It’s finally May, and with Pride season just around the corner, LGBTQ+ events are popping up all across Ireland.
It’s time to organise your spring diaries and add some queer culture to your calendar. From LGBTQ+ speed dating to Dublin Gay Theatre Festival and Cork’s 40th Anniversary Women’s Weekend… there’s a lot to look forward to for everyone!
Pallas Projects fundraising exhibition for Palestine, May 1-4
The Pallas Projects is launching a fundraising exhibition in The Bank at the Digital Hub on James Street to provide essential humanitarian aid to Palestine.
Pallas Projects/Studios is a not-for-profit artist-run organisation funded by The Arts Council, and all sales will benefit Medicines San Frontiers and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, thanks to the artists who generously provided their works for this exhibition.
After the opening night, gallery hours will be 12–6pm, Thursday–Friday, and 12–5pm, Saturday.
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40th Anniversary Cork Women’s Weekend, May 3-4
The first Cork Women’s Fun Weekend was held on the weekend of April 13 to 15, 1984, and forty years later, these annual May events continue to nurture LGBTQ+ women in Ireland.
This year’s event marks 40 years of queer women enjoying a safe space to come together, create, support, socialise, network, and have fun. Events throughout the weekend vary between workshops, live music, sports, a community barbecue, a drag king competition, a table quiz and more.
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Sexuality and Self-Acceptance: a Mindfulness Workshop, May 4
This Saturday half-day workshop will help attendees bring compassion to any difficult emotions around their sexualities. The organiser believes that despite progressive social change and attitudes towards sexuality, growing up in a less inclusive environment can lead to negative, deep-rooted feelings.
This May workshop event organised by Mindfulness.ie will help address those feelings and will benefit any LGBTQ+ person who feels at odds with their sexuality. You can find out more and register here.
The Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival, May 6-19
The International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (IDGTF) is thrilled to offer a celebration of diversity, creativity, and inclusivity through the arts.
With nightly LGBTQ+ shows, matinees and other events from May 6 to 19 in several venues around Dublin, there is something for everyone at Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, which this year celebrates its 21st anniversary, including ‘GC…AF’, a scathing satire of the so-called Gender Critical movement, involving a calamitous zoom call (live on stage). Tickets are available from €10 here.
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The Ghost Story Gathering, May 8
This new Dublin event for lovers of the supernatural will include three writers presenting three brand new ghost stories “made to curdle your blood”
Grab your tickets to join like-minded horror fans for this otherworldly evening to hear stories that will “freeze your bones” in Slattery’s bar on Wednesday, May 8.
TRUTH, LOVE OR PROMISE, May 9
Truth, Love or Promise is a one-woman smash hit play written and performed by Nuala McKeever.
The show tells the story of three women, Brenda, Maureen and Joanna, who meet at a creative writing class in Belfast and get to know each other through their stories. But it’s the things they’re all leaving out that really tell the tale. Tickets are available here.
NAMACO – Mega Dreoilín May 9-25
Pallas Projects/Studios are pleased to announce NAMACO —Mega Dreoilín, the third exhibition of their 2024 Artist-Initiated Projects programme.
NAMACO makes video games that demystify housing scarcity and the effects of corporate landlordism in Dublin for a generation of renters unwillingly trapped in adolescence. As the main character Em (they/them), players must battle landlords as: “A committee of vultures sweeps the Dublin sky.”
You can find more info here.
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Just A Minute, May 10-11 in Nuns Island Theatre, Galway and May 28-June 1 in Smock Alley Boys School, Dublin
A one-man theatrical Comedy about your time no longer being your own is coming back to Ireland.
“Alienated, delusional, and with a monumental crush on the straight boy in the office, our intern is the ultimate corporate flop.” Showing at the Nuns Island Theatre, Galway on May 10-11 and at Smock Alley Boys School, Dublin on May 29-June 1.
Queer Religion at Maynooth University Arts and Minds Festival May 11th
This award-winning photographic exhibition is taking place during Maynooth University’s Arts and Minds Festival 2024.
The exhibition spotlights prominent queer leaders in religion and will include a panel discussion with photographer Frances Marshall about queerphobia. Panel members include Maeve Delargy, founder of Lesbian Lawyers Network, Mother Christina Beardsley, trans Christian advocate and Reverend and Oisín O’Reilly, chief executive of Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre.
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Gloria Summer Concert, May 17
This unforgettable May event of music, love, and celebration at Gloria LGBTQ+ Choir’s Summer Concert: “Summer Lovin'” at the Pepper Cannister Church.
Prepare to be serenaded by the talented choir spreading the message of love, acceptance, and unity through the power of music. The summer concert will feature soprano Hannah O’Brien who was the 2023 recipient of the Danone Young Outstanding Female artist Bursary.
Tickets can be bought here.
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Yeule concert, May 23
Yeule will be playing at the Button Factory in Dublin on May 23. The Singapore-born, Los Angeles-based non-binary musician, performance artist, and painter is dominating the digital sphere with their genre-defining album, softscars. The album explores identity, hyperreality, and escapism.
Tickets to the Dublin show are available here.
Queer Vision film festival, May 29-30
This LGBTQ+ short film festival in Waterford City will cast a spotlight on the diverse narratives of queer experiences.
The festival aims at casting a spotlight on the diverse narratives of queer experiences through a curated selection of short films as part of the Pride of the Déise festival. Expect a variety of short films, student films, professional shorts, experimental films, and music videos. Awards will be presented for Best Overall Production, Best LGBTQIA+ Representation, Best Irish Language Production, Best Irish Production, and the Audience Choice Award.
You can find out more here.
WHAT A DRAG!!!, May 30
As part of the 2024 Bealtaine Festival, WHAT A DRAG!!! is an event taking place on May 30 from 6:30-8:30pm at The Outhouse. This event will look at the life of Alan Amsby, better known as Mr. Pussy. It will consider Alan’s experiences in Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s and explore his work through posters, photographs, videos, costumes, wigs, and other memorabilia.
The event will include a film screening of queer classic The Queen (1968), and it will be followed by a panel discussion between Alan and contemporary Davina Devine.
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These are only some of the amazing LGBTQ+ events happening this May, with more to be announced in the coming days. If you know of other queer events that are happening in Ireland this month, you can get in touch at [email protected].
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