Orla Egan’s graphic memoir recalls activist days in Cork
Orla Egan, Diary of an Activist
Cork social activist Orla Egan has created a record of the left-wing movement in the city during the 80s in an attractive illustrated graphic memoir, Diary of An Activist, published by Cork City Libraries.
Egan, the youngest of six, became a vegetarian at the age of twelve, influenced by a sibling. Also at that young age in 1978, she joined the Irish Anti Nuclear Movement in response to government plans to build a nuclear power plant at Carnsore Point in Co Wexford.
She travelled to Carnsore Point in a van for a protest concert - dubbed Ireland’s Woodstock - with Adi Roche and Sean Dunne, where the likes of Christy Moore played.
Egan’s early introduction to activism was all about looking at the world in a different way. “I suppose it was that sense of seeing that things could be done differently and wanting to engage in that.”
She has been involved in LGBT rights for years as well as campaigns for reproductive justice for women. The 1980s were a particularly grim time for Irish women with the death of 15-year-old Ann Lovett in childbirth, the Kerry Babies scandal, the sacking of teacher Eileen Flynn for becoming pregnant outside of marriage, etc.
There was also existential worry. Whereas today’s teenagers live with the fear of climate catastrophe, Egan says that when she was in her teens, the threat of nuclear war hung over her generation.
Her teenage ‘hub’ was the Quay Co-Op, a centre for activism in the 1980s.
"It opened me up to so many different ways of being in the world, very different to the mainstream,” says Egan.
Egan’s book describes getting political messages out there in an era before social media.
“Now, it’s easier to get the message out. There’s a big contrast from when I was a teenage activist to today’s activists. That’s part of what I wanted to show in the book. We didn’t have access to landlines, not to mind mobile phones.
"How you communicated wasn’t like putting a message on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram like you do now.
"We had to design leaflets by hand and crank them out of a gestetner machine. We made badges.
"When it came to newsletters, we’re now so used to the instant thing sitting at a computer. In the '80s, it could take an entire weekend to produce a newsletter. But it was fabulous, very much hands-on. We’d stay together for the weekend, eat together and work. I recall those weekends as really positive experiences.
"Activism back then was more challenging in some ways and also more rewarding.”
At the age of 16, Egan came out to herself as lesbian. She has two sisters who are also gay. Coming out to her parents was a big deal.
“I think I got lucky with my parents. They were very Catholic but I think they were the best of that, that approach of doing the best you can in society, being fair and treating others as you would want to be treated. My parents have always been very supportive of me and the work I do.”
Egan has a degree in European Studies from UCC, a Masters in women’s studies and a Masters in digital arts and humanities. She is the founder and director of the Cork LGBT archive and leads walking tours in the city relating to the archive.
The core of the archive is the collection of Arthur Leahy (stalwart of the Quay Co-Op) which he has been gathering since the 1970s. The physical archive is in the public museum in Fitzgerald’s Park and there is also a digital archive with the Digital Repository of Ireland.
Egan, who has made a couple of films about LGBT Cork, has always been trying to “animate” the archive, bringing it to life in an accessible way.
Determined to be a parent, despite suffering miscarriages, Egan says that her 17-year old child Jacob-Lily gets roped in to do work on the archive and is great at providing technical support.
Asked what is the highlight of her years of activism, Egan says: “What comes to mind is the sense of community from being in the backroom of Loafers [the former gay bar on Douglas Street].
"That was really important because society in the '80s was very homophobic. Loafers was like entering a different world. It gave you the energy and resilience to deal with all the challenges.”
- Diary of An Activist (with illustrations by Megan Luddy O’Leary) can be ordered from www.diaryofanactivist.com
