AROUND for the last 30 years, the GOSHH provides a range of services to LGBT people across Clare.
It also provides testing for STDs and is led by its CEO Verena Tarpey, who says the organisation has been active in the Banner County for decades.
“The first time we went into Clare was in 1995 and we did training and development in a number of places like YouthReach, Rice College, Ennis Women’s Traveller Group and Ennis Youth Service,” she said.
“As part of Europe Against Aids we went to Shannon Knight’s, Durty Nellys and Fibbers and to Lahinch and Liscannor.”
It is still working hard to reach the community in the Banner.
“In Clare, at the moment we have an outreach worker and a community development worker,” she said.
“Our outreach worker would do a lot of one to one support with adults from more rural, isolated areas, and she would do a lot of travel to them.
“We go across County Clare, doing that one to one support and counselling. Our community development worker would do a huge amount in relation to training and workshops.
“We would go to schools and organisations and do training and workshops with them on sexual health.
“Another aspect of the work we do quite a lot of in Clare is with the homeless sectors.
“We would go in and do things like HIV testing and support if there is a positive diagnosis of HIV or Hepatitis C.
“We would do a lot of one to one support for them. Stand Up Week is coming up, that’s a national movement that involves training of young people in schools. At the moment we are going to four schools in about two weeks time.”
Summing up what it offers, she says, “Our services would be LGBT services, counselling support to those who are LGBTQI. That’s one aspect, counselling and support, and social groups are a huge thing at the moment.
“People want safe social spaces. The other side then is sexual health. We would provide a lot of sexual health screening, HIV, Hepatitis C, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea. But we’re more than just that, we would provide a huge amount of outreach as well.”
Despite all the advances in the treatment of the LGBT community, people living in rural areas, as most people in Clare do, still face a number of issues. And so do older members of the community.
“One of the issues facing the LGBT community is rural isolation,” she says.
“There are those who are older, and may have never come out to their families, a lot of them now are contacting us for support.
“There are older people living with HIV now and nursing staff or nursing homes don’t have capability to deal with particular nuances connected to it.”
She says that there are still particular problems that the community have to face, while the direction of politics in recent years is a new issue.
“There is still a stigma, plus there is that political movement at the moment that is anti everything. Anti trans, anti vaccines, anti LGBTQI people. It’s the same people giving those messages and what we don’t do is rise to that,” she says.
“What we want to give is a positive message, whatever a person wants to be they can be with us at GOSHH.
“That’s really the message I want to get across. There is still a lot of stigma and a lot of fear out there. Even down to getting tested, it should be a normal part of the life cycle to get tested and look after your sexual health.”
One of the most interesting things it has started in the county is a social group for LGBT people aged over 50.
Health and Wellbeing worker Róisín Aherne has been involved in getting it going.
“It started here in Limerick first because we had the premises, but a lot of people who were coming were from Clare and we really felt there was a need in the county. We had our first one last month and we’re having our next one on November 1,” she said.
She says that people in the demographic might have had a number of difficult experiences early in life.
“They may have different struggles, they would have grown up in a time when it was illegal to be gay, depending on their age, they may have had friends who died from the Aids epidemic,” she said.
“They may have a lot of different traumas.
“A lot have come out later in life, sometimes they have been accepted by friends and family, other times they haven’t and it’s very important that they can meet people of the same community and just be themselves. All we want is a social group for people to relax.”
Really, the hope is the group will be enjoyable for those attending.
“We try to keep it social. Obviously people want to talk about their experiences but it has to be fun, a chance to make friends,” she said.
Over time it will be directed by what those taking part enjoy.
She is still looking to make it more accessible to the community.
“I’ve asked my over 50s how do we get the word out there, is it the paper,the radio, how do we reach the right demographic,” she said.
“At Clare Pride we met a good few people who were so interested, but another challenge is getting the timing right, and it’s impossible to please everyone.”
Unfortunately she doesn’t feel that widely advertising the group would be the best way to do things.
“Even when we advertise our 50+ group we don’t say where it is, we have to make sure people contact us. Our biggest thing is safety and that people feel safe. So if people contact us we say this is where it’s at and this is the time,” she said
Jessica Curtin is an outreach worker for GOSHH and much of her work is with younger people.
“It’s really important for the Outreach aspect to meet people exactly where they are.,” she said.
“There are many barriers for people coming into the office, whether it be public transport, cost, or maybe they mightn’t be out and there may be a vera of being seen stepping into the building. So I think it’s really important to meet people where they are at, whether it be a walk in the park or going for a cup or coffee.”
She says there are still challenges for younger members of the community.
“There are a variety of different issues, be it gender orientation, there may be early school leavers who have taken an alternative route into education through the youth services,” she said.
She is very proud of the work that she and the organisation do. “We have been running for many years and it’s a real wrap-around service, we do a variety of things and we’re here for everyone.”
GOSHH can be contacted on 061 314354 or at info@goshh.ie.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.