Derry’s Bloody Sunday Trust hosting Irish Republicanism and ‘The Gays’ exhibition in city
Exhibition will also be made available for display in other venues across the city and beyond.
Derry’s Bloody Sunday Trust is hosting the exhibition: Irish Republicanism and ‘The Gays’ - Cherishing All of the Children of the Nation Equally’ in the city.
The Derry launch of the exhibition will take place in the Whittaker Suite in the Guildhall on Thursday, August 6 at 7.00pm, hosted by the Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Cllr Grace Uí Niallais.
It will be launched by Emeritus Professor Sue Sanders of the Harvey Milk Institute.
Prof Sunders, an “out and proud” lesbian, is CEO of Schools OUT UK. In 2004 she co-founded the UK’S LGBT History Month with Paul Patrick - an annual event which happens every February.
Exhibition challenges the previously presented narrative of an ongoing antagonistic relationship and regular attacks and intimidation
In 2007, Prof Saunders was responsible for The Classroom which has lesson plans that ‘usualise’ LGBT people in all their diversity for all ages across the curriculum. She co runs OUTing the Past an international festival of LGBT+ history.
As an educator and activist, Prof Saunders is a proponent of an “inclusive and relevant curriculum in education”and works to “educate out” all forms of prejudice. She has also worked extensively within the criminal justice system attempting to challenge hate crime in all its forms.
She has been the recipient of several awards including the National Educations Union Lifetime achievement award in 2024 and the University of Manchester has awarded her Doctor of Asocial Sciences honoris causa (2026).
The exhibition, a joint production between the Bloody Sunday Trust / Museum of Free Derry, Áras Uí Chonghaile and OUTing the Past, “gives a more nuanced look than ever before available at the relationship that developed between Irish republicanism and the gay liberation movement, from the onset of the conflict through to the peace process”.
Tony Doherty, chairperson of the Bloody Sunday Trust, said the exhibition tells of how “two movements emerging from within a deeply conservative society, and seen by many as polar opposites, grew to acknowledge areas of joint experience and interest, and in some ways develop a mutually supportive relationship that for those involved would mean that the ideals of national liberation and gay liberation were permanently intertwined.
“It challenges the previously presented narrative of an ongoing antagonistic relationship and regular attacks and intimidation.”
“The exhibition is based on interviews with many of those deeply involved and features previously rarely seen archive material.
Mr Doherty added: “This is one of the many hidden histories of the north of Ireland over the last number of decades, and one that is now finally able to be told. It shows a part of our social history that has been avoided and even rejected but is now presented with an evidence base that is hard to deny.
“This is not yet a complete history, but it is a start and will hopefully inspire the investigation of other areas of our history that remain unexplored.
“As a republican myself, and as someone whose own brother had to leave Ireland to try to find a better life elsewhere because of his sexuality, I feel a very personal attachment to this story, and am glad it is now being told.
On behalf of the Bloody Sunday Trust I would like to thank our project partners, Áras Uí Chonghaile and OUTing the Past, for working with us on this and giving us the opportunity to be part of telling this important story,” said Mr Doherty.
After the launch on August 6, the exhibition will be on display in the Museum of Free Derry from August 7, during normal museum opening hours.
The exhibition will then be made available for display in other venues across the city and beyond.