On August 18, 2026, Ireland’s first permanent LGBTQ+ exhibition officially launched in Cork. Entitled We Were Always Here, it was curated by the Cork LGBT Archive in collaboration with the Cork Public Museum. 

GCN attended the launch and caught up with exhibition curator Orla Egan, founder of the Cork LGBT Archive, to discuss the work behind the scenes, as well as the importance of this moment for the LGBTQ+ community across Cork and Ireland. 

Orla noted that this exhibition is “the culmination of years of work, since I set up the Cork LGBT Archive in 2013. This feels like a huge achievement and an amazing legacy”. 

“I am so excited to know that young queer people visiting the museum will see themselves reflected and know that they are part of this vibrant community with a long history – we were always here”, continues Orla. 

The exhibition is beautifully curated, with small pockets of history, interactive materials, and recurring links for visitors to learn more about the archive and Cork’s wonderfully queer history. Alongside Egan, the exhibition was curated with Richard Keyes McDonnell, Jamie Furey, and archive volunteers.

As Orla notes, the most rewarding part of launching the exhibition was “seeing people interact with it, such a range of people from parents with their children, secondary school students, young people as well as older members of the community who saw themselves included there and the reminders of the places where they used to go”.

Orla continues, “Derrick Gerety opened Loafers Bar in 1983… It was so lovely to be able to lead Derrick over to the display cabinet housing various items from Loafers Bar, including a photo of him behind the bar in the 1980s, and seeing his reaction, and how people were telling him how important the bar was for them.”

As founder of the Cork LGBT Archive, Orla’s work extends from this exhibition to the greater project of preserving and sharing Cork’s LGBTQ+ history, continuously collecting moments of community and queer experience from the past and present. The archive’s collection spans physical and digital media, which are now linked through this permanent exhibition, with QR codes featured to encourage visitors to learn more and engage with the archive. 

Orla reiterates the importance of preserving queer history, where it has previously been “invisible, ignored and erased. Access to this history is important for us all, to know that we are part of this vibrant community and that we have always been here.” 

One exhibition visitor commented, “If I had seen this as a kid, my whole life would have been different”. 

During the exhibition launch, the room heard from various speakers, including Cork’s Lord Mayor Damian Boylan, who brought attention to the need for queer history to remain a core part of Cork’s fabric: “What we choose to display says a lot about what stories we believe matter… this is not new history, it is a part of Cork’s history.”

Furthermore, Orla notes how “it was essential to hear from the Cork Public Museum staff and to acknowledge the momentous step they are taking in creating the space for Ireland’s first permanent LGBTQ exhibition.” 

Across the launch, speakers from Cork’s queer past, present, and future were included. Orla mentions how it was important to have “both Arthur Leahy (80) and Dylan O’Riordan (19) speak at the launch, to hear from both the older and younger community activists”.

“Arthur Leahy has been centrally involved in so much of the community spaces and campaigns, and it is Arthur’s private collection that forms the core of the Cork LGBT Archive. Dylan O’Riordan is one of the volunteers with the Cork LGBT Archive. It was vital to be able to hear what the permanent LGBTQ exhibition meant to younger people.”

Accessibility is at the core of the exhibition curation and design. “We need access to our history”, states Orla. “We need this more than ever with the rise of homophobia, transphobia and the deluge of misinformation about the queer community.”

The exhibition designer, Darren O’Connor, has incorporated accessibility into the functionality of the display itself. The exhibition is simultaneously interactive and informative: “There are things you can touch and spin, drawers you can pull out and a telephone where you can listen to recordings”, notes Orla. 

This telephone feature is Orla’s personal favourite: “It was custom designed by El Egan-Morley and Ezra Loska, and includes recordings from community members on various topics, including the attitude of the guards to assaults, a lesbian parent fighting for custody of her children, the impact of decriminalisation and the establishment of TENI in Cork in 2004…

“It is amazing to see people step inside the telephone hood and become entranced by the voices and stories they hear”, says Orla.

Importantly, the exhibition strikes a balance between hopeful moments and dark lived realities. It would be a mammoth task to include all of Cork’s queer history on just two walls, but it offers a nuanced snapshot of this deep history, platforming key events, spaces, and moments of activism. 

It showcases both “joy and pain, resistance and resilience”, Orla noted in her speech during the launch.

 

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“Some of our experiences were very difficult, people experiencing violence and discrimination, lesbian parents being denied custody of their children, the impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis, but the Cork LGBTQ+ community has always created opportunities for joy, love and connection, for feistiness and fun, creating community spaces, reaching out to others, organising events like the Cork Women’s Fun Weekend. Despite all the attempts to suppress us, it was also great fun, and it is important to acknowledge and show that.”

The LGBTQ+ exhibition is a “whole new level” to the Cork LGBT Archive’s work, mentions Orla. The archive “has always been committed to being as accessible as possible, to sharing our rich history in various ways, including exhibitions, publications, documentaries, talks and walking tours, as well as via our digital archive. We call this Animating the Archive.” 

From the first exhibition in 2016 to creating displays across a number of anniversaries – the 10th anniversary of the Marriage Equality campaign and 40th anniversary of the Cork Women’s Fun Weekend – this permanent exhibition is a monumental moment and a testament to the Cork LGBT Archive’s continued legacy.

Orla affirms that, despite the extent of the archive’s work, the organisation operates “on an unbelievably tight budget and much of the work is done on a voluntary basis.” The organisation is grateful for funding from the Heritage Council, but also relies on donations from members of the public. To support the work of the archive, visit their website. 

To experience the We Were Always Here exhibition for yourself, visit the Cork Public Museum in Fitzgerald Park. To browse the Cork LGBT Archive’s digital collection, including its new Digital Timeline for easy access, click here.