Guided Tour of LGBT+ Limerick to cap off an amazing Limerick Pride 2023

Guided Tour of LGBT+ Limerick with historian Paul O’Brien caps off an amazing Limerick Pride. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

Queer Spaces and Fabulous Faces: A Guided Tour of LGBT+ Limerick will cap off an amazing Limerick LGBT Pride 2023

As part of Limerick LGBTQ Pride 2023, ’30 Years of Queer History’ at the Hunt Museum on Sunday, July 9, Queer Spaces and Fabulous Faces: A Guided Tour of LGBT+ Limerick will give patrons the chance to take a guided tour of Limerick City, looking at some important areas of Limerick for the LGBT+ community with a local historian.

This Pride month marks the 30th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexual acts between men in Ireland and Limerick Pride wanted to acknowledge this through the theme of this year’s festival: ‘United in Solidarity’.

This free event takes place at 3pm with historian Paul O’Brien leaving from the Red Tech building (now Limerick and Clare ETB) and ending at the Hunt Museum.

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Paul said, “This is a walking tour of gay Limerick, and it is called Queer Spaces and Fabulous Faces, and it will chart the history of gay Limerick, LGBT+ over the course of maybe a hundred years or so.”

Starting at the childhood home of Christopher Isherwood on whose book Cabaret was based, the walking tour tells the story of the Limerick LGBT+ landscape over the course of several decades. We will discuss well-known venues and hidden local gems where the local community gathered, danced and agitated for their rights. Learn about the early days of Pride, the establishment of the Gay Switch Board, and the founding of the Red Ribbon Project.

Long-closed-down but never forgotten pubs, club nights, and venues will re-emerge as we stroll through the city. You’ll learn about Limerick’s LGBT+ heroes, past and present.

This tour is for everyone interested in Limerick Pride culture and history with Paul promising “it will be fabulous, it will be interesting, it will be a little naughty in places” and people should expect that “will be a tear-jerker and you will laugh a lot”.

Limerick Pride Chairperson, Lisa Daly said, “We are so happy to have local historian, Paul O’Brien involved in this year’s Limerick Pride with this amazingly interesting walking tour. Following a week of events and celebrations and just one day after the Limerick Pride Parade which takes place on Saturday, July 8, what better way to cap off an incredible week than with this walking tour?”

This year’s Limerick Pride will have events that are sure to interest everyone, and there is also a focus on education, including a look at the history of LGBT+ in Limerick and in all of Ireland, which includes ’30 Years of Queer History’ at the Hunt Museum on Tuesday, July 4, at 6 pm where historian Sharon Slater and Adam Long of the National LGBT Federation will discuss 30 year anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland.

’30 Years of Queer History’ will also hear from Limerick playwright and actor, Myles Breen who will tell his own personal story about his experiences before and after this landmark moment in LGBTQAI rights.

Find out more here.
Read more about Limerick Pride 2023 here.