When RTÉ refused to ‘give the question of gays some normality’ and other forgotten episodes in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights
Reeling in the Queers by Páraic Kerrigan is a timely take that will ensure many of the heroes in the long battle for rights do not fade into history
Celebration of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland on the steps of the Central Bank Plaza, Dame Street, Dublin in 1993. Photos by Christopher Robson/ courtesy of the National Library of Ireland
Tom Brace joined the Irish Army in 1968, knowing he was gay; to all intents a criminal in the eyes of the State and at a time when there were zero positive gay role models in Ireland.
“There was conflict between my sexual desire and my career, and I wanted to stay in the army,” he recalls. The price to being found out was instant dismissal, so he spent the following 21 years denying his sexuality and going to extraordinary lengths to hide it.
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