EPIC MUSEUM

Emigration is part of the Irish story. It touches every family and every community across Ireland. EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin’s Docklands is an interactive museum that tells the story of how the Irish who emigrated, shapped and the world. In June 2021 they launched their newest exhibition Out in the World: Ireland’s LGBTQ+ Diaspora.

Across six themes – exclusion, community, love, defiance, solidarity and return – Out in the World highlights twelve stories from the vast history of Ireland’s LGBTQ+ diaspora. The exhibition also features an artwork by award winning Irish designer and multi-disciplinary artist Richard Malone. Importantly, it is the first exhibition to celebrate the role that Irish emigrants have played in making Ireland and the world a more inclusive place for LGBTQ+ people.

Across the generations, Irish LGBTQ+ people have emigrated and found opportunities to live and love openly. Yet this journey was rarely a simple transition from an oppressive island to a liberal wider world. Irish LGBTQ+ emigrants often faced prejudice abroad. Home, once a place of shame and silence, could also become a welcoming site of return.

The exhibition aims to tell a more complete and inclusive story about emigration by documenting the extraordinary lengths that Ireland’s LGBTQ+ diaspora went to in their quest for love, recognition and security.

The exhibition is diverse, with stories from the 1800s to the present, detailing experiences from England to India and Chile. Some of the stories included are of of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization (ILGO), which was founded in a Japanese restaurant in New

York city in 1990; the Brixton Faeries, a gay theatre troupe based in the UK in the 1970’s, and an Irish participant in the Stonewall riots. This exhibition is a remarkable opportunity to learn about a past, which hasn’t been publicly acknowledged or recognised in mainstream Irish exhibitions or history.

Stories include: o An Irish link to the celebrated 1969 rebellion outside the Stonewall Inn in New York City that launched the international gay liberation movement o The inspiring life of a former nun from Donegal who challenged oppression in Pinochet’s Chile and fought for LGBTQ+ immigration rights in Canada alongside her partner o The art and activism of a gay Irish playwright in 1980s London whose writing spoke to forgotten corners of the Irish emigrant experience o The remarkable history of an Anglo-Irish doctor who became a trans healthcare pioneer and was later ordained a Buddhist monk

The exhibition features both a physical and online storyboard where visitors can write their messages, reflections and personal stories to be featured in future iterations of the exhibition and online, creating an opportunity for these stories to become part of the exhibition in their local embassy or consul. The exhibition serves as a platform for people to share their own experiences of LGBTQ+ emigration at the exhibition and online at www.outintheworld.ie

The exhibition has been designed in such a way that it will be seen simultaneously in Irish embassies and consulates overseas. The project is supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs, reflecting the commitment in Ireland’s national Diaspora Strategy to support Ireland’s LGBTQI+ diaspora through initiatives designed to promote inclusiveness, tolerance and respect for diversity.

The exhibition was researched and developed with the consultation of various international Irish diaspora LGBTQ+ groups and LGBTQ+ members of the diaspora and with Queer Culture Ireland, a LGBTQIA+ culture, heritage and art group of which EPIC is a founding member.

Out in the World: Ireland’s LGBTQ+ Diaspora is free to view for the month of June 2021 as part of the Dublin Pride Festival. It will then be on display until December, with admission included in the ticket to EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, which shares further stories of Ireland’s emigration history. Find out more on www.outintheworld.ie

EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum was voted Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction 2019 and 2020 in the World Travel Awards.

Dr Maurice Casey, curator of Out in the World: Ireland’s LGBTQ+ Diaspora welcomes Colm Brophy, Minister for the Diaspora and Patrick Greene, Museum Director of EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum. Image: Leon Farrell / RollingNews.ie