March 17, 2009
'Celtic Tiger' Brings Out a Gay-Friendler Ireland
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 1 MIN.
Ireland's booming economy in the 1990s took the nation into prosperity, and with economic good times came more acceptance of the nation's GLBT citizens.
A Mar. 16 article at The Examiner.com documented the phenomenon, calling it an "overnight" shift.
The article drew a distinction of the country just 16 years ago versus today, quoting Irish native Brian Finnegan, who said that the gay scene in Dublin remained underground at that time and described a culture of closed club doors guarded by wary keepers.
Finnegan, who edits the Irish GLBT magazine Gay Community News, was quoted as saying, "It was like Prohibition."
That's no longer the case. Gay and lesbian Irish citizens now live openly, their night spots visible, accessible-and smoke-free, the other major change to the country's club culture.
The so-called "Celtic Tiger," which saw Ireland's economy benefit from the tech industry, reversed a trend in which the country was emptying, with its people going abroad to seek employment.
As prosperity took hold, Ireland began to attract immigrants, many from newly liberated Eastern European countries. The ethnic makeup of Ireland has changed to reflect that trend: the article said that about 10% of the island nation's residents are immigrants.
Ireland's population is now at around 4 million, the article said, and though the worldwide recession has hit Ireland as hard as any other nation, Ireland's standard of living remains well above what it had been.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
