ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

Gay Pride, Belfast 1991 – on to civil rights/equal citizenship

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In 1991 the first Gay Pride in Belfast took place.  It was an event thought to be a non-starter, however the turnout of well over one hundred people for the ‘pride dander’ was simply fantastic.  The support from the Belfast public was beyond belief, as was the support in terms of bodies from the QUB Students Union and the Socialist Workers Movement, as well as our guests from Dublin, ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) – and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the dander and the crack afterwards.

 

How upstart, our own gay publication, remembered our dander:

 

Gay Pride

 

But a new tradition was also set for that march (dander) – that of the Pride T-shirt.  P A Maglochlainn, who was President of NIGRA (Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association) for a substantial number of years, recognised the importance of this inauguration and managed to collect a number of these during his lifetime and even was able to arrange for them to be on show a number of years later in the Central Library.

Since PA’s death, Barry his partner has been working to have his life’s work archived properly, and part of this is to have the T-Shirts placed somewhere so that people can access them and see the wealth of talent that has spread out from the initial showing.

Barry has kindly given me the task of gathering an example of each T-Shirt (or at the very least, a photo) which means that we have a pictorial record of part of our history.

So far, I have managed to collect the following, as you can see there are come gaps, are you able to help with an example of the missing T-Shirts, or at the very least a photograph or jpeg image for the record?  If so then please contact me as follows:

 

Email:  dtw.mcfarlane@hotmail.co.uk

 

 

Year Picture/Slogan  
1991 Gay Pride
1992 Gay Pride
1993 Gay Pride
1994 Gay Pride
1995 Gay Pride
1996 Gay Pride
1997
1998 Gay Pride
1999 Gay Pride
2000
2001
2002
2003 Gay Pride
2004
2005
2006 Gay Pride
2007 Gay Pride
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

I have two T-Shirts so far which I cannot tie to any year, would anyone have any idea:

  • Gay Pride
  • Gay Pride

Other articles on Pride:

Shaping Peace Together International Day of Peace

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International Day of Peace to celebrate and reflect on Shaping Peace Together – focusing on compassion, kindness and hope.

With inspirational and motivational poems, prayers and music, from the Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum and the 4 Corners Festival representing the diverse faiths and communities across Belfast.  The event will celebrate the progress we have made towards peace and reflect on how we can continue to build a peaceful society.

This International Day of Peace is dedicated to fostering dialogue and collecting ideas and you will have the opportunity to share thoughts on how we can continue to shape peace together.

 

Belfast City Council Event via Zoom

Queeriosity – An Exhibition for Pride 2017

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Queeriosity is one of those little gems that somehow scrape under the radar, which is a pity because it is definitely worth going to see.  The exhibition runs in the Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast, from Thursday 3rd August – 2 September 2017.
The exhibition is over three inter-connecting rooms, with the lead in corridor showing both the introduction poster and also one exhibit, which consists of excerpts from what appears to be children’s notebooks – some very poignant writings.
The gallery items range from paintings, through ceramics, installations, photographs and cover a range of topics including:

  • marriage
  •  how we are labelled within society
  • body shape

There is a notice on the door into the exhibit which says:

“Please be aware that this exhibition contains adult content”

however, I would argue that you would see more in the Victoria and Albert, the Tate or the National Portrait Gallery, and they don’t feel that it is necessary to give a warning. But then this is Northern Ireland, and we have to err on the side of caution.
Queeriosity has works from 21 different artists, which are well presented and lit, with a piece written about the artist and the work beside each work. Again I would say that whether this information works for you or not I feel depends on whether or not you are an artist, have a good knowledge of art and (or) possibly a degree in psychology.
Most of the art works are available for sale, ranging in price from £20 for the wire work figures, up to £2300 for Maria Strzelecka’s ‘Oil on Canvas’. However, my favourites pieces were:

  • Marie Smith’s ‘Jean Jacques’, a bronze figure priced at £1250 Queeriosity

 
 
 
 
 
 
and

  • Caolum McCabe’s ‘Gay 100% HUMAN LABELS ARE FOR CLOTHES’ which is not for sale

 
 
 
 
 
Shauna McCann and Linda Smyth as curators have put together a thoughtful and welcomed addition to Pride Festival in Belfast 2017.

