History of the Society Part 2;1981:Founding of GaySoc

2.1 Philosoph Debate 29 Nov. 1980

How the idea for the Debate came about
In July 1980 I took up the position of General Secretary [now called President] of UCC Students Union. One of the ideas I had was to split the usual SU Student’s Guide into two publications – a Welfare Booklet and a Handbook in diary format. Denis O’Donoghue, Deputy General Secretary, took responsibility for editing the Welfare Booklet. I asked one of my supports, Denis Lyons, to help put together the Handbook / Diary [Archive item 1.2]

In order to be able to fill the diary dates with events we contacted all the college societies, clubs, administration offices, etc. for details for events. The Philosoph – the debating society, properly The Philosophical Society – was one of these and the Auditor for 1980/81 was Dónal Godfrey, a law student.

I knew Dónal from SU council and when he dropped by my office in early August he brought a draft list of debates for the first term. I agreed to participate in a debate on 14 Nov. “that this house has confidence in the Students Union”. He had a ‘Gay’ debate pencilled in for a fortnight later. When he asked me to also participate in this I said I’d only do so if the motion was ‘for real’ and not the usual liberal wishy/washy ‘we think gays are nice cuddly people etc.’.

Dónal asked me to give an example of a ‘real’ motion and I said: “that this house supports the establishment of a GaySoc”. Dónal said I was on – this would be the motion and I’d have to help get David Norris who had a national profile & a reputation as a sparkling debater to propose it with me.

What happened before the debate took place 1 – The Welfare Booklet
When Denis started to compile the Welfare Booklet he asked me to write the lesbian / gay section – which I did opening with:
“Homosexuality is not a problem – it doesn’t do you any harm and can be lots of fun. Despite this, homosexuality is taboo in women and in men and is believed variously to be sad, odd or kinky. This is where the problem starts and finishes – in the prevailing attitude about what is ‘normal’ sexuality.”

The Welfare Booklet contained much that was daring for the time – practical diagrammatic explanations of human sexuality and contraceptive methods, where to get contraceptives in Cork – as well as guides to eating well, worker’s rights, drugs (legal & illegal), etc. [Archive item 1.3]

In early October the 1,000 copies we proposed to sell of the Welfare Booklet arrived. That same morning Denis attended a meeting with the Dean of Student Affairs, Prof. Seán Teegan. At lunch hour Denis arrived into my office to say Teegan had seen a copy of the publication and forbade its sale. I immediately asked where the booklets were; when Denis said in his office, I told him that if we couldn’t sell them then we’d give them away free! And that’s what we did that afternoon on the Quad – much to the chagrin of the administration.

What happened before the debate took place 2 – The Grad Ball
Another innovation I wanted to introduce was a Grad Ball. Having persuaded the SU executive it was worth the financial risk we went ahead. It was held on Friday 7 Nov in Jury’s Hotel. I attended as both SU Gen Sec and as a graduate myself – having received my BA that summer. As my guest I took my lover Máirtín Mac an Ghoill. It was a great night – the only photograph I have shows Máirtín clearly but I am to his left and my head is cut off – however, the SU Gen Sec’s chain of office is clearly visible on my stomach! [Archive item 1.5]

At the SU executive meeting the following Tuesday I faced a vote of no confidence for “having brought the SU into disrepute”. When this was debated it appeared that my behaviour at the Grad Ball was the issue. Luckily some of the executive were not phased by the prejudice of the movers of the motion and queried what exactly they were talking about. What it my orientation? Of course it couldn’t be – didn’t we have a pro-gay policy? Was it my dancing with my lover – was this lascivious? Of course not – it differed from others on the dance floor only in that my partner was another male. Then one of the advocates of the motion exploded: “but he was wearing the chain of office!!” At this point we collapsed into laughter and the motion fell.

What happened before the debate took place 3 – The Catering Dispute
On 4 Nov I’d called a meeting of students to look at the catering on campus – prices had been increased and services cutback. It was decided to have a boycott of college catering and a week later we occupied the Kampus Kitchen and ran our own alternative catering. [Archive item 4.10]

It was against this background that the Philosoph Debate of 15 Nov took place. The motion was: “that this house has confidence in the Students Union” and I had persuaded Brendan Dorris, then President of Bolton St. SU and a Maoist, to propose the motion. It was suggested that the Philosoph should adjourn its debate to the Kampus Kitchen – when this motion failed Brendan and I led a walkout. We then had a serious political discussion with those who followed us in the occupied Kampus Kitchen.

