CHRISTINE O’MAHONY

One of Christine’s first advocacy roles was as Maynooth University’s Disability Rep during her second year of her undergraduate degree. She then went on to become involved in different movements, including the anti-conversion therapy coalition and the campaign to abolish direct provision. In 2023, she founded Mullingar 4 All, an anti-racist group supporting refugees and asylum seekers while combating the far-right agenda. That same year, she also became a founding member and the Chairperson of Heartlands Pride in Athlone, which has grown from strength to strength since.

As is evident from the previous examples, Christine’s activism is incredibly intersectional.

“I just feel that for Ireland to be a fair country, it needs activists like us fighting for all these minority rights,” she told GCN.

While she has a range of experience within different movements and organisations, her main focuses at the moment are Heartlands Pride and Palestinian activism. She is also undertaking a PhD in Sociology at UCD, studying Irish civil society groups and their work with Palestine. “So I’m actually doing it academically as well as grassroots action,” she shared.

Her dedication to this work is undeniable, and while it of course requires resilience, drive and grit, it is also something she simply enjoys. When asked what it is about activism that she loves so much, she replied, “I think it’s just the feeling of getting justice for people… I think the world goes around and functions properly if we all support each other.”

Reflecting on her work with Palestinians, her commitment to intersectionality is particularly prevalent. While some try to argue that queer people shouldn’t support the pro-Palestine movement because LGBTQ+ rights are limited in the country, Christine rebuts, “There’s a genocide going on… There are bigger priorities here. They’re dying and being murdered every single day. Whether they like you or not for your sexuality or gender, who cares?” She added, “A lot of the Palestinians that I work with know that I’m LGBT, and yet they don’t care… I think that’s the importance of having this intersectionality. It means that we can all help each other.”

She demonstrates similar dedication to her work with Heartlands Pride, and has been a huge contributor to its success over the last three years. While originally set up as a winter festival, this summer, they hosted the town’s first Pride parade, and the organisation was nominated across several GALAS categories for 2026. They were up for the inaugural Pride of Ireland award and the Noel Walsh HIV Activism award, and Aoife Doolan took home the Arts & Entertainment award for her work on the parade’s Síle na Gig float.

“I’m delighted because we went from only having 10 people attending an event in a coffee shop to now hundreds of people marching on the streets and many more new people coming to our events,” Christine commented.

Of course, she was also nominated for Person of the Year, and said, “I needed to pinch myself. I was like, ‘This is a category that David Norris has won and all these other people’. I feel like an outsider being on that list to be honest. But I’m glad. The fact that my work was recognised in 2023 and now I’m in the running for Person of the Year, I’m glad and I’m proud of myself that I didn’t give up.”