TRADE UNIONS AND PROGRESS FOR LGBT+ PEOPLE: A PROUD HISTORY By Kieran Rose (he/him)
The trade union movement was hugely important in progress for LGBT+ people in Ireland from the early 1980s when we had few supporters but many powerful enemies. This history is largely unrecognised and unwritten, significant exceptions to this are Orla Egan and the Cork LGBT archive, and Dr. Patrick McDonagh’s great research in his book ‘Gay and Lesbian Activism in the Republic of Ireland, 1973-93’ (2021). Crucial moments were the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and LGPSU resolutions of 1982, the ICTU lesbian and gay rights seminar of 1985, the Employment Equality Agency under the leadership of Sylvia Meehan in 1986 supporting sexual orientation to be included in its legislation, the publication of the ICTU policy ‘Lesbian and Gay Rights Seminar and Gay Rights in the Workplace: Guidelines for Negotiators’ in 1987, and the Civil Service anti-discrimination policy of 1988. All contributed significantly to later progress such as; Labour Party Equal Status Bill 1990 including sexual orientation, the equality-based gay law reform in 1993, the inclusion of sexual orientation in the Unfair Dismissals Act 1993, and later Equality legislation. The trade union movement also played a crucial role in the achievement of Civil Partnership in 2010 and the successful Yes Equality Referendum of 2015, as well as progress on Transgender issues. The First National Gay Conference was held in Connolly Hall, Cork City in 1981 and had a Trade Union Workshop which I chaired, it made a number of key recommendations including stating that
employment rights should be a priority for the gay movement, recognising the central role of trade unions in defending and advancing the rights of workers and calling on lesbians and gay men to be active in their Unions, and calling on all trade unionists to support lesbian and gay workers. It condemned the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) for not sending a Motion on LGBT workers proposed by David Norris and passed by IFUT, to the ICTU Annual Conference as required by the Motion. It also set out that the Cork Gay Collective would be the information centre for work with trade unions. Later in the year ICTU held its Annual Conference in City Hall Cork and the Cork Gay Collective lobbied the delegates including informing them that they should have a Motion before them on LGBT issues passed by IFUT. In 1982 the Cork Branch of LGPSU adopted a Motion proposed by myself and Tricia Tracey calling for gay law reform, and amendments to the Unfair Dismissals Act, the Employment Equality Act and legislation dealing with the employment of civil servants, the armed forces, and the Gardai to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It was my first time speaking at a trade union meeting. Arthur Leahy and Laurie Steele and others who were renovating the Quay Coop building at the time came along in their work clothes to give me moral support which I much appreciated.
Only one person spoke against our Motion and he came up to me after the meeting saying in a smarmy way ‘no hard feelings’, I replied ‘no problem, we won’. This Motion later became the programme of GLEN when it was established in 1988, and was largely achieved in the 1990s with an equality- based gay law reform, amendments to the Unfair Dismissals Act, and Equality legislation introduced. The motion got high profile and positive media coverage (unusual at the time) especially in the Cork Examiner when it was adopted at the LGPSU Annual Conference in May 1982. It got ‘overwhelming support’, and was passed by the ‘vast majority’ after ‘a contentious debate’. One delegate said that; ‘if Cork has a problem with homosexuality then let them go away and solve them quietly without publicity’. Tom Bogue, President of the Union, spoke strongly in favour of the motion saying ‘we have a repressed minority’. I worked with Tom in Cork County Council and he was a great supporter, especially when I publicly came out. I was elected to the Cork Branch committee of the LGPSU and attended my first Annual Delegate Conference in Bundoran in 1984 where I organised a workshop on lesbian and gay workers. I went to a workshop on Miscarriages of Justice such as the Birmingham Six, a delegate who was also a Worker’s Party activist, came up to me quite angry and said he was not have gone to my gay workshop if he knew I was going to go to the Birmingham Six workshop
(for some at the time if you were a supporter of the Birmingham Six you were a ‘crypto-Provo). Government Ministers usually addressed Annual Conferences but with Phil Flynn recently appointed General Secretary, Government Ministers refused to attend because he was also Vice-President of Sinn Fein, Michael D Higgins addressed the Conference instead. At a Conference sing-song was the first time I realised how emotional it was to be in a large group singing the Fields of Athenry. I became a LGPSU delegate to the Cork Council of Trade Unions and witnessed a very robust, even angry debate between the delegates on the proposed Abortion Amendment to the Constitution. Eventually the chair stood up to bring order to the meeting but the delegates kept on arguing and the chair said ‘In my Union when the Chair stands up everyone shuts up, but not you’. The trade union movement was a leading force in the Anti Amendment Campaign. The Cork Gay Collective
more or less disbanded to concentrate on the Cork campaign.
for Equality: Then, now, and in the future’. This event also marked the formal establishment of the Fórsa LGBT Network, a very important initiative that has great potential. The harassment of Public Library staff and customers by far-right homophobic groups was also addressed at the meeting with speakers including David Rinehart on the campaigning work of the Queer Library Alliance. I was honoured that the Irish Labour History Society asked me to give their Annual Lecture in April 2024 on the history of trade unions and LGBT campaigning together in Ireland. The Trade Union movement and LGBT people have been working together for progress over more than 40 years with Cork leading the way, and the future for our continued work is looking good. The booklet ‘Trade Unions and Progress for LGBT People’ and other trade union related material is available on www.kieranrose.ie
I wrote an article for the LGPSU magazine ‘The Reporter’ in October 1984. Also in 1984 I was sponsored by the Cork Branch and the Executive Council of the LGPSU to attend the NALGO (a public sector trade union similar to the LGPSU) Lesbian and Gay Conference in Manchester. We learned a lot from British lesbian and gay trade union groups as they were more developed than we were, and they had great publicity material. The London-based ‘Gay Rights at Work’ group came to the First National Gay Conference and we later used their pamphlet a lot (Laurie Steele is holding it in the photo outside City Hall). There was an active Miners Support Group in Cork and I was involved in that campaign` In November 2024 I was delighted that Fórsa trade union launched my booklet ‘Trade Unions and Progress for LGBT People’ at their seminar ‘Organising
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