Gay and lesbian activism in the Republic of Ireland, 1973–93. By Patrick McDonagh. Pp 219. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2022. £76.50

The second chapter charts a more visible gay scene in the 1980s, with the inception of the Hirschfield Centre, which, according to the president of the National Gay Federation (N.G.F.), emboldened gay men and lesbian women to ‘go back out to the world that bit more confident and that bit more aware of what they are’ (p. 44). [...]the leftist Cork Gay Collective and Galway Gay Collective are presented on approximate terms to their Dublin counterparts, forming alliances and crucial sites of socialisation and politicisation in even less favourable circumstances. The penultimate chapter profiles Gay Health Action's response to the AIDS epidemic, crediting this body's prompt intercession with defending the gay community from reproach and counteracting a broader culture of ignorance surrounding sexual health.