Homosexuality was decriminalised here 15 years ago. Do gay rugby teams and pride marches prove that things have come a long way or do they mask underlying problems? asks Carl O'Brien
THERE WAS one grimy gay bar with blacked out windows. Copies of Gay Community News (GCN) - then a black and white newsletter - were delivered around town in brown paper envelopes in order to avoid attention. Dublin's only gay resource centre, the Hirschfeld Centre, had been burned down a few years earlier after a series of homophobic attacks.
"Everything was so underground and hidden," recalls Brian Finnegan, who had just returned home from living in London in 1993, and is now editor of GCN. "It felt strange and fearful to be gay in Dublin. It was barren compared to the booming gay scene across the water in London. There was also a difference in the way people were with each other: because the community was so close-knit and intimate, it was very mutually supportive."
Few knew it at the time, but the ground was about to shift suddenly for the gay community in Ireland. Through the decriminalisation of homosexual acts in 1993, followed by equality laws which prohibit discrimination against gays or lesbians and plans to introduce civil unions for same-sex couples, the community was suddenly catapulted from the margins and into the mainstream.
Whoever thought high-camp TV hosts would dominate prime-time television, or that all political parties in the Dáil would be seeking to woo the pink vote or that his-and-his wedding lists would become all the rage?
Take a look around this weekend and the blurry transformation is plain to see: almost 1,000 rugby players have arrived into the city for the Gay Rugby World Cup being held in Dublin City University. Next week, drag queens will click clack their way through the capital's streets as part of one of the country's biggest-ever gay pride festivals.
So much has changed. And yet, despite the confident gay scene, the sense of fear and reserve that used to dominate the gay community still persists, especially outside the capital. There is a sense that many in Dublin live in a self-contained balloon of acceptance, tethered only loosely to the reality on the ground.
"It's fair to say that beneath the glossy surface things are not as progressive as we'd like them to be," says Finnegan. "The strides we've made have been huge - I still can't get my head around a gay pride festival in Sligo, for example - but it can be very difficult for some people to be out, whether that's in more rural areas or in the workplace."
Research commissioned by Gay Community News suggests that as many as half of gay people are not 'out' in their workplace. Other reports indicate that those who are not open about their sexuality are statistically more likely to suffer from mental health problems and are at greater risk of alcoholism or drug abuse.
Many look to politics as a barometer for society's attitude to the gay community: if people are willing to elect gay public representatives, then surely society has moved on to a new level of acceptance about homosexuality? The results don't look encouraging. There are still no openly gay TDs in the Dáil. Of the five openly gay candidates who contested the last general election, none were elected.
Labour's Dominic Hannigan (41) came closest to being elected, missing out on the last seat by around 500 votes in Meath East. He is now a member of the Seanad.
He maintains his sexuality didn't affect his level of support in the election, reasoning that anyone who would vote against him on that basis would be unlikely to vote Labour in the first place.
"People have been 95 per cent positive. There was one particularly nasty letter to a local paper, but they had over two pages in the next issue with letters supporting me," Hannigan says.
"I think society has moved on from having issues with people's sexuality. The electorate are far more concerned with things like the economy and anti-social behaviour."
Although he was 'out' among family and friends for more than a decade, his participation in the 2006 gay pride festival was a deliberate decision to show that he had nothing to hide.
"It was a major step, although it wasn't half as difficult a some people might imagine. I didn't lose a wink of sleep over it. We'd heard some people were going to try and use it against me, politically. I felt it was better to control it by coming out, rather than others forcing me."
Sport, too, is a domain where few players are openly gay. In the English Premier League, for example, there are no openly gay players. In the US, the recently retired John Amaechi is the only openly-gay player in the history of the National Basketball Association.
Nick Costello (38), one of the founders of the Emerald Warriors rugby team and an organiser of the Gay Rugby World Cup in Ireland, says it's perfectly understandable why players might not want to be 'out'.
"With rugby, it's an all-male environment, you're intimate with your team-mates, you're naked with all these people," he says. "In that environment the act of coming out can be admitting a deception, or there might be a fear of betrayal. You don't know how people will react," he says.
"If you are going to, you need to be a strong character. There are a lot of players taking part in the tournament this weekend who are openly gay and play for mainstream teams in their home countries.
"It's up to an individual at the end of the day - but the nature of team sport can make it more difficult." Costello says most people on the Emerald Warriors rugby team, which competes weekly in the Leinster rugby league, is made up of players who shied away from aspects of the macho rugby culture in their later teens and moved on to more solitary sports.
"But they've come back to rugby because it's a fraternal environment where they feel safe. It's a sporting environment, not a sexual one.
"We don't all want to have drugs, dance and have sex - this is gay rugby with a small 'g' and a big 'r'."
Even with changing attitudes among younger generations, schools are still one of the toughest environments for gay people to come out in.
Michael Barron, the founder of Belong To, a Dublin-based support group for lesbian, gay and transgendered young people, says homophobic bullying in schools remains a major obstacle. However, he remains upbeat given the progress he's seen over the last decade or so.
"Things are definitely better for young people. Yes, there is a lot of bullying, but 15 years ago it was absolutely invisible. Now, there are awareness campaigns. Schools and boards of management are dealing with the issue," he says.
"The big difference is that younger people are more confident. At our group people are coming to us at a younger age. Five years ago, they tended to be between 17 and 19. Now, we see a lot coming from 14 years upwards."
He says it can be much more difficult for teenagers outside Dublin, with some young people travelling very long distances to go the centre on the weekend, "just so they can be themselves for a few hours".
For teachers, too, it can still be very difficult. Not least because the employment equality Acts which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexuality have an exemption with regard to the religious ethos of schools.
But some of the most positive change has come about in the corporate world where many of the biggest and most successful firms see diversity as playing a key role in creating a positive work environment. Furthermore, research by academics in the US indicates that companies which are open and accept gay people are more creative and better able to generate innovation and increase economic growth.
The campaign for equality for gays and lesbians has also been characterised in positive and constructive tones. Groups such as the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen), the main lobby group for the gay community, see themselves as active participants in creating a successful Ireland, rather than managing the marginalisation of gay people.
The organisation's managing director Brian Sheehan says the changes of the past 15 years have been immensely positive, even if much work remains to be done in areas such as marriage and adoption if the gay community is to achieve full equality.
"We've seen such dramatic changes. For example, every major political party in the last election was in favour of recognising same-sex relationships in law, which was unprecedented," Sheehan says.
"Ultimately, we're aiming for a society where being lesbian or gay is unremarkable, where it is possible to be openly gay and be elected to the highest office and achieve success in any field; where young people can come to terms with their sexuality and have all the support they require from their parents, siblings, friends, school and society at large. And where a lesbian or gay couple bringing up a child is unexceptional."