Recently South Dublin LGBT+ Network held two very successful events to mark South Dublin’s Social Inclusion Week. On the Friday, the Civic Theatre was host to a series of short Irish LGBT+ themed films with a panel discussion featuring Irish LGBT+ Traveller, Johnny Maughan who features in the short film, Johnny, and directors Anna Rodgers and Hugh Rodgers, and Philippa Ryder, whose autobiography, My Name is Philippa, is out now. Shane Gough who organised the film night, said ‘It was fantastic to get so much support from SDCC, the Civic and the Betelnut Café who were wonderful. Our focus was on reaching out to marginalised communities within the wider LGBT+ family. That’s at the core of our vision for the Network and the film night was a really excellent event from that point of view’.
On the Saturday, East Village Coffee hosted the Big Gay Brunch sponsored by SDCC which was well attended with all covid measures strictly implemented. Among the attendees were a number of LGBT+ people from migrant communities for whom the event was a great opportunity to make new friends within the local LGBT+ community.
Cllr Alan Edge who was among the organisers of the event said, ‘It’s fantastic to see so much support at Council level for the LGBT+ community locally. Our aim is to bring people together who may be excluded for whatever reason from the more mainstream town-centric LGBT scene and this event was an important part of that. We were delighted that Mayor Peter Kavanagh dropped by to lend his support. As an ally he is second to none and we were all extremely proud to see him raise the Trans Pride flag to mark Trans Day of Remembrance last week’.
