The first detailed account of early gay and lesbian activism in the Republic of Ireland from 1973 to 1993.

This thematically-arranged study traces the emergence of visible gay and lesbian communities across the Republic of Ireland and their impact on public perceptions of homosexuality. Along the way it explores the critical and hidden activism of lesbian women, the role of rural provincial activists, the importance of interactions with international gay and lesbian organisations and the extent to which HIV and AIDS impacted the gay rights campaign.

Gay and Lesbian Activism in the Republic of Ireland, 1973-93 focuses in particular on activists’ efforts to engage with the different religious organisations in Ireland, the Trade Union movement, Irish political parties and the media, and how these efforts in turn shaped the strategies and activities of gay and lesbian organisations. McDonagh argues that gay and lesbian activists mounted an effective campaign to improve both the legal and social climate for Ireland’s gay and lesbian citizens. In doing so, gay and lesbian individuals were important agents of social and political change in the Republic of Ireland in the period from the 1970s to the early 1990s, particularly in relation to Irish sexual mores. The book also helps to contextualise the changes in perceptions of homosexuality that have taken place in recent years and encourages scholars of Irish history to further explore the contribution of Ireland’s LGBTQ+ community in transforming Irish society in the 20th and 21st centuries.

"Gay and Lesbian Activism in the Republic of Ireland, 1973–93 is undoubtedly a valuable contribution to our field of knowledge in modern Irish history." - American Historical Review

"McDonagh’s important and elegantly-written monograph … is an enormously important contribution to the historiography of activism, sexuality and LGBT rights in Ireland and a model of how this work should be done. … It will be the key work on this topic for a long time to come and hopefully an important springboard and model for further avenues of research in this area." - Women's History Association of Ireland

"This is an ambitious, original and impressive book that does justice to the multitude of layers – many of which have previously been overlooked – of the Irish Gay Rights Movement." - Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History, University College Dublin, Ireland

"This detailed history of the early days of the Irish lesbian and gay movement provides critical background and context for anyone wanting to understand the backstory behind the seemingly quick shift from decriminalization of consensual sexual relations to same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland." - Mary Bernstein, Professor of Sociology, University of Connecticut, USA

"This publication will be rightly regarded as an important moment in the development of Irish queer history...McDonagh’s work will be a reliable foundation on which future histories of this period will be written...In McDonagh, the era and its activists have found a highly capable historian." - Journal of the History of Sexuality