Cork's LGBTIQ+ awareness week launch hears there can be no room for complacency

Rainbow flags were hoisted above Cork City Hall on Monday evening

Mon, 16 May, 2022 - 20:30

Eoin English

There is no room for complacency when it comes to fighting for and upholding gay and trans rights, guests attending the launch of Cork’s LGBTIQ+ awareness week have been told.

Tackling homophobia and transphobia remains a responsibility for all of us, Lord Mayor Colm Kelleher said, as rainbow flags were hoisted above Cork City Hall on Monday evening.

Members from St Vincent's GAA Club with Siobhan O'Dowd, Kate Moynihan, Terence MacSwiney, and Cllr Tony Fitzgerald, at St Vincent's GAA Club, Kilmore Road, Cork. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

The launch also featured a special tribute to the late Tony Power, the Cork City Council official who was a champion of those on the margins and a powerhouse of social inclusion in Cork City, and who died last July.

Mr Power, who worked in the council’s social inclusion unit, worked with migrants, minority groups, and the marginalised to give them a voice and a platform, and was instrumental in the decision in 2014 which led to Cork becoming the first city in Ireland to fly the Pride flag from a public building.

Chief Executive Cork ETB, Denis Leamy; Director of Organisation Support and Development Cork ETB, Suzanne Mullins; Director of Schools Cork ETB, Pat McElvey; Director of Organisation Support and Development Cork ETB, Enda McWeeney; BTEI Coordinator Cork ETB & Cork ETB Representative on LGBTI+ Interagency Committee, Elaine Cronin, and Director of Further Education Cork ETB, John Fitzgibbons, at the Cork ETB LGBTI+ Awareness Week 2022, with the Rainbow Flag, at Cork ETB Head Office, Lavitt's Quay, Cork. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

As part of this week’s event, there will be ceremonial raisings of Pride flags across the city and county on Tuesday, including at County Hall, led by Mayor of Cork, Gillian Coughlan, at the Naval Base in Haulbowline, at Cork ETB’s main office, at Youghal Urban Municipal Council offices, at the city’s central library, at various HSE buildings and at St Finbarr’s GAA Club.

Mr Kelleher said while enormous progress has been made in terms of awareness, understanding and rights in recent years, he sounded a note of caution.

“In earlier years we celebrated the enormous progress made to enshrine LBGTI+ rights, but more recently in examples from across the world and closer to home, we have seen how there are no guarantees that this progress will continue and many hard won rights are instead being eroded,” he said.

This highlights how important it is to work collectively and collaboratively on LGBTIQ+ issues because combatting homophobia and transphobia is a responsibility for all of us — the city, our council and public agencies, our communities and LGBTI NGOs and every single one of us.”

This year’s awareness week coincides with International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT), and will feature talks, seminars and public events on the theme of ‘our bodies, our lives, our rights’.

There will be a strong international dimension, with contributions to talks on Wednesday from the San Francisco mayor’s office for transgender initiatives, and from Manuel Rosas Vazquez, the co-ordinator of the Rainbow Cities Network, and contributions to a seminar that evening on combating homophobia, transphobia and biphobia featuring panelists from Washington DC.

Ian O'Connor; chairperson, Thomas Gould; PRO, Mick Nugent; and treasurer, Kenneth Collins at St Vincent's GAA Club with the Intersectional Pride Flag. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

The Lord Mayor will host a ‘rainbow picnic’ in the People’s Park at 2.15pm on Saturday, featuring music from the Barrack Street Band, the Shandon Ukuleles, and the Cork Academy of Music.

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