Well done the Crescent Arts Centre


Links:

Roger Casement: Butterflies and Bones review: blood and thunder

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Secrets Of The Black Diaries...Picture Shows: Image order No HK6737 Irish Patriot and British Consular Official Sir Roger Casement (1864 - 1916) is escorted to the gallows of Pentonville Prison, London. TX: BBC FOUR Friday, March 15 2002 Getty Images/Hulton Archives Roger Casement, former British Consul to the Congo, was hanged for treason for his role in Ireland's 1916 Easter Rising. His conviction rested on a set of diaries that suggested he had pursued a highly promiscuous homosexual life. Under the social mores of the day, such a revelation deprived him of all hope of clemency. But were the diaries faked? BBC Four investigates the 85-year-old mystery. WARNING: This Getty Image copyright image may be used only to publicise 'Secrets Of The Black Diaries'. Any other use whatsoever without specific prior approval from 'Getty Images' may result in legal action.

Secrets Of The Black Diaries…Picture Shows: Image order No HK6737 Irish Patriot and British Consular Official Sir Roger Casement (1864 – 1916) is escorted to the gallows of Pentonville Prison, London.
TX: BBC FOUR Friday, March 15 2002
Getty Images/Hulton Archives
Roger Casement, former British Consul to the Congo, was hanged for treason for his role in Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising. His conviction rested on a set of diaries that suggested he had pursued a highly promiscuous homosexual life. Under the social mores of the day, such a revelation deprived him of all hope of clemency. But were the diaries faked? BBC Four investigates the 85-year-old mystery.
WARNING: This Getty Image copyright image may be used only to publicise ‘Secrets Of The Black Diaries’. Any other use whatsoever without specific prior approval from ‘Getty Images’ may result in legal action.


If you’ve never heard of Roger Casement, who was executed by the British for treason 100 years ago today, the reason is as simple as it is sad, he was homosexual. For that reason he was ignored when he was not being written out of our revolutionary history.

Jeffrey Dudgeon, MBE has written two wonderful insightful books into Casement,

and

Aidan Lonergan has written that there are ten things we don’t know about Casement:

  1. His Antrim father fought in Afghanistan
  2. His Anglican mother secretly baptised him as a Catholic
  3. He was looked after by the people of Antrim after his parents died
  4. He exposed one of the bloodiest colonial regimes ever
  5. What he saw changed him
  6. He sought German backing for an Irish rebellion during WWI
  7. Some see him as a gay icon
  8. Arthur Conan Doyle campaigned against his sentence
  9. He converted to Catholicism on the day of his execution
  10. A hundred years on from the Easter Rising, it’s important to remember Casement

However, as with all history, it is open to interpretation, and I know that different camps will have different feelings towards Casement, his impact on Irish history, and on Gay History.
The musical about him was one such attempt, and I hope that if it comes to a theatre near you, you will make an effort to see it and view it through the eyes of someone who is probably far older than he was, and also who has the benefit of a society that is beginning to be accepting of LGBT people.
 

Roger Casement is (again) centre stage, but this time it’s the dance world that’s exploring the many facets of his life

Source: Butterflies and Bones review: blood and thunder

Sex attack on man after robbery in south Belfast

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BBC News Logo
 

A man has been sexually assaulted and robbed in south Belfast.

It happened at Dudley Street, off University Street, early on Friday, 25th September 2015.
A detective said: “It is though that a sum of cash was stolen from a man by two other men. Immediately after the robbery, he was sexually assaulted.”
The officer added: “The man is clearly distressed and we would ask for public support in our efforts to identify the two involved.”
 

Contacts

You can contact the Police Service by telephone, text phone or in writing.

Emergency telephone number

In an emergency dial 999
or 18000 for text phone users
An emergency is where serious injury has been caused or a crime is in progress and the suspects are at or near the scene.

