The Cork Gay Project has been selected as one of the hosts for the 2019 International OUTing the Past LGBT History Festival. The festival is happening in 20 cities, spanning 8 countries in February and March 2019. This is the first time that the festival will be hosted in the Republic of Ireland.

The goal of the festival is to make the general population more aware of LGBT history which goes back to the earliest records. Much of this rich history has never been exposed in a meaningful way in a public and open setting. The festival themes are peace, reconciliation and activism.

It’s striking that Ireland’s first National Gay Conference – held in Cork in 1981 – called on activists and community members to make the commemoration and celebration of LGBT history a priority. It affirmed, “the necessity for gay people to discuss and develop a sense of our own history”. The conference called for historians “to conduct research into the as yet, unwritten history of gay people in Ireland”. We can now answer this call in Cork.

Call For Contributors

OUTing the Past Cork is delighted to invite individuals and groups to actively participate and deliver short, accessible presentations on LGBT history: personal, local, national, international. Full details are available online at http://www.outingthepast.org.uk

Coordinator of the Gay Project Cork, Padraig Rice said, “I believe the festival will be a great opportunity to showcase and explore the rich and diverse history of our community. We know from speaking to historians that references to same-sex relationships can be seen even in some of the earliest Irish documents – much of which has yet to be exposed.

“The festival will explore local, regional, national and international history. In particular, it will focus on the themes of peace, reconciliation and activism. The organising committee, which is composed of a range of people from across the community, really want this to be an Inclusive and accessible event and we are encouraging people to come forward with ideas, suggestions and ways to get involved.”

New Initiatives At The Cork Gay Project

Cork Gay Project is continuing to develop many new initiatives for the LGBT+ community, here are some of the newest additions that you might want to get involved with:

• A really interesting and carefully designed personal development course: https://www.facebook.com/events/481481142261486/
• A new LGBT running group – Cork Front Runners
• A new HIV activism group – ACT UP Cork [email protected]
• A new LGBT Book Club (recently visited by Irish Laureate for Fiction Sebastian Barry, which was described by the Evening Echo as a ‘Literary Coup’)

For more information on any of the above, you can get in touch with Cork Gay Project’s Co-ordinator Pádraig Rice – 0871646072 – [email protected]