The Revival of Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre

“Following extensive consultations with our communities and stakeholders over six months in late 2022 and early ‘23, it is with great excitement I am sharing our new five-year plan for Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre,” says Oisín O’Reilly (he/him), CEO of Outhouse.

Ireland has made significant strides towards achieving greater LGBTQ+ equality, with successful referenda and the enactment of progressive legislation and public policy. However, LGBTQ+ communities still face significant challenges, including barriers to accessing healthcare and increasing hate speech and hate crime. Poverty, homelessness, mental health issues, and substance misuse disproportionately affect LGBTQ+ individuals and substantially impact people’s day-to-day lives. These issues and patterns arose time and again in our consultation process.

As we look to the future, it is clear that addressing our intersecting needs requires a multi-dimensional approach. More significant societal change is necessary to achieve true equity for all LGBTQ+ and marginalised people in Ireland.

Outhouse has always been and continues to be dedicated to supporting the people, spaces, and issues important to the LGBTQ+ communities. Through the planning process, we have identified a clear, multidimensional mission which is to improve the quality of life for LGBTQ+ people by providing a space to find:

Connection: Discovering themselves, their people, place, and passions.

Community Support: Accessing information, programmes, and services.

Culture: Experiencing creativity, heritage, discovery, and fun.

Campaigns Being part of a strong, credible, and trusted voice for LGBTQ+ communities.

Guided by our values of trust, respect, joy, inclusivity, and impact, my team and I will create a world where LGBTQ+ individuals are safe, seen, and celebrated.

Image Courtesy: George Boyle -An architectural rendering of a possible future vision for a world-class LGBTQ+ centre at 105 Capel Street.

105 Capel Street is an old master with shabby credentials — but it is a jewel in the city crown.

Connection

Through Connection, we will work to create a sense of belonging and connectedness among LGBTQ+ individuals and allies. In the short term, this will entail enabling universal access to our existing premises, creating more and better safe spaces for socialising, networking, and mutual support, and partnering with other organisations to foster more inclusive communities. We will also develop an ambitious plan to create a world-class LGBTQ+ centre which we will deliver in a future strategy.

Community support

Community Support remains a cornerstone of our work. We will continue to provide essential signposting and information to the community, including growing over the medium term to provide a dedicated casework service. We aim to ensure that every community member has access to the resources and support they need to thrive.

Culture

Culture is essential to the joy of being part of the LGBTQ+ community. We will work to celebrate and promote our community’s rich history, traditions, and achievements through events, art in all its forms, and celebrations. We will highlight the contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals to our society and work to create a more accepting and inclusive culture.

Campaigns

Finally, we will continue to advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals through campaigning and pushing for change at local, national, and international levels. The areas in which we will actively lead in campaigns are poverty, homelessness, and safety for our communities. We will work with policymakers, other organisations, and our communities to create a more equitable and just society for all.

Image Courtesy: George Boyle -A representation of the future universal access arrangements for 105 Capel Street.

The Future of 105 Capel Street

Perhaps it is no coincidence that the move of Outhouse to Capel Street in 2001 aligned uncannily with an unprecedented surge in interest, style, currency, and glamour on this street like no other in the world. Whether the longer-term ambition of a world-class LGBTQ+ centre can be achieved at 105 Capel Street or be better served by a relocation or hybrid approach under many combinations of permutation was one of the first broad-brush exercises tested during the planning process.

It is apparent that three things are beyond question; however fine this building is, it is failing its community as an accessible space, a habitable space, a truly safe space.

105 Capel Street is an old master with shabby credentials - but it is a jewel in the city crown.

However, it is a high-risk strategy to jump quickly in the direction of disposal of an asset when it holds so much latent, albeit subjective, value, in a location rapidly climbing the ladder of visibility, tangibility, desirability, affluence, and security.

And so, a hybrid approach that allows for the immediate needs of the community to be met in a thoughtful, controlled, collaborative fashion coupled with a detailed longer-term feasibility study to identify, capture, and isolate the best of the possible options across a longer-term, phased future plan is the approach we have chosen. By the end of 2024, we plan that universal access will have been delivered to the centre’s ground floor and basement levels and that a feasibility study on the longer-term options will be published in 2025.

This is just a small flavour of the actions contained in the strategy, which you can read in full on our website by scanning the QR code below.

I look forward to working with you all in helping to bring this plan from ambition to reality.