Many in the Irish LGBTQ+ community will already know Paula Fagan, if not personally, then through speeches she has made, initiatives she has overseen, or perhaps even from the other end of a helpline. At the helm of LGBT Ireland from 2011 to 2025, her work has touched countless lives and helped make this country a more welcoming and inclusive place for all.

Paula’s story starts in Drogheda, 1970. She was as young as four years old when she realised she was “different”, and in the years following, it became clear that it was because of her sexuality.

“But there were no reference points really,” she told GCN. “You’d no role model, so I knew well enough not to say anything. I picked up a lot of indications in my family and in the environment that it wasn’t safe. The only time you saw anyone that was gay was as a comedy character or they were ridiculed in some way.”

Still, despite the homophobia around her, Paula found a way to accept herself, if even just in private. After years of working in helplines, she knows that’s not always an easy feat, so for that, she feels lucky. However, once adulthood arrived, staying in the closet became more difficult. She developed a lot of anxiety, and when she was 23, she decided to speak to a counsellor.

“I checked all of her safety protocols and confidentiality. I really rigorously checked that out,” she said.

“Then I told her. I came out to her and she was actually brilliant… She didn’t make it about my sexuality. Because I didn’t really need to come to terms with it, it was more how I would talk to people and become more open about it.”

Over time, she began telling friends, one of whom came out to her as well. This person had been on the scene for a few years and offered to take Paula out in Dublin—“three times and then you’re on your own!” she said.

Paula remembered the first occasion: “It was the day before Pride, but we didn’t know, and we ended up running into the Dyke March, and there was probably about 40 people in it.” They then brought Paula and her friend to the after-party, which was “absolutely jam-packed”.

“That’s what I thought the scene was like every week!” she laughed. “So from there, I just flourished.”

Paula got a job in Women’s Aid, which was a very inclusive and empowering organisation with other out staff members. It was there that she grew to become very confident in herself and her identity. It’s also where she met her partner, Denise, with whom she now has two sons.

Reflecting on the value of having a workplace like that, she stated, “You spend most of your life at work, don’t you? So having been in an environment where it wasn’t really safe to come out and then to be in this environment where it was actually celebrated was a very, very important experience for me.”

Paula always had a passion for social justice, which somewhat came from her dad, who was involved in unions. She knew she was a minority herself throughout her life and became particularly interested in women’s rights and gender inequality.

“I unfortunately didn’t have the opportunity to finish school. I left school early, so that limited my opportunities. I didn’t get to go to college or anything. So I went back to school, did my Leaving [Cert] at night, and then ended up doing accountancy because that’s what I could do. That’s how I got into Women’s Aid initially, and once I got in there, I was like, ‘Oh, my people’.

“I learned about activism and advocacy, and I quickly started to volunteer on their helpline.”

She spent over a decade with Women’s Aid, and one of her good friends from football had also gotten her to volunteer with Dublin Lesbian Line, introducing her to LGBTQ+ activism. In 2012, she was employed as a part-time coordinator for the National LGBT Helpline, a grassroots organisation that would eventually become LGBT Ireland. It was there she remained for the next 13 years, witnessing many milestones and challenges along the way.

“Having been in an environment where it wasn’t really safe to come out and then to be in this environment where it was actually celebrated was a very, very important experience for me.

The organisation itself has evolved significantly over that time. It added an online chat service, became an official charity, introduced specific supports for refugees and families, developed new initiatives and became instrumental in securing policy change.

“One of the things that I’m most proud of is that evolution of services so that it could reach more people,” Paula shared.

She added, “We recognised that obviously support is key, and it’s still the heart of the organisation, but you also want to then try and change the rules and change the law and try and change the practice so that people don’t have to ring the helpline,” Paula explained. “That’s the ultimate aim.”

When asked about her personal highlights from her time with LGBT Ireland, she noted things like the organisation’s Annual Volunteer Conference, as well as its Champions Programme, which aims to make older LGBTQ+ people more visible, safe and assured in the healthcare system. She also mentioned achieving legislation around parental rights post Marriage Referendum.

“That was the biggest legal call we were getting [to the helpline] at the time, so we started that process around looking at why hadn’t the Children and Family Relationships Act been commenced.” The legislation, passed in 2015, didn’t come into effect until 2020.

“That turned into some nightmare of work. I thought it was going to be straightforward, somebody who forgot to tick the box. We ended up having to get three pieces of legislation passed. It was so much work, but so important.”

Paula herself had been affected by the lack of legal protections; one of her sons was covered, and the other wasn’t.

“Eventually, when it was passed, hearing families going into court and getting the parental orders and getting recognised as parents after years, that was massive… The court even put on two special sittings in Dublin; they hadn’t done it before, but they put in dedicated sittings just to get people through. They said it was so lovely because they normally have family law hearings that are really contentious, but they were having all these women— because it was only same-sex female couples that were covered—coming through and celebrating, and it was a lovely experience with the court service as well.”

Of course, there have also been challenging times. LGBT Ireland nearly closed alongside GLEN, which acted as a kind of fiscal agent for the organisation. Paula received the call outside of TENI’s office and told Sara Phillips that their funding was frozen and they might have to close.

“Sarah was like, ‘No you won’t! You’ll be able to come in here, you can set up the line in here. She just gave support, no questions asked.”

Paula added, “That was so stressful, and it taught me a lot about the importance of being brave. We had one funder, Community Foundation, that stuck with us, and every other funder legged it.”

They were given three lots of €5,000, and with that, they managed to get their other funders back.

A more recent challenge has been the rise of the far-right and intensifying anti-trans rhetoric. While Paula says it has been “tough”, she has also seen “amazing resilience” time and time again.

Having officially left her post on August 1, she is now focusing on finishing her Masters to become a psychotherapist. Her Person of the Year nomination was no doubt in recognition of the decades of fantastic work she has done for the community as a self-described “accidental activist”, and she said she was “honoured” to be among the shortlist. Before she was announced as the award recipient, she shared, “It blows me away to be nominated, so I’m happy out. I don’t need to win.”

But win she did. Accepting the award on stage in the Dublin Royal Convention Centre, she told the room: “To be nominated with the people that I was with, to Lynda, to Dave and to Jenny, you equally should be standing here for the work that you do and the courageous way that you do it.”

She thanked the staff team and volunteers in LGBT Ireland, saying, “This award is actually in recognition to all of the tireless work that you all do in terms of support and advocacy for the community. Any contribution that I have made has been because of the dedication and teamwork in LGBT Ireland.”

Finally, she dedicated the award to her partner Denise, and sons Benan and Cian, who have inspired much of her activism.