Friday 20th July 2018
On a balmy Friday evening in Camden’s historic London Irish Centre, the London Irish LGBT Network gathered to hear Fulbright Scholar, Maurice J. Casey speak on the intersectional movements of radical politics in the Republic of Ireland which laid the bedrock for this decade’s two ground-breaking referendum results. The marriage equality referendum in 2015, and repeal referendum in 2018 have been heralded by many as the dawning of a new era of a pluralist, modern, secular Ireland, but Casey guided us through the underpinnings of this which were visible from the early eighties. Using the examples of four protest placards from what Maurice Casey called ‘Ireland’s first intersectional protest’, the Fairview Park Protest which occurred in response to the homophobic murder of Declan Flynn in late 1982, the participants were walked through elements of radical politics which were visible and began the decades-long struggle for both LGBT equality and bodily autonomy which came so prominently into the public eye with the 2015 and 2018 referendum campaigns.
London Irish LGBT Network 