Mark Ward is a great man. There he is working his fingers to the bone in Tallaght Library and he thinks to himself, “let’s celebrate LGBT History month!”. It’s a real case of taking the bull by the horns, as no one was marking the annual event, even though it had been running for over 10 years in the US, as he told us, recently.
LGBT History Month began in the U.S in October 1994, where the initiative began as a result of the success of Black History Month. In the UK, it began in 2005 by the School’s Out organisation and unlike its American counterpart, it takes place in February. The initiative seems to have been universally welcomed, even by the UK government, and the initiative has grown from strength to strength.
Having been aware of the LGBT History Month, and noting there was no real equivalent here, I decided to do something here in Tallaght Library.
Supported by his employers, South Dublin County Council, Mark got the February event off the ground a couple of years ago.
The response has been great. For our first year, we started off slowly, and had an extensive stock display/promotion with an accompanying LGBT-themed stock list. People were very interested in it, with people commenting how it was great to see that kind of display in the library, and that gave us the confidence to extend our participation last year.
Most people have welcomed the inclusion of the programme, and are very interested in the events we are putting on.
Last year, Mark managed to get together a programme of events that would make any festival organiser salivate, from a literary evening with Jamie O’Neill author of At Swim Two Boys, to a talk on Irish Gay History given by Senator David Norris and Brian Lacey and a screening of Milk, as well as much more.
This year? Well, we’ll let the man speak for himself.
Firstly, following last year, on the 15th Feb at 7pm, we have another literary evening, themed around Cork University Press’ recent publication Queer Notions: New Plays and Performances from Ireland and we are very lucky to have a large number of the participants in the publication attending including Phillip McMahon (writer of All Over Town, Danny and Chantelle (Still Here), Alice in Funderland and co-director of the Thisispopbaby performance/theatre company), Rory O’Neill (aka Panti, whose last one woman play, A Woman in Progress was included in the publication), Una McKevitt (creator/director of Victor and Gord, Ali and Michael and 565+), Neil Watkins (aka Heidi Konnt, author of A Cure for Homosexuality), Verity Alicia-Mavenawitz (author of The Drowning Room) and of course, the editor of the publication, Fintan Walsh. The evening promises to be a lively discussion about gay playmaking.
Secondly, on the 17th Feb, also at 7pm, there is The History of Alternative Miss Ireland, which is a talk by the executive producer of the AMI pageant, Noel Sutton, followed by a short documentary. With so many wonderful AMI’s to talk about and see clips from, it should be a pretty fabulous evening!
Finally, to round off this year’s programme, we are screening Tom Ford’s stunning adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s novel, A Single Man, starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.
Due to some super-power he is keeping to himself, Mark and the SDCC have managed to do it all for no fee. Zero. Nada. You can go to everything/anything and it won’t cost you the value of Anglo-Irish.
However, Mark’s super-power only goes so far, as he is only one person these events are going to be happening in Tallaght library alone. We need another brother/sister library worker to step up and get on the bandwagon.
I would hope that other library authorities around Ireland might see what we’re doing and take part in the initiative themselves. It would be great to see other authorities celebrating LGBT writing, history and culture.
Until he is cloned, you need to get yourself over to Tallaght. For a full list of what’s on when, click on the South Dublin County Council’s website. Also note that the Queer Notions and the AMI evenings require booking in advance. To do so call Tallaght Library on (01) 4620073 to guarantee yourself a place.