The goal of this project, launched in 2022 and led by researchers from Maynooth University (Prof. Maria Pramaggiore) and UCD (Dr. Páraic Kerrigan), is to examine the impact of Dublin’s Hirschfeld Centre on LGBTQ individuals and communities, and Irish society more broadly, during the time of its primary operation (1979-88) and afterward. We aim to document and understand the ways the Centre has been both remembered and forgotten. To achieve these goals, we will collect and analyse oral testimonies from a range of individuals with knowledge about and/or experience of the Hirschfeld Centre. We will also access and interpret physical and digital material from historical archives.
During 2022, we plan to interview individuals who wish to provide oral testimony about their knowledge about and/or experience of the Hirschfeld, including those who were involved in the running of the centre and the wider community of people that used it, as well as individuals who were aware of the Centre but did not participate.
This research will be disseminated in three ways: a book, Disco Liberation, under contract with Liverpool University Press; a podcast series, Fortress Fownes, distributed through an RSS platform in collaboration with a media partner; and an oral history archive, preserved by our partner on this project, the National Museum of Ireland (NMI).
Waking the Hirschfeld 