand’ and to ‘just look Gay [Byrne] in the eye and forget about everything else.’ What followed was a 23-minute ‘public interrogation’ in which she was at one point asked if her parents thought of her as ‘mentally deficient, or sinful or culpably ignorant.’ (When asked about this years later, Joni maintained that despite the interrogation, she felt that ‘Gay was on my side’ and that he only asked what viewers at home were asking).

“[Gay Byrne] mirrored the ignorance and prejudice that existed at the time. I felt subjected to a public interrogation and tried to hold my head up while I endured a kind of mental torture.”

Explaining why she felt compelled to come out, Joni said that ‘I lived in Ireland in total ignorance of homosexuality, particularly female.’ Gay women have never been treated like a joke, she told him, because they’re not even recognised in the first place.

“In a way you never stop coming out. Every new work environment I go into I have to come out again because people assume you are straight unless you tell them otherwise.”

Joni had agreed to appear on the show to talk about the Dublin Lesbian Line, a confidential support helpline she hoped would help others like her, should they need it. She was a volunteer with them and had spent hours on the phone with women who were struggling with their identity or who felt that they had no one else to turn to. When she was a teenager herself, Joni had never had access to any information on homosexuality, and it wasn’t until she moved to London that she met other lesbians ‘in the flesh.’ She wanted to give out the helpline phone number on the show to give people the information and support she didn’t have then, but in the end, she wasn’t given the chance.

Joni speaking at Pride, 1983.

Photo credit: Kieran Rose

Following on from her appearance, Joni ‘suffered rejection from family, received threats of violence and experienced ostracism.’ Walking down Camden Street in Dublin one day, a trader ‘spat at her feet saying, “I would not serve the like of that”.’ RTÉ too received complaints over the segment, with one caller stating: ‘I do not pay a licence fee to see that filthy person.’ For a time, Joni considered leaving the country, but there was a bright side to it all too, and ‘twenty years later people were still coming up to [Joni] and saying: “Excuse me, are you Joni? You saved my life” or “You saved my daughter or my son’s life” and thanking [her] for taking a stand.’

Joni went on to study drama and became a Community Arts Worker before qualifying in psychodrama psychotherapy and later in equality studies. Throughout the 90s she was a successful scriptwriter for Fair City and since then, a writer of ten plays. Her most recent play, Anna Livia Lesbia, was written in the wake of the 2015 Marriage Equality referendum while she was writer in residence in Leitrim.

“Attitudes have changed so much thankfully.  It’s great now to have the marriage referendum and it’s great to have a gay Taoiseach but I’m trying to say in this play that this didn’t happen overnight, that there’s a long history here.  I’m only trying to tell a small part of it and I’m trying to encourage others to tell their story as well.”

Joni in 2017

The play is about coming out in the 70s and 80s and is semi-autobiographical as well as referring to some of the stories she heard while working on the helpline.

In 2017 – a year after she married her partner, Mary – the play toured Dublin, Sligo, Mayo, Longford, and Galway.

 

Herstory by Katelyn Hanna, 2022.

Want to read about historical LGBTQ+ women? See our photo essay here.

Sources:

The Irish Times, 5 June 2017, online at: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/being-gay-she-was-asked-if-her-parents-thought-she-was-mentally-deficient-1.3102931 [accessed 30 Mar. 2022].

Dublin Lesbian Line, online at: http://www.dublinlesbianline.ie/ [accessed 30 Mar. 2022].

Lynch, Edmund, ‘Joni’s bravery is highlighted further, given the negative reaction to her appearance on the Late Late Show,’ in GCN (Issue 331), online at: https://magazine.gcn.ie/articles/150863?article=72-1 [accessed 30 Mar. 2022].

‘Playwright Joni Crone: "It's great now to have the marriage referendum and it's great to have a gay,’ on RTÉ Radio 1, online at: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/stories/1220056-joni-crone-marriage-referendum/ [accessed 30 Mar. 2022].

Crone, Joni, ‘Coming out on the Late Late: 'Gay mirrored the prejudice that existed at the time,’ online at: https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/coming-out-on-the-late-late-gay-mirrored-the-prejudice-that-existed-at-the-time-3448330-Jun2017/ [accessed 30 Mar. 2022].