Irish Queer Archive

From the late 1970s onwards this was confined to a rudimentary press clippings service and some limited research by, amongst others, activists Edmund Lynch, David Norris and Tom McClean.

The archive and reference library was put on a more organised footing in Midsummer 1997 when NXF and Gay Community News moved into new premises on South William Street, Dublin.

At that point, civil rights activist Tonie Walsh, along with librarians Linda Forry and Plunkett Conroy, began a systematic re-organisation of its holdings.

Although it struggled financially in the following years with finding suitable, affordable office and storage accommodation, NXF lost no time in appointing a group of academics, historians and writers to focus on exploiting the collections and making suggestions for a future safe home.

This IQA group consisted of Eibhear Walshe, lecturer in English at University College Cork; Mary McAuliffe and Katherine O’Donnell, both of Gender Studies at University College Dublin; Susan O'Brien, Joan Murphy, an Raidió Teilifís Éireann archivist; librarian Elizabeth Kirwan of National Library of Ireland; and Tonie Walsh, coincidentally a former president of NXF and founding editor of Gay Community News.