The Debate
A fortnight later and I was back at the Philosoph to debate “that this house supports the establishment of a GaySoc by the Students Union”. I spoke to move the motion. The opposers were Denis Staunton – who put forward a coherent intellectual argument based on not privilidging minority interests – and someone who argued against from the religious perspective. David Norris was the final speaker – a sparkling performer he had the audience eating out of his hand.

The motion was passed overwhelmingly. I immediately stood up to say that anyone interested in acting on the motion and founding a GaySoc there & then, should follow me to my office. About twenty people did so – which I now feel sure must have been much to my surprise – and the GaySoc was set up there and then.


2.2 Joint Board refusal of recognition Jan 1981

The GaySoc begins campaigning
Of the twenty or so people who formed the GaySoc, the majority were heterosexual. Straight people became involved because they were friends of myself or some of the other gays, because they were already involved in supporting women’s rights and saw thia as part of the same broad agenda for changing Irish society, or because they were idealistic with a social conscience (social science students mostly!).

One of those who was openly gay from the start was Donnacha McCarthy. He was in third Med and his involvement in the GaySoc was his first move towards dealing with being gay. So – as is the way of things – we elected him as chair. We decided we would have to look for recognition for the society but knew we had a tough fight on our hands.

I advocated a confrontational approach – well, I would wouldn’t I? The others however felt we should make links with the other societies – running joint events, etc. – and then try and get liberal support for recognition from as wide a base as possible.

At the word ‘liberal’ I bristled – hating them as half-hearted wimps. Throughout the year there would be a certain tension between myself and the rest of the GaySoc – Donnacha in particular. As the highest profile member and the SU leader I needed to take notice and act in line with the democratic decisions taken about how to proceed – but this was not always easy when my own proposals were rejected.

Recognition proposed & rejected
During the next three months the GaySoc was active and very visible on campus. As we already had SU support for recognition of the society it was decided that we should put it on the agenda of the Joint Board – it would not be possible to get a motion onto the Governing Body without the Joint Board’s approving the proposal to recognise the society.

This was the final item on the agenda for the Joint Board meeting in January 1981. Denis O’Donoghue wrote a report on this meeting for the SU magazine Sage [3rd Issue / Febuaree..’81] and it captures the atmosphere perfectly:

“DISJOINTED BOARD: Joint Board – Farce or Faction?

The Joint Board is comprised of four members of the Administration/Academic Staff of UCC and three student members, nominated by the Students’ Union. The January meeting, which was chaired by the College Registrar, Professor M. Mortell, furthers the view of many of the incidental presence of students on Campus.

Having passed the minutes (tempus bugit), the second item on the agenda was consideration of a list of newspapers and periodicals to be added to the Common Room supply. The students of the Committee were in favour of adding several new titles to broaden the somewhat provincial selection currently available. Those specified were: The Times, Belfast Telegraph, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Private Eye, Gay News, Left Perspectives, Morning Star and Spare Rib. (The Sage?!).

It quickly became evident that a clash of philosophies existed: one arguing for a comprehensive range of titles to cover the deficiencies of the regular press, the other negating the that role for a University but using predominantly the argument of financial constraint, suggesting that if students wanted such publications they could purchase them themselves.

Finally it was agreed to give priority to the addition of the Belfast Telegraph, followed by The Times, then The Guardian and The Telegraph, all contingent on the approval of the Finance Office (“..fumble in a greasy till and add the half pence to the pence?”). Each of the other titles was vetoed, 4 – 3.

…[The next two paragraphs deal with budget allocations and the issue of safety.]

Next was a proposal of the Students’ Union, that of granting provisional recognition to a Gay society in UCC. A copy of the proposed constitution and a further elaboration of its principles was distributed to all the committee members. This stressed the openness of that Society to persons of all sexual persuasions, also its object as being the promotion and/or support of the political, social and legal well being of gay people in UCC and society at large.