Non-emergency and general enquiries telephone number

101 Non Emergency Number
More information about the PSNI Non Emergecy Telephone Number (PDF)
Callers from outside the UK or within the Republic of Ireland should ring + 44 28 9065 0222

Teenager stripped and beaten in vicious homophobic attack

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By Chris McCullough

PUBLISHED15/08/2015

Appeal: Councillor David Browne

Appeal: Councillor David Browne

Police are on the hunt for two males who subjected a teenager to a brutal homophobic attack on Sunday 9th August 2015.

The incident happened in the Castleton Gardens area of north Belfast near Alexandra Park, but the details were only released on the 15 August 2015.
The PSNI say they are treating the attack as a ‘hate crime’ and have appealed to the public for further information in their search for the attackers.
A PSNI officer said: “A teenage male wearing a black hoodie, blue jeans and red shoes was with three friends when they were approached by two males who told the teenager’s friends to leave.
“The two males then brought the remaining teenage male to an alleyway in the Castleton Gardens area between 12.30am and 1am.
“The suspects stole the teenage male’s bank card and phone and stripped him down to his underwear before violently assaulting him and making off.
“The teenage male walked from Castleton Gardens to the Antrim Road covered in blood.
“He suffered grazes and bruises to his face and arms and was conveyed to the Royal Victoria Hospital.”
Local UUP councillor David Browne – who knows the victim and his family, told the Belfast Telegraph last night: “This was a savage attack on a young man purely because he was gay.
“It’s an absolute disgrace that a gay person cannot walk the streets of Belfast without fear of being attacked.”
Mr Browne added: “I feel that the police and courts need to take very strong action in order to deter attacks of this particularly nasty and vicious kind.
“Anyone convicted of this attack should be going to jail – not just be given a slap on the wrist.”
John O’Doherty of the Rainbow Project, a gay support and advocacy group, said that homophobic incidents in Northern Ireland were very common – and increasing.
“There is still a great deal of homophobia in Northern Ireland society in general, and its existence allows the perpetrators of crimes like these to justify themselves in their own minds.”
He encouraged anyone experiencing homophobic abuse or attacks – whether at their home, in work or on the street – to get in contact with the Rainbow Project on (028) 9031 9030 for guidance and support.

Official figures show that homophobic hate crimes are on the increase in Northern Ireland.

According to PSNI statistics, they have been increasing year on year since 2006/7.

In 2013/14, 280 incidents were recorded by the force – up from 245 in 2012/13 and 200 in 2011/12.

Northern Ireland: 20,000 March In Favour Of Gay Marriage

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Campaigners attend a rally in Belfast to show their support for marriage equality

Campaigners attend a rally in Belfast to show their support for marriage equality

Belfast demo seeks equality for LGBT people

by Mike Hamilton
in Belfast
ABOUT 20,000 gay rights supporters marched through Belfast city centre on Saturday to demand that the legal recognition of same-sex marriage be extended to Northern Ireland.
The protest wound its way through the main shopping district to Belfast City Hall, where a large open-air rally took place.
The action was jointly organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), Amnesty International and the Rainbow Project.
Participants included a wide range of individuals and movements, including LGBT groups, trade unions, charities, human and civil rights organisations, churches, political parties and pressure groups.
The huge turnout surprised even the organisers, who were forced to make repeated calls for participants to use all available space at both sides of the staging to allow thousands more people in to hear from a variety of invited guests.
Among the speakers was ICTU LGBT committee chairman Daire Toner, who said: “I dream one day of getting married, but my dreams are shattered by the laws that govern this state.
“Even if I got married elsewhere, a flight or a train journey would make it invalid.”
Rainbow Project director John O’Doherty added: “The numbers here say it all. We want our voice heard. We need to go out and tell our story, play our part in a new Northern Ireland. They can’t ignore us any more.”
Amnesty International Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan put it simply: “All people are equal — the state should protect all people equally.”
In 2005, while under direct rule by Westminster, Northern Ireland became the first part of the UK to introduce civil partnerships, but since the power-sharing institutions were restored at Stormont, the fight for equality has gone into reverse gear.
The most obvious manifestation of this was an attempt to introduce a “conscience clause” amendment to equality law which would have allowed firms owned by people of faith to discriminate against LGBT customers.
Members of the Northern Irish Assembly proposed motions supporting equality in civil marriage four times in the last parliament.
But, each time, the Democratic Unionist Party blocked it, using a device known as a “petition of concern,” which requires majorities on both the nationalist and unionist benches.
Further links:

