The London Ear on RTÉ 2XM // 217 with Joseph Healy, London Irish – LGBT Network
I was delighted today to be able to chat to Joseph Healy from the London Irish LGBT Network. The LGBT Network along with Irish in Britain are hosting a conference in London on November 1. The conference is entitled “Equality in Ireland: Past and Present”.
Speakers at the event include:
Conor McGinn Labour MP for St Helens>
Clare Moore – Love Equality
Elisha McCallion MP Sinn Fein
Dr David Shaw from Liverpool University’s Institute of Irish Studies who has written a book about the Irish political experience in Britain since the 1940s. He will be addressing the issues of how the AIDS epidemic in Ireland and the Save Ulster from Sodomy campaign in Northern Ireland led to significant emigration from both parts of Ireland.
Dr Joanne McCarthy, Co-author of Identity Formation and Conflict in Older Irish Gay Men.
You can find out more about the event here and you can buy tickets from eventbrite here.
You can find out more about the London Irish LGBT Network on their website, Twitter and Facebook.
The London Ear Show 217 October 20th 2018 // Playlist
1. Paul Noonan: Moth To Your Flame
2. whenyoung: Given Up
3. Bouts: Love’s Lost Landing
4. Pale Rivers: Caught in It
5. O Emperor: Effort
6. Heavy Soda: Greasy Feet
7. Baba: Land of the Damned
8. David Burke: Hello Ocean
9. Robert Grace: Boomerang
10. Chat with Joseph Healy – Chair of London Irish LGBT Network
11. Seamus Fogarty: The Old Suit
12. The Winter Flood: Fire It Up
13. The Survival Code: Take It As It Is
14. Pursued by Dogs: Swap Dimensions
Listen On Demand to The London Ear
Thanks for listening, The London Ear broadcast on DAB radio, Saorview and outside Ireland you can listen online.You can listen to the show again on the RTE player. The show is broadcast every Saturday at 1300.
Don’t forget to check out the RTE 2XM website. You can keep up with me here.
I was at the doctor’s for the results of a routine blood test. I have some autoimmune issues and take medication for it. So, I need to make sure that my liver and kidney functions are okay every few months.
I was chatting with the doc who told me everything was fine and was about to leave when I said ‘Oh by the way, does this bite look normal?’
This was one week exactly since I woke up with a bite on my arm. I don’t get bites. No mozzies ever come near me. Poor Tahlulah gets them. It seemed different to those ones though. Whatever got me, had also left a red outer circle and a nice bruise. Bullseye!
The doc’s face changed. ‘When did you get this?, When were you in a forest? You were hiking right?’
No, I wasn’t and then it dawned on me. ‘That’s not a mosquito bite.’ He quickly browsed his NHS reference sites.
‘Are you thinking it’s a tick bite?’, I asked. ‘Yup’, he nodded.
He showed me pictures from the NHS site of tick bites and lyme disease. ‘Yours looks like that.’
Two Days after the bite appeared
Lyme Disease Symptoms
The first sign that you’ve been bitten by an infected tick is this bullseye bite. But, it only shows in about 50% of cases. In my case, I am so lucky. I had been feeling shite for the while. I put it down to missing or forgetting to take my own medication. With what I have anyway, when I’m not feeling well, I get really tired, exhausted and fatigued doing nothing. I get aches and pains in my muscles. I also get a really annoying brain fog which is really frustrating. But since I started the medication almost seven years ago, I haven’t been as fatigued and drained as I once was.
These can also be symptoms of Lyme Disease. If I hadn’t to have the bullseye bite, I would be going back to my consultant saying my drugs weren’t working. I didn’t feel a bite, I didn’t see anything on my skin.
I live in a leafy area. There’s a row of trees across from us, there are several parks within a 10 minute walk. Our house cat, Norman, is just that. A house cat. The last time I was in the park was about 2 months ago, the Sunday that England were playing in the world cup. I took this picture that day.
This horrible bite with it’s bruise appeared on my left arm, not on my ankle or leg. I wasn’t even getting close to the squirrels. If this happened last winter, I would have blamed one of the squirrels I used to go feed. Even then I tried to make sure they didn’t touch me. One guy pulled my jeans one day looking for berries.
The Rise of Lyme Disease
Tick bites and Lyme Disease are on the rise in the UK and in Ireland. Only a bite from an infected tick is dangerous. Basically what happens is that they go off, bite an infected animal, take some of their gunk and then bite you. Lovely.
Make sure you know what to look for and if you’re in doubt, get yourself to a doctor. You will need to get on antibiotics as soon as possible. If it’s untreated, you can end up with long term side effects.
I’m allergic to penicillin which can make antibiotics a bit of a nightmare. I’ve just finished my course of medication. Doxycycline. 2 x 100mg twice a day for three weeks. 84 tablets in total. These things are sickly, absolutely horrible things but they have to be strong to work.
