Lack of resources and visibility presents ongoing challenges for LGBTQ+ people to find community and a sense of belonging in rural Ireland, according to local groups.

Five LGBTQ+ groups shared their experiences of building safe spaces for their local communities in rural Ireland. The following responses from each group illustrate the challenges experienced by LGBTQ+ people in rural areas, the work necessary to alleviate barriers for local communities, and the additional support needed to grow a sense of belonging within these spaces.

What are some of the challenges experienced by LGBTQ+ people in rural areas?

Wicklow Pride
The biggest hurdles really come down to a sense of space and belonging. Out in the country, there is a distinct lack of physical places where our community can gather. When you don’t have those dedicated spaces or casual visibility, it’s incredibly easy for isolation and loneliness to fester.

Heartlands Pride Athlone
Many people do not have the same education on LGBTQ+ rights in rural Ireland. Information Talks giving parents explainers on how to raise an LGBTQ+ child are usually poorly attended. Many rural LGBTQ+ people suppress their identity due to homophobia and hate speech, which is everywhere, including Dublin, but more likely to happen in a rural setting.

Midlands LGBT Ireland
There are a number of social and mental health challenges that can affect LGBTQ+ people living in rural communities. These can include social isolation and loneliness, concerns about being ostracised by their local community, and the added difficulty of travelling long distances to access LGBTQ+-specific healthcare. These challenges can be particularly significant for trans and non-binary people living in rural areas, who may have limited access to appropriate services close to home.

Navan Pride
An issue we have recognised is the ‘small world’ aspect of rural towns. Everybody knows somebody. It can be really difficult for young people to explore their gender or sexuality when everyone in the town knows them. It creates an environment where people can feel watched.

Longford Pride
The dispersed LGBTQ+ population of rural Ireland, and the lack of transport options, makes it especially difficult for young queer people to find each other and form community outside of the bigger cities. All this just compounds the historical and ongoing migration of young queer people in particular away from their homes, towns and families. This is a really tough problem to tackle because the cycle is so hard to break – queer people leave because there are no queer people local to them, and so they’re not there for other queer people to find.

How does your work support LGBTQ+ people to address these challenges?

Wicklow Pride
Our main goal is to carve out the safe, welcoming spaces that are so often missing in rural Ireland. Because we don’t always have permanent physical venues to rely on, we get creative, […] like our Dip and Sip events which take place on beaches right along the Wicklow coastline and our new hiking group which takes to the hills right across the county. We provide a relaxed, joyful, and deeply safe environment where queer people can meet face-to-face, connect over shared experiences, and actively build the kind of community that makes rural living not just bearable, but brilliant.

Heartlands Pride Athlone
Heartlands Pride Athlone was first set up in 2023, addressing a need in the area for a queer group and a Pride festival. The first queer events were started up by the late Michael Woods in Athlone. Members have set up groups like the “Gaymers” group specifically for queer gamers in Athlone and “Heartlands in Motion”, a sober LGBTQ+ & Allies space for hiking, walking and wellness activities. We partner with different businesses so other queer people are aware that these are safe spaces to go to.

Midlands LGBT Ireland
A major focus of our work is establishing and running regular events and groups throughout Laois, Offaly, Kildare and Westmeath. We host monthly social groups, coffee mornings and support groups, providing opportunities for people to meet others, build connections and access support within their own communities.

Navan Pride
What Navan Pride does in this regard is try to open up the LGBTQ+ community to engage with us across multiple different platforms and events. At the moment, we’re somewhat lacking in our engagement with very young adults, as well as older adults. While we’ve built a good community, there’s still a lot of work to do to make sure Navan Pride is accessible and relevant to people across different generations and backgrounds.

Longford Pride
After our first year of Longford Pride, it became clear there was an appetite for a range of different social events and spaces catering to LGBTQ+ people on a regular basis. We try very hard to arrange events at the most accessible times and venues we can, and we make a real effort to cater to a spectrum of different interests and profiles.

From your experience, what does it mean to create a sense of community among LGBTQ+ people in rural areas? And what additional support and resources are needed to strengthen this sense of community?

Wicklow Pride
One of the most profound things we witness at our events is the impact on young people. Often, these young people might not be out yet, or they might just be figuring themselves out. They come to our safe spaces so they can see queer people who are happy, thriving, and completely comfortable in their own skin. To keep these vital spaces going and growing, we need tangible support. That means consistent funding to help us secure venues and put on high-quality events. Finally, we need an ongoing commitment from the wider community, both queer folks and allies, to keep showing up, taking part, and supporting local queer joy.

Heartlands Pride Athlone
Listening to our community and letting people in the group form different WhatsApp groups has done wonders in our group to create a sense of community. We would love more support from Westmeath County Council to direct LGBTQ+ people to our group so they can join the community we have created. Sometimes we find it difficult to find spaces that aren’t pubs or expect people to buy something to stay in the space. It would be great if Athlone had its own Outhouse.

Midlands LGBT Ireland
The need for accessible LGBTQ+ community supports across the Midlands remains significant, with both individuals and the wider community facing a range of unique challenges. We are constantly looking for new ways to expand our services and reach more LGBTQ+ people across the Midlands. Our volunteers play a vital role in helping us deliver such a wide range of groups, events and supports, and their contribution makes a real difference to our work. If you are interested in volunteering or would like to find out more about the work we do, please contact us at [email protected].

Navan Pride
Visibility alone isn’t enough. We need funding and resources to put events and initiatives on, and ideally some paid staff, because it can be very difficult to sustain all of this as volunteers alongside our regular jobs. We also need a physical base or LGBTQ+ centre in Meath. At present, we don’t have a dedicated unit, centre, or facility that LGBTQ+ people can use.

It’s important to also consider the voices often left out. When we talk about Pride, we need to also include Travellers, refugees, and those facing homelessness. Intersectionality is a huge part of Pride, but sometimes the larger groups have the most space and loudest voice, leaving smaller groups to the side, not necessarily intentionally.

We also need support with trans healthcare in the country at the moment. A young person has no public access to healthcare at this time. Waiting lists are almost twenty years long, so unless you have the financial privilege to be able to afford private gender clinics, people are forced to either go down the route of illegal medications, or simply go without the medication they may need. All major supports are in the big cities, unfortunately further marginalising rural communities.

Longford Pride
Organisations like ours would really benefit from more resources like training spaces, social connections, and financial backing to be in collaborative organisations, and training groups that can help to educate and destigmatise and foster a sense of community. Being able to draw on groups like Pride@Work and Belong To is invaluable, and more chances to train as youth workers or workshop facilitators, or take part in Train the Trainer sessions would open up a lot more avenues for us. Practical resources like certification courses or community bus transport would broaden our options a lot, but even where these kinds of resources exist, they’re often obscure and opaque to access.

For a full list of Prides taking place on the island of Ireland, check out Issue 393 of the GCN Magazine.