Photos by Orbit.

I had the honour and privilege to speak to three prolific members of the furry community and ask them the questions we all have on our minds when it comes to their niche.

Addie, Réiva and Skirmisher are part of the small yet driven group behind Ainmhícon, a Dublin furry convention, in which they are the Chairperson, Events Manager and ConOps Deputy Head, respectively.

To begin our discussion, I asked the group how one can find themselves seeking out the furry community.

“It’s quite a spectrum; someone could have watched The Lion King once in their life and resonated with the characters, while others could be seeking personas that are ‘more than human’ in how they go about,” said Skirmisher.

Réiva chimed in with an observation: “I’ve seen that anthropomorphic characters have been used since the beginning of time to tell stories and people as a whole see themselves in these characters.”

Addie has a different story on how she landed in the colourful community by getting interested in fursuit making.

“I have always been a tactile learner. I tried making fursuits and was like ‘Oh, I can make things with my hands, and these things make people happy!’ It really is a creative outlet for me,” she said.

The conversation fluidly changed into one about self-expression and how donning a new personality helped each person learn more about themselves.

“Not every furry will have a fursona, as one would call it,” began Réiva, “but generally they end up with a vessel. It’s almost a hidden part of your personality to a degree. For instance, my fursona began a lot more femme than I was ready to accept as a person. People use their fursonas to explore things about themselves they don’t realise yet. You would be rationalising: ‘It’s just a character, it’s not really me!’”

Skirmisher commented on how their fursona has changed through years of experimentation: “People ask artists to redesign their fursonas as they discover more about themselves. My first design was very male-coded, but after sending this large document to a good friend of mine with everything that my character meant to me, they came back with a new design, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, that’s me. Oh, I like it.’ There are lots of moments where you wouldn’t think you’d resonate with a certain style or creature, but you end up learning something new about yourself with time.”

“The community is, for a lack of a better word, very queer,” continued Réiva. “It’s very open and accepting and there are no prejudices or expectations. It’s so easy to find friends in circles of people you get along with and share your viewpoints and interests. If you’ve got at least 20 queer friends chances are at least one of them is a furry!”

“I continuously joke that the furry community single-handedly paid for my autism diagnosis,” laughed Addie. “The first week I sold a suit, I was ready to afford my assessment. There are a lot of neurodiverse people in the community, and we’re always here for one another; it’s kind of surreal how close-knit we are. You don’t need to be an extremely active member. If someone asks for a place to stay in an emergency, there will always be someone to offer their couch for them.”

Another more serious topic that came to light was how being a furry is a form of escapism. “You could have a terrible day at work, but you come home, and you’re like ‘I’m just a silly puppy,’” explained Réiva.

Addie added: “I am hyper aware of myself, in that I’m very weird. Once I heard of and found the furry community,

I put all this stored-up energy into organising fun meets and finding others who were like me that I couldn’t find elsewhere. I especially made so many more friends because I organised a POC furry event, because I felt like nobody else looked like me at other furry events.”

The three friends reminisced on the many heartwarming experiences they have had together and even shared some stories about how their meetups are not always fur-clad. One story that stood out to me was how the community organised a trek around the Howth Cliff Walk, and although everyone was strongly advised not to wear their fursuits on the journey, some folks did it anyway. With that, they advise that you have a “handler” or someone who can keep an eye on you in case of overheating.

They also gave me a brief history of how furries came to be, with a clear emphasis on tech-savvy individuals creating safe spaces online to meet on forums and chatrooms. They believe that these skills help furries get jobs in various tech fields, which in turn give them the funds and access to create even more for the community, with Addie describing it as a “feedback loop”. In the same breath, they mentioned how certain individuals, who may not have the funds to afford a fursuit or aren’t ready to go public yet, find themselves in VR Chatrooms and embody their fursonas digitally.

If you, dear reader, have a great interest in the Irish furry community or are actively a member of it, then you may have already heard and bought tickets to the upcoming furry convention, Ainmhícon. What was once a wish uttered by many finally became a reality through sheer determination. On April 11 and 12, the conference will bring furries together in the Clayton Hotel, Liffey Valley. When asked about why they decided on Dublin, Addie took the words right out of my mouth. “Unfortunately, all roads lead to Dublin,” she said.

“[Organising a large furry con] would have eventually happened, but it’s just... who is dumb enough to be the first person to do it? And I’m an idiot, so!” exclaimed Addie, who prides herself on being the event’s driving force.

“Every time anyone else tried to do the maths, they said ‘Actually, this is quite complicated’ and so we knew we would need more resources, experience, people... but that wasn’t a concern for Addie!” joked Skirmisher. “We somehow got the right people in a room, and we’re so close to having it all come true.”

Many great activities are planned for the two days of the convention, including Fursuiting 101, board game events, panels, DJs, and many fantastic Irish-based artists and creators featured throughout the Dealer’s Den. The trio stated that their con is non-profit and purely done for the love of the community and that, like most furry conventions, they will be raising some funds for charity. In Ainmhícon’s first year, they will be donating money to Seal Rescue Ireland.

By the time this article is published Ainmhícon has closed their ticket sales but you can still keep up to date with any news and info via Instagram, Bluesky and on Ainmhicon.ie.