Podcast Corner: Threading the tales of older gay people in Ireland
Eilish O’Carroll of Mrs Brown's Boys is one of the participants in the Invisible Threads podcast. Picture: Dan Linehan
In the eight-episode series Invisible Threads, James O’Hagan, a co-ordinator with LGBT Ireland’s champions training programme, talks to older members of the community about their life experiences. Some names might be known, like Eilish O’Carroll, sister to Brendan and who plays Winnie McGoogan in Mrs Brown’s Boys; and Louise Hannon, a transgender woman from Belfast who used the Employment Equality Act against an employer on the grounds of gender discrimination.
But mostly these are ordinary people who are retired or on the cusp of retiring, reflecting on their lives. What emerges is a familiar, recurring theme of oppression, of having to keep their identity under wraps for years for fear of what Irish society might think. Hopefully things have all changed for the better - but we mustn’t forget these stories which paved the way.
