Gay man shares his story of coming out in 1981 before homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland
Irishman Colin Daly shares his coming out journey as a gay man in 1981, more than a decade before the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland.There was a lot going on in Ireland in 1981 in terms of politics, arts, music and life in general.
For me, the year was about to change my life completely; I was finally going to “come out” as a gay man.The tide had been changing since I was a child and there were gay events in the city centre that would be advertised in In Dublin magazine, along with personal ads for gay people.
There was also the coming of the Hirschfield Centre. For me, this was like a monolith of gayness that represented all that I aspired to become and something alternative to the notorious “queer” venues of Bartley Dunnes and Rices.Ironically, going to Bartley Dunnes seemed to be almost a rite of passage for red-blooded heterosexual young men.
They went to see the queers, “the b*nders”, or perhaps to make jokes about 50p pieces glued to the ground. When the Centre opened, it was like a portal to another world that complemented these gay bars and somehow gave them a veneer of respectability which I may not have previously afforded them.Although the tide was slowly turning in a relaxing of attitudes to gay people, 1981 was still a time when homosexuality was illegal in Ireland, and homosexuals were still queers, “b*m boys” and “l*zzers”, etc.
