Month: September 2010

Thank you, President Mary McAleese

The President of Ireland has turned down an invitation to be the Grand Marshal at the 250th St. Patrick’s Day march in NYC, because gays can’t march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade there.

I love this woman.

President Mary McAleese declines St. Patrick’s Day NYC Grand Marshal invite

Irish President Mary McAleese has turned down an invitation to be grand marshal of the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade in 2011, the historic 250th anniversary of the event.

The turn down is said to be connected to the issue of gays being refused the right to march in the parade under their own banners, and McAleese’s strong relationship with gay and lesbian organizations in Ireland.

As she will also be in the last year of her term in 2011, officials in the president’s office were reluctant to become embroiled in a major controversy about her taking part in the parade which has excluded gay organizations for over 20 years.

[…]

Despite a reputation as a conservative Catholic when she took office, McAleese has become a firm advocate for marginalized groups in Irish societies including gay groups.

She is very popular with such groups and was risking putting one of the signature accomplishments of her presidency at risk if she accepted the New York invite to lead the parade.

“This was a no win for McAleese,” said one official.

“Becoming embroiled in a huge controversy on Fifth Avenue on St. Patrick’s Day with gay groups protesting her presence is not what her legacy is all about.”

I still get goosebumps when I re-read the speech she gave to a forum of LGBT youth and youth workers working with LGBT teenagers that was held here in Galway back in October ’08, and had lgbt teenagers from all over Ireland attending it.

This is my favourite part of that speech:

The job that you are doing is about the business of creating a better world. An open world, a world free of homophobic bullying and bias. A world where people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, at whatever time of their lives they discover that about themselves that they can feel, ‘So what? So what? That’s the world. I live in a world where that’s everyday. Where nobody passes a remark on it. Nobody comments. This is how life is.’ I feel very strongly that what you are doing is such an important step by step by step growth, helping not just yourselves but actually at a much bigger level, helping all of us as community, as society, as Mums, dads, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, colleagues to one another to be a loving caring community. You’re helping us to grow and to go that journey.
So, thank you for your courage and thank you for going that journey and thank you in particular for growing that journey. Go raibh mile maith agat.

– President Mary McAleese. October 2008

It still brings tears of pride to my eyes. <3 The full speech is equally fantastic. A lot of the youth in attendance were a bit glassy-eyed before her speech, as they'd been listening to a lot of speeches already. But they were all so rapt and engaged by her. She didn't speak about them, she spoke to them and she really has a fantastic understanding of what life is like for an LGBT person, so it's completely understandable that she would take the stance that she has regarding the NYC Paddy's day parade, and I applaud her, and thank her deeply for it.

IQ – IndieQueer club night

From September 16th, Thursdays and Saturdays in the top floor of Dignity West will be taken over by my club night: IQ [IndieQueer], a club night aimed at playing music that you don’t get to hear in the usual gay clubs here in Galway.

Keep up to date on the facebook page, or twitter.

Facebook: IQgalway [IndieQueer]
Twitter: IQgalway [IndieQueer]

Rock – Indie – Jazz
Electro – Metal – Funk – Soul
Retro Classics – Punk – Alternative Pop

Paradise Dance Hall @ The Absolut Fringe.

This evening I was sent a link to the blog for this performance piece which is a part of this years Absolut Fringe. The post titled “// This One’s For You //” really struck me. I’ve seen some of the promo videos, and the piece features the partner of a friend of mine, so I’ve been aware of it for a little while now, but I didn’t know anything about this aspect of the piece:

“Please anonymously submit part of your story to a performance of Paradise Dance Hall; and release, hold on to, or acknowledge your ‘ghosts’.