I’m hoping this will be enough. I’m hoping I won’t need a second round of antibiotics. I’m still feeling crap and extremely fatigued but I’m hoping that this is just getting over the antibiotics.
This isn’t a ‘Woe is me’ post, this is ‘If your not feeling right or you’ve had a bite, go get yourself sorted’ post. It was only when I saw the expression on the Doc’s face that I realised that tick bites aren’t to be messed with. There are now somewhere between 2000 – 3000 cases in the UK every year, but doctors don’t have to report how many cases they see in their surgery.
Every time this post shows up in a google search or someone shares, it will raise awareness.
Over the past year or so, I got to know the gang in the London Irish LGBT Network. Initially, it was because I had one of the members on The London Ear, chatting about an event.
I met some of the people involved at different events and chatting to them. The chair, Joseph asked me to go for a coffee. And that was that! Next you know, I’m on the committee and I’m making a podcast series for the group. It has been a slow process and I’m not finished yet but I’m really proud of what I’ve achieved with this.
It’s not about numbers or views (although lots would be great, let’s be honest), but it’s more about collecting peoples stories and archiving them for the future.
Everyone has a different story, no two life stories are the same and it’s important that we remember that and remember that although it’s a lot easier to live your life as an LGBTQ person now, it wasn’t always that way. Especially if you were from “Holy Catholic Ireland”.
I’ve been speaking to people from all backgrounds, ages, areas of Ireland, finding out about their stories and their lives – in Ireland and in London. It’s also really important to remember that even though technology has advanced, many most people live lots of their lives online. How are we going to archive these stories? We have to become contemporary historians when the people who lived through these eras are still with us.
I knew going into this that there were a number of things that I would have to ensure happened / didn’t happen. I want every interviewee to be free to share as much of their story as they want to. If they want to remain anonymous, so be it. That’s their decision.
I am overwhelmed by the courage of the interviewees to tell their stories and I am truly humbled that they have chosen to entrust their stories with me.
This has also been and continues to be a huge learning curve. So far, I’ve learned about Irish Gay History and about living with HIV and I’m really glad that I have a better understanding of these.
One thing has really struck me that I naively didn’t think happened anymore. A number of younger people were interested in taking part and then backed out. They live their lives, quite openly, here in London. I genuinely thought this didn’t happen anymore. It has made me more determined to speak to as many people as possible for the podcast. We need to still show people that being LGBTQ is normal, we’re just people.
Although the project has started, it’s not over. I’m looking for more Irish LGBT people to tell me their stories. If you want to remain anonymous, you can by all means. I would never force anyone out or reveal their identity if that is their wish. I can change how your voice sounds, if you don’t want people to hear that it’s you, that’s your decision.
It’s so important that we do this now for history preservation and for the lives future generations of LGBTQ people, we need the stories of our struggles told and acknowledged so they don’t have to go through this in the future.
If you’re LGBTQ and Irish, whether you or a parent were born in Ireland, please get in touch. I promise to give your story the attention and respect you deserve.
You can find all podcasts here and you will soon be able to subscribe on iTunes. You can also listen on Mixcloud or below.
Norbert Bisky ‘Anomie’ Exhibition Launch // König Gallery London
I got a text from my buddy, Aidan. ‘Hey I’m in London on Friday night, playing with Sam Vance Law at the opening of the Norbert Bisky Exhibition, want to come?’. Of course I do!
I arrived at the König Gallery in Marylebone where the party was in full swing. Launch attendees had spilled out onto the street, inside I could see why. The room was jammed, the band were playing. At the front, close to the band, people were dancing. That also included the artist, Norbert Bisky. Those wanting a chat were further back.
The first thing that I noticed was the space, a basement setting like this in central London is a haven, something really special. The vibrant mis-painted red walls against the concrete brought my eyes to the art.
I was extremely curious to find out why Sam Vance-Law and his band, who had come all the way from Berlin, were playing at an event like this. It turns out that Mr Bisky’s art was used for the cover of Sam’s album, Homotopia. Sam’s music is refreshingly open and honest. The first track on his album refers to asking a boy to dance at a school disco, he’s not afraid to write about his sexuality. The theme of the music, blended beautifully with the theme of the art.
It turns out that this is Norbert Bisky’s first UK solo exhibition. The word ‘anomie’ means the lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group. In a piece taken from the Köning website: “how inclusive a society is towards members of the LGBTQI+ community is still highly indicative of the degree to which humanist values are accepted in a society and to which members of this society are able to live autonomous lives.”
As the band ended and crowds left, I wait for my friend and getting a closer look at each painting.
The red walls are deliberate. The canvas on the walls, on closer inspection, reveal layers and collages. The bright pastel colours, different parts of the male form and one piece where three makes share a kiss, make me recall Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s reworking of Coleridge’s poem ‘In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasuredome erect’.
This was the first time I had seen Norbert Bisky’s paintings and I adored his work. I also loved how some of the pieces were completed mere weeks before this exhibition began. Making it very relevant and very now.