The chairperson said he felt the issue had been sufficiently dealt with under item 2, the publication list, the logic of which was questioned by the now entrenched “3”. Speeches in favour of the Gay Society were presented by the student members, including the Societies Officer [Tommy Barker], and there was none against. A vote was taken and the proposal was rejected, 4 – 3.

Released shortly after into the fresh air of the Quad, I noticed a small terrier on the grass running around and around in circles, around and around.” [Archive item 1.4a]

After the Rejection
The GaySoc continued its activities right up to the end of the academic year but like everything else in student life it fell under the shadow of exams and future life once Easter had passed. [Archive item 1.4b]

Immediately after news of the Joint Board decision came out I was contacted by a journalist from the Sunday Tribune who wanted to do a story about it. She came to my office with a photographer and ten members of the GaySoc agreed to be in the picture with me. It was published together with a piece headed Gays accuse UCC on 15 Feb 1981. [Archive item 1.1]

“UCC College authorities have been accused of discrimination and prejudice following the refusal of the Joint Board to recognise a newly established Gay Society in the college……

There has been speedy reaction from students to the controversial refusal. Many societies within the college have passed motions of censure on the joint board, while the students’ union association and executive has offered financial support and the use of facilities to the gays.

Charles Kerrigan, General Secretary of the Students’ Union and himself a gay, feels that it is very important that the society be recognised in College. ‘You would imagine that in a third level institution of education there would be a high level of tolerance towards gay people and an awareness of the need of gay students but this is not so. The fear of being labelled gay is great and while there may be some level of tolerance the concept is still unacceptable.’

A spokesman for college authorities said that they do not always give recognition to applicants [sic] from societies, and the joint board did not consider it necessary to grant the application at this time.”

In December 1980 I was involved in setting up Students Against H-Block / Armagh. Around the same time Mairtín and I founded Gays Against H-Block / Armagh. Within USI I was aligned with a broad coalition of large & small colleges with differing political outlooks who succeeded in breaking the hold of Sinn Féin The Workers Party [“Stickies”] supporters on the student movement. At the AGM in January 1981 our candidates won a complete sweep of the officer positions.
[Archive items 1.4c; 1.4d; 1.6.2]

On the 21 February 1981 while I was absent at a meeting in Dublin Mairtín and my flat was raided by the Special Branch (political police). They arrested Maitín on an absurd charge and held him for over four hours during which time he was physically assaulted. Regrettably this was typical of the sort of harassment of political activists of the time. In May Mairtín and I attended the funeral of Bobby Sands – on my return I was once again the object of another failed motion of censure at SU executive. [Archive item 1.6.3a-e]

A year later I was living in Dublin but kept in touch on my visits back to Cork. In spring 1982 I met up with a couple of the women who’d appeared in the Sunday Tribune photo and they berated me for not warning them for what they were letting themselves in for. They said that the reality of such a photo being seen by their extended family, neighbours, etc. had only hit home over time. No one would believe their declaration of their heterosexuality; even a year later they were being subjected to anti-gay abuse in college and outside.

Looking back a quarter of a century later, recalling that conversation only serves for me to bring home forcefully how much courage all those involved in founding the GaySoc displayed.

2.3 Background: Growing up gay in Cork 1971-81 - Cathal Kerrigan’s Story

“And I swear now that freedom is here…
…those of us who have nothing to fear
We’re going to make damn sure it was worth it!”
George Michael “My Mother Had a Brother”

Growing up in Cork in the 50s and 60s was joyful – a safe, secure though controlling society. All that changed in 1971 when at the age of sixteen I put a name on the growing awareness that I was different to my (school) friends: homosexual.

While I was a bookworm and came from a very politically aware and progressive background – my father was a Labour Party local councillor, senator and ,later, TD – I could see no life possible for myself. The only association the word had for me was with a bad taste joke in a TV comedy of the time called “Are You Being Served?”

So in the autumn of 1973 I insisted my GP arrange for me to see a psychiatrist; for ten weeks I was an out-patient at Sarsfields Court. My father was Lord Mayor that year and was horrified where I was going (though not why – I just said I was ‘depressed’). Luckily there was a progressive regime there – I was not given drugs but counselled. I left with the conviction that there was nothing wrong with me but rather with society.

