MONINNE GRIFFITH

Moninne Griffith is well-known within Ireland’s LGBTQ+ community; but if you don’t know her by name, you’ll certainly know her by impact. As the former Director of Marriage Equality and CEO of Belong To, she has been instrumental in progressing the quality of life for queer people in this country and inspiring change around the globe.

When asked about how she got into this line of work, Moninne told GCN, “I had always been interested in social justice. I did law when I left school because I was inspired by Mary Robinson, like so many girls of my era.” She spent five years working as a solicitor, before going back to university to do Women’s Studies at UCD, taught by Ailbhe Smyth.

“We were all terrified of her,” Moninne laughed. “But we also absolutely adored her. And there were lots of other brilliant feminist academics working in UCD at that time, so I was very lucky.”

One of her classmates was Paula Fagan, an out lesbian who was in a long-term relationship with a woman. Meanwhile, Moninne was married to a man and “living a very heteronormative life”.

“I knew I wasn’t heterosexual, but I kind of just buried that,” she said. “But in UCD, I got to know all these amazing queer people and get my mind opened to a whole different way of thinking and looking at the world. And that very often also helps you look at yourself.”

She continued: “While I was doing those two years of study, I was doing a lot of work on myself as well. So by the time I finished… I just had a huge ‘Aha’ moment, and I came out, I left my career, I left my house, I left my marriage,

I jumped off the cliff and decided that the world, the universe, would provide and it did.”

Although it was terrifying to take that leap of faith, Moninne stated: “It changed my life for the better. I found family and friends, a purpose, connection, belonging… It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Two people that Moninne met around that time were Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan. They were in the process of trying to get their Canadian marriage recognised in Ireland, and were looking for a lawyer to join their advisory committee. Up stepped Moninne, who would go on to become Director of Marriage Equality.

“I worked there for eight years and built it up from going to meet people where they would say ‘In your dreams’, obviously to us winning the referendum. It was an incredible time for me.”

One standout moment was the #HomeToVote campaign. “I was just in floods of tears [seeing it]... This whole movement had captured so many people’s imaginations and hearts, and they wanted to be part of it, whether they were a member of the community or not.”

After the referendum passed, Moninne became CEO of Belong To, Ireland’s LGBTQ+ youth charity. She remembered being “so impressed” by the organisation while she was working in Marriage Equality, as well as by the young people it serves.

“Also, I knew that getting marriage equality, getting constitutional and legal equality was really only one step towards complete equality. There was still a lot of attitudes and behaviours that needed to be changed, and I felt that in a well-established, well-run organisation like Belong To, I could continue that work.”

Moninne held the role of CEO for a decade, before moving on in September 2025. Reflecting on her time with Belong To, she noted a range of highlights. One was the launch of the National LGBTI+ Youth Strategy in 2018, a world first, and another was the organisation being Grand Marshall of Dublin Pride in 2024.

Now working as Community Foundation Ireland’s Director of Impact, Grants and Donor Care, Moninne shared, “I miss Belong To, but they’re never very far away from me. I’ll always be grateful to the LGBT community for welcoming me and giving me somewhere to learn about myself and somewhere I belonged and somewhere ultimately I thrived. I became, not quite Mary Robinson, but I got to be involved in some amazing pieces of social change and I’m very proud of that and very grateful.”

Speaking about her nomination for Person of the Year, Moninne described it as “an absolute honour”.

“It’s very nice at the end of my 20-year career working in the LGBT community. It’s very nice to be recognised and amongst a long list of amazing people who I have looked up to and admired for many years and who paved the way for me.”

She concluded, “I hope that I’ve paved the way for lots of other LGBT activists who are coming up behind me, and that they have as interesting, as joyful and as rewarding an experience as I had.”