 

Russian State Ballet Company of Siberia – The Nutcracker

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I love music in just about any form – jazz, classical, pop, big band, opera, ballet – they all have their place on my music shelf.
I also love the theatre, and the nuances that you pick up from a live performance, and of course opera which combines music and live acting performances.
But until last month, whilst I loved ballet music, and have watched numerous performances on television, I had not been grabbed by ballet.  But this changed.  Last month I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the Russian State Ballet of Siberia’s performance of ‘The Nurcracker’ in the Belfast Opera House.  This is a young but not inexperienced ballet company, who are presently touring the UK with four ballets; The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, La Fille mal gardee, Coppelia.
As I have said, I was lucky enough to see The Nutcracker on Friday night [23 January 2015].  The theatre was packed, indeed I saw one baby their with its parents – and it didn’t cry once.
The sets and costumes by Christina Fyodorova, are bright and well suited to each of the performers and different points of the story.  And Anatoliy Chepurnoy’s conducting of both the orchestra and his interaction with the audience was wonderful.
 

The accompanying booklet is lavish, beautifully produced and covers all four ballets, and is well worth the purchase price.
I am now a convert to live ballet, particularly if it keeps with the very high standard that this ballet company has produced.  I for one will be looking forward to their return – the sooner the better.

Floral Hall – Belfast

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On Wednesday 21, 2015 Linda Stewart wrote in the Belfast Telegraph about the Floral Hall at Bellvue and the campaign to try and save it and restore it to its past glory.  Having read the article, and looked at the Facebook campaign page, with its photos, I got to wondering how many of you remember going to any of the events at the Floral Hall, was there a ‘scene’ , albeit hidden, at the Floral Hall.
Why not write an let us know your memories, and with your permission we will print them
The Floral Hall, was built in the 1930s and was used as a dance hall for many years.
 

Located within the grounds of the zoo is a 1930s art deco ballroom, the Floral Hall. The Hall was popular venue in its time and during the war the Hall had blackouts fitted to the windows so that dances could continue. In the 1960s, the hall was visited by musical artists such as Pink Floyd and Small Faces. The Floral Hall closed to the public on 2 April 1972 and has remained derelict since the outbreak of the Troubles in the 1970s.
During the 1990s the Floral Hall had been given Listed Building Status.
In December 2011 saw the creation of a Facebook page based around sharing old photos of the Floral Hall including interior shots of the hall today, the following year an online petition, addressed to the City Council was created to help raise awareness and to progress with the restoration project of the hall.
With such an iconic building, and the fact that it was a venue for so many different kind of events, I wonder how many of the LGBT community in Ireland, or anywhere for that matter, can remember going to any kind of event.  If you do why not write to us letting us know your memories.

The Gathering – Gay Spiritual Group

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Carols_2014The Gathering, Gay Men’s Spiritual Group, extend a warm invite to you and your friends and family to the annual “Community Christmas Carols by Candlelight” Service, on Thursday 11th December 2014, in All Soul’s Church, Elmwood Avenue, Belfast, BT9 at 7:30pm.
 
We are delighted that Pádraig Ó Tuama has agreed to be our speaker this year.  Pádraig is a Community Leader at Corrymela, a poet and theologian amongst other things and we are looking forward to his sharing with us.
 
The collection this year will be for the DEC Ebola appeal.
 
This is a great way to start the festive season and we warmly welcome all who genuinely want to share with us at this time.  Refreshment will be served afterwards.