NIGRA

The following questions were presented to P A Mag Lochlainn in his role as President of NIGRA (Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association) from a law student researching for her dissertation, and included are hiSeanswers on behalf of NIGRA and some other comments: “Thank you for setting out your questions below. I will endeavour to answer them as best I can, although several of them seem to me rather curiously-phrased, or to tackle questions from a very unusual point of view. Others I found... [more>

Gay Star was the official publication of NIGRA (the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association) until 1987. NIGRA paid for the printing of the publication and the postage for distribution. All the work that went into the magazine, writing everything from poems to news items from around the world, was done by volunteers. So was the collating of the magazine... [more>

The following is the text of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association’s submission to Initiative ‘92 / The Opsahl Commission. 1 Social and political change in Northern Ireland should come about by way of peaceful agitation and argument 2 NIGRA is opposed to political violence – including ‘moral cleansing’ – freelance,... [more>

[Published in the November 2004 edition of Gay Times under the heading Bloody Belfast', somewhat (badly) edited down and rewritten.] In August, four hundred gays, lesbianSeand their friends sat down for a civic banquet in Belfast’s City Hall to celebrate gay pride week. It was hosted by the Lord Mayor and paid for by the not-very-angry ratepayers.... [more>

(Commissioned by, and published in the May 2003 edition of Gay Times) [Since this article was written, the Home Office haSeannounced it is dropping Clause 74 and to cries of concern from Stonewall and Martin Bowley QC who served on the working group, said it will be amending the outraging public decency' law. No details of how in the Bill or otherwise... [more>

These two 2006 NIGRA submissions on suicide (one attached, one below) fill in the background to what we were discussing yesterday by way of the coroner’s discretion on inquests. They fell on stony ground but should be pursued perhaps by way of s. 75 interpretation. A Further Submission by NIGRA (Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association) in Response... [more>

Gay Geography and history: 1903-2003 Off and on in the 1970Seand 80s, the Europa’s Whip and Saddle bar in Great Victoria Street was the city’s only gay venue. Despite, at times being the only customers in such a bombed hotel, we were never entirely welcome and were ultimately driven out, At one point in the 1970s NIGRA mounted a picket... [more>