This Saturday, October 12, Dublin Festival of History will explore Irish queer history and celebrate the untold and lesser-known narratives of the city’s LGBT+ communities. The free festival boasts an extensive programme with over 150 walks, tours, exhibitions and talks taking place across Dublin which began October 1-20.
This year’s festival will include a multitude of exhibitions and walking tours ranging on everything from food, music, politics and sport to the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. These exciting and engaging events taking place throughout the city are a perfect way to stroll around town on a lazy Sunday or perhaps learn something new in between your lectures.
One particular event which is set to be extremely popular, following the success of a similar tour hosted during this year’s Dublin Pride celebrations, is the queer history tour of Kilmainham Gaol. The tour that will take place this Saturday, October 12, and due to its anticipated popularity, will run twice. Firstly, at 10 AM exhibitions and talks will take place at the location, followed later in the day with further talks being hosted at 1 PM at the same site.
The tour will centre around the lives and experiences of LGBT+ prisoners associated with Kilmainham Gaol. It will also focus on the use of the gaol in the 19th and early 20th century as a place of punishment for those convicted of, what was then a crime, homosexual activity.
This tour is a continuation of the festival’s exploration of Irish LGBT+ history following last Saturday’s, tour of the “Rainbow Revolution” exhibition in Collins Barracks. The “Rainbow Revolution” is the first exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland which represents LGBT+ history.
The event itself had a wide range of speakers from the LGBT+ community which all gathered in Collins Barracks to discuss how Irish museums can better reflect LGBT+ history by collecting, exhibiting, interpreting and engaging with the stories of LGBT+ people.
The full Dublin Festival of History programme is available on their website for download. All events are free but must be booked in advance in order to secure a place.
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