Ahead of new special dates of the ‘Unshrinking Violets’ walking tour, Lorna Glynn spoke with Han Tiernan to find out more about how the tour came to be and reflect on the importance of remembering queer history in current times.

I met with Han Tiernan at the Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar. Immediately, they jump behind the desk to allow the girl manning it to run to the loo. Switching into customer service mode, they direct tourists to areas where they can leave their backpacks. Afterwards, we settle ourselves outside the upstairs offices, next to the lifts, as their colleagues work away diligently inside.

We’re here to talk about their latest endeavour, a walking tour called ‘Unshrinking Violets: a queer history of over 50 years of resistance’. After the reinstatement of the Dublin Dyke March in June 2025, Han felt obligated to stand up and honour those who had fought for LGBTQ+ rights in the past.

“I thought that it was the prime opportunity to honour the original march, so I started the week of Dublin Pride,” says Han.

Han has been running tours intermittently over the past year and has two scheduled for the coming weeks. One this Sunday, March 8, marking International Women’s Day in the queerest way possible, and another on Wednesday, March 18, to mark Sheelah’s Day.

The tour celebrates everything about being an out lesbian; it flips the typical meaning of a ‘shrinking violet’ (typically shy person) on its head. The contrast being someone who is “bold and brazen as a lot of Dyke-y lesbians tend to be”, says Han. The history of the violet flower is rich in its relation to queerness, given as a symbol of admiration and love between women spanning hundreds of years.

I attended a tour and was greeted with an outpouring of immersive queer history and an intensive downpour of rain. Even still, the tour was very interactive and a perfect way to spend an evening, learning about something new.

People are seeking out this information, acknowledging queerness and sourcing a new form of resistance. In this way, past resistance lives on. “They’re looking for queer things to do in the city… I’m keen to explore ways of disseminating the queer history that I’ve learnt in ways that are accessible to people,” says Han.

The tour is open to anyone who has an interest, and there are a variety of ticket pricing options in order to be accessible to everyone. Though Han begins every tour with the disclaimer, “I’m not a historian”, the tour is a culmination of eight years of research conducted by Han throughout a Master’s programme, different projects and exhibitions.

“I’m humbled by the support that I’ve had and the tour is about extending and sharing the knowledge that I have. I love mentoring young people and that is my way of paying back the supports that I’ve had,” says Han.

“In the current global political climate, we can’t take our visibility or rights for granted,” says Han. A tour about queer resistance and being queer out loud is crucial when Ireland has the worst trans healthcare in all of Europe, and there has been a significant decrease in general happiness among the community since the 2015 marriage referendum (Belong To). As stated by Belong To, the most impactful tactic is education.

In this current climate of queer rights being under attack, “we can’t be complacent… we need to open those doors to anybody, it shouldn’t be just for the queer community.” And it’s not just about queer history; it’s about the social history of Ireland.

You can purchase tickets to the ‘Unshrinking Violets’ walking tour here.