Water Cooler Chatter

This month we’re having words about…

This year GCN leaves its 20s and settles into its 30s as the national LGBT+ press – the oldest publication of its sort in the world, the fact of which makes us feel a little more ancient than we already did. We knew we needed to do something big to mark this milestone, but at the same time we also wanted to look beyond ourselves and reflect on the advances of the Irish LGBT+ community over those three decades. The resulting plan was to create the GCN30 exhibition.

Our glorious founder, Tonie Walsh (pictured above on the cover of Issue 200 in 2006) will lead us in mounting a beautiful retrospective exhibition this month, highlighting 30 years of change. Taking place in the Gallery of Photography in Meeting House Square during the Dublin Pride Festival, the show will use archival material from our little publication to tell the momentous story of community advancement, driven by activists who envisioned an Ireland where all people were equal.

Through a mixture of photography, installation and graphic displays, we want to show the public why and how we do what we do, and who we did it with, highlighting anyone who ever contributed to the magazine.

Since the successful result of the marriage referendum, the LGBT+ community has achieved a level of acceptance that may have seemed a distant possibility for our early crusaders, but we shouldn’t forget, this year also marks only the 25th anniversary of decriminalisation. Meaning GCN was around before some of our community were even legal! In those early years, the magazine was a lifeline for some, especially those in rural areas who had no other connection to LGBT+ life, a fact that continues even up to this day.

In a recent interview with RTÉ, our editor, Brian Finnegan, said, “I found GCN as a young gay man and it showed me that there was a life for gay people in Ireland when I thought there were no gay people in Ireland.”

So while we appreciate the support of our community in creating the GCN30 exhibition through our fundit campaign, we also want you to come along and celebrate yourselves and all we have achieved together, as we present the key moments that shaped LGBT+ Ireland. See you there.

The GCN30 runs from June 21 to July 1 at The Gallery of Photography, Meeting House Square