Every time we perform Paradise Dance Hall, we will pick one name at random during the show, and then offer a dedication to the one[s] you haunt, or the one[s] who haunt you. It will happen live, and for one night only”

Co-incidentally, the day I was linked to that is also the day of Limerick Pride 2010. This is seemingly completely unrelated, except for the fact that last years Limerick Pride was the last time I hung out with a friend of mine before he passed away. We went for the weekend, having not seen each other in while. He helped out with shOUT! during the parade, and we had a brilliant time enjoying the festivities of Pride.

His passing was the first time a friend of mine has died, and shook me quite a bit. He’s been in my mind again lately, because of Limerick Pride, but also because I was switching cars and recalling all the memories from the old car: two major ones feature him strongly. It’s not the anniversary of his death, but it is the anniversary of the last time I saw him, and reading that post about the ones who you haunt/who haunt you really hit home more than I expected it to.

I guess sometimes you don’t even need to see the piece of theatre to have an emotional response to it. I wanted to get to Limerick Pride this year, but couldn’t for various reasons, so I think it’s only fitting to use this opportunity as a way of marking the year instead.

It ends with a mysterious bruise, a long-distance dance, and a swallow tattoo to guide you. It starts with the people you haunt, and the traces of those who left without explanation.

[…]

It will not be sentimental, but it might be beautiful.

Dancing to the Dublin Gospel Choir at Electric Picnic

This was the highlight of my summer. The Sunday morning of Electric Picnic, myself and three of the guys I was performing with as part of Werk at thisispopbaby headed off to get coffee and food. The Dublin Gospel Choir were on stage in the main arena, singing wonderful music. We sat and finished our food and coffee and enjoyed the music. Then they started a Stevie Wonder medley, which got us up to dance. During the course of the medley, myself and Tom started doing bits of one of the routines we were doing later that night, and the other two guys joined in.

Some girls came over to us after those songs and asked if they could dance along with us, as we “looked like a lot of craic”, and we’re never ones to refuse to dance. So we all started dancing together calling out simples moves to each other. Over the course of the next few songs, more and more people behind and beside us started to follow along too, and people came up from the crowd ahead of us to dance behind us too. People took photos, smiled, and watched. Some people we dragged up to join us too and at some point we looked around to see a crowd of people all following our moves behind us.

When the set finished, we held Tom (who was doing most of the leading dance-wise) up on our shoulders as the dancers behind us applauded us and the Gospel choir both. So many people came over to say thank you, and saying it was the best moment of the festival for them, but we were just happy to dance along to the fantastic music and thrilled when other people saw fit to follow what we were doing and dance along with us.

It was a beautiful afternoon. I’ve only discovered two youtube videos of it so far, but you’d never know, more might surface.

Firstly, a short one, where you can see myself, Chris and Tom in front, and Stephen in the red vest behind us.

Secondly, a video shot from the side, showing more of the people who were dancing along behind us.

edit: here’s a 3rd video, this time from the front, and you can clearly see myself and the other three guys who started it all:

edit again: here’s a 4th video, also from the front and a bit short too.

The Dublin Gospel Choir mentioned it on their facebook page:

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us at Electric Picnic yesterday. Great day and LOVED the flash mob! If you have any pix or videos send them on, we’d love to see them!!!

Flash Mob…. it’s not often that you get to watch a show from the stage but this made our day!! Think poor Kerry-Anne nearly forgot the words when she saw them!! It’s what the Picnic is all about!!! Thanks guys!

The whole weekend was fantastic, and the rain on Sunday/Monday didn’t marr it at all, just made things a little more challenging. I had another random beautiful moment where I was having some chips between catching UNKLE and Fever Ray, and sat down at one of the upright pianos in the wood sculpture areas near the electric arena. Of course it was delightfully out of tune and honky tonk, so I started playing some Ray Charles and Tom Waits covers on it, and ended up playing in the rain to a few people who were crossing the area to catch The National or Foals. But it was wet, and when my chips were gone, I headed off to catch Fever Ray instead, but it was rather lovely too. I’m sure those pianos suffered through a lot of “Chopsticks” and the like, so a bit of jazzier stuff was a nice respite I imagine.