'GCN' has helped to change attitudes to homosexuality in Ireland since it first hit the streets 21 years ago, writes its editor BRIAN FINNEGAN
IT MAY seem coincidental that when GCN was first published 21 years ago, two other key events which helped normalise homosexuality in Ireland took place.
1988 was a watershed in Irish lesbian and gay evolution. That year, in the Norris case, the European Court ruled that Ireland’s law criminalising homosexual sex was contrary to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Less media attention was given to the formation of an organisation called the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen).
Glen took the European Court ruling and worked with the political hierarchy, leading to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993. Throughout that process, GCN was at hand to report from the frontlines on what was happening within the gay community. Conceived by Tonie Walsh and Catherine Glendon and first published by the National Gay Federation on February 10th, 1988, GCN (or Gay Community News as it was then known) set out to be a regular publication that would provide information about what was going on in gay Ireland, socially and culturally and, most importantly, politically.
I first became involved with GCN back in 1993 when I returned from London and found myself on a Fás scheme with the paper. Prior to that I had never written a word of journalism, but suddenly I found myself pitched in at the deep end, writing the paper’s arts coverage.
In a pre-internet world, GCN was not only a publication that served as a lifeline to the many isolated gay and lesbian people in Ireland, it was like a little gay community in itself. At the height of its Fás scheme days, 24 part-timers were employed to produce a 38-page freesheet.
However, GCN remained at a standstill for what seemed like a very long time, remaining an underground publication run on a shoestring and largely devoid of mainstream advertising, while the rest of Ireland’s publications flourished in the boom times.
In 2003, GCN changed radically. Having tested the commercial prospects for gay publications as editor of John Ryan’s GI, I returned to GCN, now backed with funding from Atlantic Philanthropies, to help transform a publication on the sidelines into a mainstream commercial success.
Since then, GCN has evolved beyond all recognition, from the first, eight-page newsprint edition. Supported by Pobal under their Community Services Programme, which is funded by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, and a growing awareness from advertisers of the power of the pink euro, GCN has become a mainstream expression of gay Ireland. We confidently look forward to the next 21 years reporting to and from the heart of gay Ireland.
The 21st birthday edition of GCN will be published on February 19. A party will be held at Dublin’s Tripod on February 19. See gcn.ie for more
Helping out along the way: 21 people who brought change to Ireland
1 BERTIE AHERN
At the opening of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network offices on April 3rd, 2006, Bertie Ahern was the first Irish political leader to fully advocate equality for lesbian and gay people. "Our sexual orientation is not an incidental attribute," he said. "It is an essential part of who and what we are. All citizens, regardless of sexual orientation, stand equal in the eyes of our laws."
2 ANNE COLLEY
Former Progressive Democrat Anne Colley was appointed by then minister for justice Michael McDowell to chair a working group on civil unions in 2006. "The introduction of civil marriage for same-sex couples would achieve equality of status with opposite-sex couples and such recognition that would underpin a wider equality for gay and lesbian people," its report said.
3 BRENDAN COURTNEY
After conceiving and presenting the travel dating show Wanderlust, Brendan Courtney became the first openly gay television presenter in Ireland. "I think it's amazing the way things have changed," he told GCN in 2007. "It's no big deal to be gay on Irish television now."
4 NIALL CROWLEY
As chief executive of the Equality Authority, Niall Crowley was a keen advocate of full equality for gay people in Ireland. He believed that a key step in this regard would be to afford recognition for same-sex couples on a par with heterosexual couples. "It is important and urgent to afford a legal recognition to same-sex couples through access for same-sex couples to civil marriage," he said.
5 CIARÁN CUFFE
Roderic O'Gorman and Ciarán Cuffe of the Green Party worked on the only political party policy advocating full civil marriage rights for same-sex couples in Ireland. "The Constitution states all citizens must be treated equally, but the State currently discriminates against gays and lesbians in relation to marriage rights," said Cuffe.
6 MARK FEEHILY
The Westlife member was the first Irish pop star to come out of the closet of his own accord. "I am gay, and I'm very proud of who I am," he told the Sun newspaper in 2005. "I'm not asking for any sympathy or to be a role model to anyone."
7 STEPHEN GATELY
Boyzone singer Stephen Gately came out as gay in June 1999 after learning that a former associate of the group was going to sell the story to a newspaper. Last year, Gately was the first star to represent a gay relationship in a pop video. "There are more gay people in the public eye now, and that makes things easier," he said.