In 1974 I had a job as a clerk with the Southern Health Board. That summer the SundayWorld was launched as a taboo-breaking paper and it covered the founding of the Irish Gay Rights Movement [IGRM] in Dublin. By this time I still had not met another gay person and this news electrified me! I immediately made contact and through them was put in touch with local gays.

The scene at the time was very limited. Most people lived with their parents; those with their own place were the nucleus of a party scene. There was a tiny surreptitious bar scene; most sexual contacts were made in the public toilets – relationships were rare. In an effort to be helpful to a novice a couple of the guys decided to ‘show me the ropes’. We came out of the Imperial Hotel Bar and walked up together to the public toilet located at the junction with Grand Parade; then I watched as they cruised and had sex in a cubicle. I was shocked and repelled; I determined this not for me – I was going to create a better life than this for myself.

Meanwhile I had become aware of the international Gay Liberation Movement – I subscribed to Gay News, Gay Sunshine and Fag Rag; I read Denis Altman’s “Homosexual Oppression & Liberation” in ecstasy. Many of my new gay friends found me ‘too political’; they warned that things ‘are bad now but would become much worse if we become visible’.

As my confidence grew I decided to tell my family about being gay. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm ran away with me and when the whole family – myself as eldest together with my two sisters and brother - sat down to dinner one evening I literally said: “I have something to tell you – I’m gay”. Needless to say this caused consternation and tension. I decided to move out of home and took a bedsit in Sunday’s Well.

In 1975 Sean Connolly came down from Dublin to help set up a branch of IGRM in Cork; at a meeting in the Imperial Hotel a committee was formed. And at the age of twenty, I went back to see the book collection of one of the more suave members of the committee and – finally! – lost my virginity.

After some fitful stops and starts – trying to meet in pubs, holding cheese ‘n’ wine dos in bedsits – we were able to open a disco/club at 4 McCurtain Street. We invited the Garda in from the station across the road to reassure them there were no drugs or fornication on the premises! But once word spread that the place wouldn’t be raided by the guards or burned down by an angry mob, it was a roaring success and began the transformation of gay life in Cork.

In 1977 the proverbial split took place in IGRM. I found myself in a minority of one on the committee and so resigned. I moved back home and concentrated instead on my education – re-sitting the Leaving Cert and going on to study Arts at UCC. There I had my first major relationship with a fellow English Lit student. He was welcomed into the family home and stayed over occasionally; it meant a lot to me to get this acceptance and endorsement from my family.

In July 1979 my father died of cancer at fifty-one. Back at college that autumn I helped form a social gay group. We met in the house of a lecturer I was having an affair with at the time. Our second or third get together there was great excitement as an openly gay man had started working in the restaurant and he was coming along. Laurie Steele was a tall blond blue-eyed tanned Australian in his mid-twenties who looked like he’s stepped off the set of “Neighbours”.

He brought his lover – Arthur Leahy - with him; Arthur was slightly older and had the intense air of a cult leader. He shook up the cosy atmosphere by declaring half-way through the night that the Cork gay scene deserved more from college than “a knitting circle”! He went on to propose a radical activist group.

While this was too much for most of the others, it was music to my ears. A fortnight later Arthur, Laurie, Kieran Rose, Tony, and myself set up the Cork Gay Collective. One of our first actions was to lobby the ICTU Annual Conference by distributing leaflets calling for trade union support for gay rights to delegates as they entered City Hall. In 1981 we organized the first ever National Gay Conference which was held in Connolly Hall; the papers from the workshops at this conference basically set out the agenda for gay activism for the next two decades.

In 1980 I was elected President of the Students Union at UCC. I initiated the Graduate’s Ball which was first held that September; I attended with my then lover, Mairtín Mac an Ghoill. This led to an attempt by some members of the executive to censure me for ‘disgracing’ the union – however, I defeated this challenge.

That autumn the college debating society had a motion in support of founding a gaysoc in UCC; David Norris and I were invited to speak in favour. We won overwhelmingly and the first UCC Gay Society was set up there and then. While we had the support of our fellow students, the college authorities refused outright to recognize the GaySoc and our campaigns for recognition failed. A few years later the GaySoc folded but in the late 1980’s a new GaySoc was formed and gained immediate recognition; it still thrives to this day!

When my term of office finished in June 1981, Mairtín and I moved to Dublin where – well, sin scéal eile!