Philippa Ryder: My tale of transition is a love story

Born in Dublin in the 1960s when there was little knowledge of transgender issues, it took decades before Philippa Ryder began to transition. In the meantime, she had married and had a daughter. Her new memoir charts her incredible journey 

Philippa Ryder’s memoir, My Name is Philippa, is published by Mercier Press.

Philippa Ryder began her life with a different name and, to the outside world, as a different gender.

Born in the 1960s, Ryder grew up in a time when the word transgender hadn’t entered the vernacular. It would be another 38 years before the Dubliner discovered a chat forum for gay men, lesbians, and transvestites and began her journey to who she was born to be.