Product Description
The modern story of LGBTQ liberation in Ireland is often framed as one of success, with the triumph of the vote on the Marriage Equality referendum in 2015, the passing of the Gender Recognition Act that same year, and later the ascendancy of Ireland’s first gay Taoiseach in 2017.
However, the variety of LGBTQ life across the island is too abundant and too diverse to be contained to these singular moments of progress. Utilising both archives and testimonies, this book offers a rich and kaleidoscopic window into the lesser told stories of Ireland’s LGBTQ activism and history. From the visit of Hollywood royalty to Dublin’s ‘gay scene’, to the mother of a gay son who caught the ear of a government minister and changed history, from a groupof LGBTQ people who became involved in the Republican struggle to how Ireland’s current President fought against conservatism to ensure an AIDS awareness campaign made it to television.
As we approach 50 years since the founding of a gay rights movement in Ireland, REELING IN THE QUEERS,(my candidate for book title of the year) offers an overview of individual perseverance, poignant losses and stirring collective gains, giving readers a front-row seat to over five decades of LGBTQ life across the island.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
PÁRAIC KERRIGAN is an author, researcher and Assistant Professor at University College Dublin, where he teaches on LGBTQ Irish culture. Páraic published his first book, LGBTQ Visibility, Media and Sexuality in Ireland in 2021.