Blog: From Silence to Voice - Growing up Gay in 1980s and 90s Ireland

It's Pride Month - including for the BIAZA community. In this blog, Kevin Smith (Emerald Park Discovery & Learning Team) offers insight into the progress in Ireland, and the continuing challenges. 

The 1980s in Ireland were a unique time and sometimes a bewildering place to grow up; the lines between church and state were blurred at best. But even back then, there were very subtle signs of change, a new dawn was breaking for the people of Ireland, both Gay and Straight.

Interestingly, it was two sporting events, the European Championship in 1988 and the World Cup in 1990, that broadened the minds of the Irish youth and also introduced Ireland's sense of humour to a worldwide audience, it emboldened us to believe, to believe that we belonged, think that we had an important contribution to make to the world and this in turn emboldened the LGBTQ+ community at home to find their voice, that we mattered, we belonged, and deserved the right to exist on an equal basis with our Straight brothers and sisters.

While you can argue that St Patrick’s Day was around long before that, Global Greening only started in 2010, and until 2014, LGBTQ+ groups were banned from participating in the Parade in New York City! Staten Island only lifted the Ban this year!!!! It was also a criminal offence to be Gay in Ireland until 1993.

Before we celebrate the “mood swing” of an entire nation, we need to acknowledge the dark, dark days of our collective past, and, we can do that without dwelling on them, the fear, the isolation, nowhere to turn for help, HIV/AIDS, stigma, sexual confusion, none of it was easy and, in many cases it is still not easy for younger teenagers to come to terms with their sexuality, we should all be mindful of this.

December 3rd 1990, Mary Robinson, became President of Ireland, a new dawn was breaking, as far back as 1967 she was campaigning for equal rights for Gay and Lesbian citizens, in 1992 she invited members of an LGBTQ+ activist group to the official residence of the President of Ireland, becoming the first head of state to do so, and in 1993 signed into law an Act that decriminalised Homosexuality.

The youth and the older generations of our community could feel the change; the emotion within our community was tangible. 2011 saw civil partnerships become legal, but we were not finished yet. 2015 saw a national vote to legalise Gay marriage with all the same rights as our brothers and sisters in the straight community. My family in their entirety voted yes, my father, while channelling Tommy Tiernan, the Comedian, stated that it wasn’t fair, and that I should be as miserable as he was. He was joking, of course. I am lucky I still have both of them alive, and this year, in April, they celebrated 64 years of marriage; it cannot have been that bad!

How did you end up working in Emerald Park? I hear you say. Well, the answer is simple. During my teenage years, when things were dark, we vowed not to dwell on that. There was always one constant in my life: the unconditional love that my dogs offered me. The comfort, the company, the confidant that they all became. Their unwavering faithfulness to me, engrained a deep passion for all animals so when my business failed during Covid, I spent a year doing nothing, and sort of fell into a mild depression, my partner told me to get up off my backside and get out of the house, so I enrolled in an Animal Welfare Course in our local Institute for Further Education The single best decision that I have ever made, from the first day I walked through the door, as the oldest in the class I have never looked back, accepted by my younger classmates, included in every social event, a new found purpose a new meaning to life and a renewal of my passion for animals.

So in a way, animals saved me….twice.

I love the work I am doing now, from controlling the visitors in Lemur Woods, engaging with guests to impart my knowledge of the animals we share the zoo with, or indeed spending a few hours in Bio-Facts, no two days are the same and just like college, accepted and welcomed by my colleagues in the park. If ever a name was perfect for a park, it is Emerald, because that is what it is —a rare Gemstone, a Gem of a place to be included in, a rare ecosystem as diverse as a tropical rainforest and as inclusive as a coral reef. Where everything from staff, grounds, attractions and experiences all combine to provide an energy that we all feed off each day to provide the best customer experience we can, a dynamic that has been carefully sculptured over the years by the man with a vision.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the brave, sometimes solo voices of the 1980s and 1990s who stood out and shone, like another rare gemstone

Mary McAleese, Thom McGinty, David Norris, Jonie Crone and many others.

- Kevin Smith (Emerald Park Discovery & Learning Team)

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not necessarily a reflection of BIAZA's positions