It’s been quite the year for GCN. Simliar to the organisations around the world, the pandemic brought about huge changes in the way we deliver our services as your national LGBTQ+ press. For many months, we had to put pause to our beloved print edition of the magazine due to COVID-19 restrictions (so you can imagine how delighted we are knowing this issue is out in the world!) but, as with many others, we also found ways to thrive. Here are just a few of our own personal highlights.

1400 original content pieces published on gcn.ie

48 live digital events

1 Hosted ‘The Galas’ – the LGBTQ+ community awards ceremony

Award winning Digital Festival

In and Out

6 print editions of GCN

2.5 Million

page views on gcn.ie

including 90k monthly active users

6 bespoke new digital campaigns

16.5k FACEBOOK LIKES

17k TWITTER FOLLOWERS

6.9k INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS

We launched PRISM, our digital exhibition with a brand new site

IRL

GALAS

At the start of the year, we were delighted to host, along with the NXF, the GALAS – a huge ceremony which brought the LGBTQ+ community across Ireland together in Dublin’s Mansion House to celebrate those who make our queer family marvellous.

PRINT EDITION

For only the second time in the magazine’s 32-year history, we were forced to pause on its production. But while we may have been hampered, we still managed to get six months worth of printed magazines out into the world and into your hands.

Web

GCN.IE

Our gcn.ie website flourished during the year. With over 1400 original pieces of content published, we had over 2.5 million page views on the site. (It’s taken us a while to get our heads round that one!)

PRISM

We launched the beautiful Prism, our digital exhibition, with a brand new site. Devotedly created by web designer and ex-GCN staffer, Aidan Quigley, you can check it out at Prism.gcn.ie

SOCIALS

Our social media channels continued to grow, thanks to all of you! And if you haven’t followed us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram yet, may we nudge you towards doing so? Winking face emoji.

Digitally Yours

We launched six new bespoke digital campaigns, including #StayAtHomo – where we invited the public to share their stories of how they were coping during lockdown in order to show solidarity with their LGBTQ+ family.

In partnership with BeLonG To, we ran the #GCNnewvoices campaign where we platformed the thoughts and opinions of young LGBTQ+ writers from across the country. Each piece was accompanied by superb illustrations by the incomparable Neave Alouf.

Live Online

Perhaps the biggest things we did this year were the host of live digital events we threw – 48 in total – including our In And Out Digital Festival of LGBTQ+ Creativity. In May, we presented Mar Ref – Five Years On – a special live broadcast celebrating the anniversary of Marriage Equality. In July, it was time for The Road to Recognition, celebrating the fifth anniversary of Gender Recognition in Ireland. Both events were filled with interviews, music and special messages from the public.

For World AIDS Day, the Queen of Ireland herself, Panti, hosted Global Solidarity, Shared Responsibility, a series of conversations with activists from the community.

The fabulous Candy Warhol hosted two incredible drag events – Drag Invaders, and Friends Of Dorothy: The Live Halloween Spooktacular, featuring international performers, music and comedy.

Dr Mary McAuliffe was the hit of lockdown with her Town Hall Talks, featuring guests such as Tonie Walsh, Ailbhe Smith, Mary Dorcey and Sara R Phillips to name just a few.

As if that wasn’t enough, as part of In And Out, we had essential conversations with the community on topics such as sexual health, LGBTQ+ parenting and fostering, we celebrated our Intersex family, there were online workout sessions hosted by friends such as the awesome Emerald Warriors, cooking demonstrations by a host of Ireland’s best kitchen wizards, there was live music, comedy, cabaret, drag, and we certainly can’t forget our Eurovision extravaganza hosted by the iconic Julian Mandrews!

Best of all, every one of those In And Out events can be watched right now on YouTube and Facebook!

To top it all off, the In And Out Festival was among the awardees of the Innovate Together fund, which will allow us to continue amplifying LGBTQ+ voices and keeping our community connected.

It’s been a pretty epic year, in many ways, but one thing’s for sure, none of this would have been possible without the constant support of our LGBTQ+ community. Thank you all. Here’s to the next one.