The Harry Potter Alliance

LGBTQ Rights in Ireland

This month, the HPA is fighting the Bullying horcrux. I’m from Ireland, and here, bullying based on one’s sexuality is unfortunately common. The laws surrounding LGBTQ rights in Ireland are a long, complicated story.

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, an Irish playwright, poet, and novelist, was prosecuted in 1895 for “gross indecency” with two men. This means that he was prosecuted for being gay. As punishment, he was sentenced to two years hard labour. After his sentence was completed, he left Ireland to go to France. He died impoverished in Paris a few years later, at age 46.

Oscar Wilde’s trial was the first well known prosecution in Ireland for being gay. After his prosecution, the “issue” died down for a while, mostly due to World War I, the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War. But, once the whole “we’re a republic,” “no, you’re not” thing had died down, the Irish Government got down to writing a Constitution. They requested the help of the Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, to write the document, and as such the document was distinctly conservative. The Constitution outlawed homosexuality, divorce, contraception, abortion and more. In fact, neither was contraception available to non-married couples nor divorce allowed until the 1990s.

The law against homosexuality was enforced strongly. There are no public records, but it’s believed upwards of 100 men were arrested on these charges, including (the former) Sir Roger Casement. His trial meant his knighthood was taken away from him. After about the 1970s, however, the law was almost ignored, except in cases where the Catholic church got involved.

In 1983, David Norris took the Irish Attorney General to the High Court to try repeal the law against homosexuality, saying that it infringed on his civil rights to consensually be with a man. The High Court and the Supreme Court decided that the law was constitutional. But that didn’t stop him.

After battling to get the case, David Norris took it to the European Court of Human Rights (Norris v. Ireland, 1988). The European Court of Human Rights agreed that the law was against human rights, so Ireland had to repeal it.

So, while Ireland has a terrible record with LGBTQ rights, it’s improving. And guess what? In 1987, David Norris ran for election to the Seanad Éireann in the University of Dublin constituency. He was elected as the first (and, so far, only) publicly elected openly gay politician. He’s the Irish Harvey Milk! But his ambitions haven’t stopped there. In Ireland, gay marriage and adoption by gay couples are illegal, and there’s still a lot of prejuidice amongst Irish people towards LGBTQ people. David Norris is standing for President in the elections in November this year. If he is successfully nominated, he will be the first-ever openly gay candidate and, if elected, the first openly gay president in the world.

I think the message of David Norris’s struggle against Irish prejuidices is amazing. He is an inspiring man, a Joycean scholar, and he isn’t afraid to walk around proudly in the northern inner city where he lives–where I live, and it’s not an amazing place, if I’m honest. He’s an inspiration for many people.

For further information, you could try reading one of the many biographies of Oscar Wilde, or read this online article. Stephen Fry, the narrator of the British Harry Potter audiobooks, played Oscar Wilde in the biographical film Wilde, although because the film is rated R in the US and 15 in the UK, we recommend it to adults. You can also visit David Norris’s official website here. For more information on LGBTQ rights in Ireland, visit MarriageEquality.ie or the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network.