Abstract
Through a case-based analysis of gay youth organising in Ireland, this chapter broadens the current legalistic narrative of Irish gay history by repositioning gay Irish youths into national and gay Irish history. Focusing on Ireland’s first gay youth organisation, the NGF Gay Youth Group, McDonagh and Kerrigan argue that political action and mobilisation were not the only factors in bringing about both institutional and cultural change. Instead, we maintain that social events within gay youth subcultures, often characterised as apolitical and inconsequential, were also engines of social transformation. We further contend that heterosexual allies, specifically parents of gay youths, were central to the gay Irish youth movement, specifically around platforming gay youth issues in the Irish media and lobbying for institutional change.
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McDonagh, P.J., Kerrigan, P. (2021). “Cherishing All the Children of the Nation Equally”: Gay Youth Organisation and Activism in Ireland. In: Marshall, D. (eds) Queer Youth Histories. Genders and Sexualities in History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56550-1_6
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