If you’re a queer person with lived experience of Dublin in the late 20th century, then Dublin City Council would like you to be a part of their upcoming oral history project.

The project, titled Remembrance & Reminiscence, is a fascinating endeavour that aims to redress a historical record that rarely reflects the nuances of queer lives through the ages. In Ireland, and indeed society at large, queer identities have been criminalised, highly stigmatised or erased entirely. Through Remembrance & Reminiscence, Dublin City Council aims to tackle this bias by capturing the recollections and memories of LGBTQ+ people in Dublin in the late 20th century.

The goal of Remembrance & Reminiscence is to create a digital collection of first-hand accounts of everyday queer life in Dublin during this period, particularly from those whose stories are not often included in the narrative. The collection will be made publicly accessible via the Digital Repository of Ireland, as a unique record of the full breadth and depth of the queer experience in Dublin at this time.

Dublin City Council is also inviting anybody with ephemera – such as pamphlets, posters, photographs, letters, items of clothing and badges – to take part in the project. The council is hoping to photograph these materials so that they may be part of Remembrance & Reminiscence‘s digital collection.

So, how can you get involved? If you are a member of the queer community and you have lived experience of Dublin in the late 20th century, and you are interested in being interviewed, Dublin City Council invites you to fill out their Expression of Interest form via this link. If you have ephemera you would like to be photographed, you can also fill out the same form.

For more information on the project, check out the Research Information Sheet, or get in touch by emailing [email protected].