You're listening to the mens rea podcast and this is the story of Irish Pride. Oh, This week is going to be a little different from the normal content of episodes.

Fear not though, there is a crime, but we're also going to follow the development of the laws after the crime.

I think it's important to see how much has changed legally for a minority group in Ireland

and the hard one rights that Ireland's LGBT community now have.

The story is by no means over and of course there's a lot left to do,

but today a week before Dublin's Pride Festival, I want to tell you about

a victim of homophobia and the long legal struggle for LGBT rights in Ireland.

The Offenses Against the Person Act 1861 and Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment

Act criminalized homosexuality in Ireland, along with the public or private

commission of, or attempt to procure the commission of, any man for an act of gross indecency with another man.

Section 61 of the Offenses Against the Person Act outlawed the quote-unquote Act of buggery,

and Section 61 criminalised attempt and assault for the purpose of committing

buggery. These laws had been done away with in the UK in 1967, but in Catholic Ireland these laws had been retained,

and being gay was not only taboo, but illegal. The gay scene in the early 80s in Dublin was a bit abysmal.

There were a few bars, the Bailey on a Saturday, Bartley Duns and Rices, which would both close in the mid to late 80s, upstairs

in J.J.'s for the Dykes. And the George eventually opened in May 1985.

The Hirschfield Center was the main focal point and there were a number of activist

groups popping up in response to the equality movements beginning to spread post-Stonewall and in response to the HIV AIDS crisis. But Dublin was a lonely place for gay men and women in those days. Being gay was something that could ruin a career and upend a life if the information fell into the wrong hands.

David Norris was one of these early campaigners and he decided to take a case for equality to the High Court in 1977.

After the Dudgeon v UK case in the European Court of Human Rights had ruled that Northern Ireland's law, criminalising homosexual acts, was in violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to privacy.

We were part of Europe and had the exact same laws that Northern Ireland did.

So surely the Irish courts would have to pay attention to what was being said in Europe for this

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