In recent years, Kilfenora woman, Orla Vaughan, has been one of the most visible members of the LGBT+ community in Clare. She has seen the historic Marriage Equality Referendum passed by the people of her county in 2015, and felt the wave of hope and genuine openness that seemed to follow.
In more recent times however, she has also felt a retrenchment of homophobic views, which has once again made her home county an unsafe place for her to fully be herself in.
Orla is in a relationship with a woman from Dublin, but she is yet to feel safe enough to show affection or even hold hands with her girlfriend in Clare.
“My girlfriend insists on holding my hand and I am not comfortable with that. She is in Dublin, I am in Clare. There is a look you get. You just get a look from people and you know what it means,” she told The Clare Champion.
“Even when we were getting ready for the Pride march this year in Ennis, a couple of cars drove past, there was this one guy, and he just started shaking his head while he was driving. So violently. You could see in his eyes, he was so cross.
“What a waste of energy. What has gone on in that man’s life that seeing people out smiling, with colourful flags, is upsetting him so much?
“But my discomfort is the same everywhere. I suppose, when I am here in Kilfenora it doesn’t bother me because I know everybody and everybody knows me. But at Pride in Ennis, I wasn’t comfortable.
“The young Clare people are incredible. They are out there, their heads are held high, they are so proud. I take my hat off to them. I am a bit of an older soldier and I am carrying a lot from my younger years and stories growing up. I admire them so much. I admire the Trans young people that come out, they are phenomenal human beings.”
Orla has been a member of the board of Quare Clare since 2023. She believes that the Clare LGBT+ community needs help from the straight community to call-out homophobic comments made online and in public.
“It isn’t gay people attacking gay people, it is straight people, or maybe very closeted gay people who are unable to deal with their own sexuality. We are trying to fix this, we are trying to change the narrative, but without our allies calling out the people who do this, it is not going to change,” she said.
“I am not asking people to call-out anyone in a negative way, I am asking them to have a conversation. People need to put forward their side. We have been trying to do this for a long time and we have failed to protect our own community in a lot of ways. We need other people to step up. We need our straight allies, our friends and our families. People need to call it out in a pub if they hear something.
“You hear it from children, from eight and nine year olds. Where are they getting it? It is still not being sorted out in schools. It is not being sorted out in the GAA, which is one of the truly amazing organisations in this country.
“We have one openly gay ex-GAA player. Let me tell you, the numbers there don’t add up. There is a responsibility there for parents, teachers and guardians. We need to create a foundation for young people to feel safe, no matter what they turn out to be.”
With far right movements on the rise across the world, Orla believes that it was a matter of time before the impact was felt in Ireland.
“It took a bit longer to come to Ireland than in other places and I think that is because of the referendum [the Marriage Equality Referendum] with people flying home to vote,” she said.
“That really put Ireland on the map and made everyone in Ireland proud of what we had done.
“Even the people who voted no, I think a lot of them were proud after because there was a lot of misinformation and fake news about parenting, and the referendum had nothing to do with that.
“Then we had Repeal the Eighth, and that was another strong statement about protecting vulnerable people in our society.
“Again the Irish people stood up and recognised that we hadn’t been doing things right so far.
“I think that those two things really pushed back the flow of negativity that was coming through from Europe and America – the anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-anything that isn’t white and a man and a woman with children. So it took a lot longer to hit Ireland.”
Orla believes that the only way to really tackle online misinformation and to change the minds of homophobic people in Clare is through open and honest conversation.
“It is a sad place to be in, but why are we not talking about this more. I want to know why people are doing this. I don’t have time to be going around criticising people, or hating people or throwing dirty eyes at people. I’d like to know why these people have the time or why they think that they have the right to do that,” she said.
“I sometimes do things in the media about tourism and after I would be on the radio, let’s say, my mother would say to me, ‘why do you always bring up the gay thing?’. And I do, even if we were discussing the weather I would try and bring it in.
“You have to remember, there is someone sitting at home listening who thinks that they are the only gay person in the village. There might be a young person listening who thinks that there is something genuinely wrong with them. If we can talk about this, normalise this, that might change.
“In the past, something could happen to you in the street, but you were safe when you got into your own house. But now, it’s all over online, it’s horrible. But it’s not just about queer people, it’s about anybody who is any way different. There is a real intolerance in our society, they are not the majority, they are just the loudest.”
Andrew Hamilton is a journalist, investigative reporter and blogger who has been working in the media in Ireland for the past 20 years. His areas of special interest include the environment, mental health and politics.