On a rainy Sunday night in November, Queers for Palestine (Q4P) convened a sold-out Fireside Chat in Outhouse with two Irish writers who participated in the recent Global Sumud Flotilla, the largest maritime mission to Gaza.

Established two years ago, Queers for Palestine is a grassroots-led pro-Palestinian activist group based in Ireland and predominantly comprises queer women and gender nonconforming folks who have a non-violent, decolonial, emancipatory hope for the People of Palestine.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health recently reported that over 70,100 people have been killed across the Gaza Strip since Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people began in October 2023. Over 63,000 children are malnourished, and more than 170,900 people have been wounded.

In addition to shedding light on this situation and marching against the continuing horror on the ground, Queers for Palestine wanted to create a space to hear first-hand accounts from two queer Irish writers who participated in a major global act of resistance and non-violent solidarity with the people of Palestine.

During the event, the two writers, Sarah Clancy and Naoise Dolan, were interviewed by social justice activist Lydia Bigley. They each shared their different experiences of setting sail to break the siege, the eventual interception of their respective boats by the Israeli military forces (outside of the purported Israeli naval jurisdiction), brutal detainment of flotilla members in Israel, and their eventual deportation to Greece.

They shared how this civil society project brought together more than 50 ships and delegations from at least 44 countries, resulting in each ship being a type of microcosm of the global solidarity movement for Gaza. Individual ships transformed into temporary societies where writers and rebels, poets and politicians, socialist queers and heirs to oil dynasties shared tight spaces, both ideologically – think simultaneous conversations about queer feminism in postcolonial Ireland, the joy of prayer in community, and countering the narrative of veganism as luxury – and practically, with bunk beds and sick buckets.

Listening to Clancy and Dolan speak so frankly made space in the room to unpack larger themes that rarely get air in pro-Palestine spaces in Ireland, including pinkwashing, tackling antisemitism in the pro-Palestinian movement, contesting Islamophobia in the LGBTQ+ community, and the collective responsibility of fighting for the lives of people who may never stand up for queer rights, yet deciding to fight for their safety and freedom anyway.

Clancy asserted that liberation struggles happen within liberation struggles. She pointed out that Ireland took 100 years from 1916 to secure LGBTQ+ marriage equality, and that we should not be quick to judge repressed and colonised countries that have not secured the right to basic survival, never mind social freedoms. Dolan shared that within their world on water, two shipmates were gay (secular) Jewish men, enacting anti-zionism in motion, determined to break the siege without sacrificing their intersectional humanity.

Comparing Israel’s manufactured famine in Palestine to Ireland’s Great Famine, Dolan said they could imagine the likely prevalence of homophobic views among our ancestors during the Great Famine but would still vehemently fight for their right not to starve. The message from the two members of the Global Sumud Flotilla and from Queers for Palestine is clear: humanity is not a zero-sum game and solidarity is not transactional.

Join Queers for Palestine, Sarah Clancy, and an incredible lineup of performers at Voices for Palestine, a one-night festive fundraiser of music, comedy, poetry, and cabaret at The Sugar Club on Wednesday, December 17. All proceeds will support Connections Collective and the Gaza Scholar Fund. Tickets available at this link.

GCN’s wonderful Christmas Raffle is back! To be in with a chance of winning some fantastic prizes while also supporting GCN, buy a raffle ticket from as little as €5 at this link.