8 BRENDAN HOWLIN
In 2006 and 2007, Brendan Howlin introduced Labour's Civil Union Bill to the Dáil. It advocated all of the rights and responsibilities of married couples for civil unions. "I firmly believe that most people today would have no difficulty in supporting the provisions of this Bill and taking this major step to ensuring equality for all Irish citizens," he told the Dáil.
9 MARY HOLLAND
The late Irish Times columnist was a key media ally in the campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in Ireland. "We had a dream that one balmy summer's day we would celebrate being full and equal citizens of this Irish Republic," she told the 1993 Dublin Gay Pride parade. "This is the day."
10 MÁIRE GEOGHEGAN QUINN
As the Fianna Fáil minister for justice in 1993, Máire Geoghegan Quinn piloted through the Oireachtas the decriminalisation of homosexuality. "What we are concerned with fundamentally in this Bill is a necessary development of human rights," she told the Dáil.
11 RUAIRI QUINN
Labour TD, Ruairi Quinn has worked closely with the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network on all equality legislation. His help was vital to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993. "Previously homosexuality was deemed to be a matter of shame, about which you didn't speak, and now it is mainstreamed. I welcome that," he told GI magazine in 2001.
12 MARY McALEESE
President Mary McAleese was an original member of the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform. While meeting representatives from gay youth groups in Galway last October, she called for an end to the bullying of young gay people. She urged gay people to "refuse to go along with the loud voices of prejudice".
13 INSP FINBARR MURPHY
As the Garda's chief lesbian and gay liaison officer for the past decade, Insp Finbarr Murphy heads up a group of 19 gardaí trained specifically to deal with the victims of homophobic crime. "I think we have to go the extra mile and make that effort to tell lesbian and gay people that we'll deal with their cases sensitively," he told GCN in 2006.
14 ANNA NOLAN
Runner-up in the first series of Channel 4's Big Brother, Nolan became the normalised, mainstream face of gay women in Ireland. She works as a broadcaster in Ireland, most notably on the RTÉ series Would You Believe. "I think we're very accepting of homosexuality in Ireland, as long as it's done quietly," she told GCN in 2005. "That's something that needs to change."
15 SENATOR DAVID NORRIS
Norris was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in Ireland. Twenty-one years ago, Norris won a case in the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that Ireland was in breach of article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The law criminalising homosexuality was subsequently repealed. "I'd like to think that if things have changed, that people enjoy it," he says. "I hope they find love and affection and companionship, and that their lives are better off as a result of the work we did.
16 MARY ROBINSON
In 1992, as a new government was being formed and the fight for decriminalisation of homosexuality was at its peak, Robinson invited 34 people from gay and lesbian support groups around Ireland to Áras an Uachtaráin, sending out a very clear message that gay people could no longer be ignored in Ireland. In 2005, she said that "as President of Ireland, I saw again the pain and fears attached to being gay or lesbian in Ireland. I had invited a representative group from the gay and lesbian community to visit me in my official residence, and when we stood outside afterwards on the steps for the traditional photograph, a third of those who had come declined to be photographed. Their parents weren't aware, or they might lose their job."
17 KIERAN ROSE
A co-founder of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen), Rose was a key player in securing the decriminalisation of homosexuality. He is now on the board of the Equality Authority and with Glen is strategically working towards partnership laws for same-sex couples. "Gay Ireland has changed phenomenally," he says.
18 COLM TÓIBÍN
Tóibín's work has explored issues affecting gay men and their families in Ireland, most memorably and effectively in The Blackwater Lightship.
"In asking our politicians in Ireland to give leadership on the matter of gay marriage, we are thus offering them a new way of relating to this society," he said at the handover of the Irish Queer Archive to the National Library of Ireland.
19 TONIE WALSH
The co-founder of Gay Community News, Tonie Walsh also co-created the Irish Queer Archive, which includes a quarter of a million press clippings, and is currently being digitised as part of the National Library's collection. "The beauty is that all this material will become accessible to researchers and the general public," he told GCN.
20 & 21 KATHERINE ZAPPONE AND ANN LOUISE GILLIGAN
Lesbian couple Zappone and Gilligan were married under Canadian law in 2003 and subsequently pursued a High Court claim to have their marriage recognised for the filing of joint tax returns in Ireland. The government contested and in December 2006 the High Court found that the Irish Constitution had always meant for marriage to be between a man and a woman. The couple are awaiting a date for their Supreme Court appeal.