Mission Statement…

Aims:

The main aim of “Behind Closet Doors” which is the working title at the moment is to record the gay social His/Her-Story of cork. Unlike the political history of gay activism over the last number of years the social His/Her-Story is more embedded in the communities of Ireland. They are stories, memories locked away in the minds of many people all over Cork. It is our aim to record this pink social His/Her-Story before it’s lost to the ravages of time and even more sadly the grave.

Means to the end:

As this is a unique form of His/Her-Story in that the majority of the sources are still living the acquisition of notes, materials and sources generally is going to be through speaking with people.

So to this end I feel the most appropriate way of moving forward with recording such information in a time efficient, accessible, reusable, redistributable, age appropriate format is to run a series of workshops. Our way of achieving this is as follows.

• Running a series of eight workshops held each season. These workshops would operate under the Project “Behind Closet Doors” each would have a set theme, each of the eight evenings different. And a core speaker who would have a prepared piece ready which would kick off a period of questioning where a group of at least two, ideally three panelists who could have questions put to them to stimulate recollections otherwise forgotten. Active discussion. The only good way to pry this valuable asset from the mind! We would hope such an evening would last from between an hour to two hours. Giving every opportunity for spontaneous debate.
• Distributing this is the next objective, the ultimate goal after recording. This would be divided into several methods.

(i)            Blogging. It would be the intention that a transcript of the speech made at each of these lectures be typed up and posted online as well as the recordings written out and published also. So they are publicly accessible for all. *

(ii)           Podcasting. Continuing on from the accessible, reusable, redistributable and age appropriate format from the mission statement we would aim to have the recordings of the event made available to download from an online location, preferably the project website.*

(iii)         Print. It would be a nice aspect to ultimately produce a single printed volume of these lectures with possibly pictures provided by various sources. With money covering costs of print and any profit directed at funding if required further lecture series or a suitable organisation.

(iv)        It is also hoped to have some form of a lecture presenting the work of the project on a more formal basis in an effort to attract more people to share their story. And also as an advertisement to the planned easter workshop series.

*(Under the strict permission of those present do voice recordings become available, or edited appropriately so some of the sessions can be made available via podcasting. All Sessions will be recorded and transcripts of what said made available but identities protected as requested and required).

• Location and Publicity:

(i)            Location, it is hoped at this point that the series can be run in a location with space and is easily accessible by all. (TOP will be approached regarding this.)

(ii)           Publicity. By hosting such an event we hope to attract a large group of people to events as well as advertising via all the commercial venues, community centers, universities etc. and via web mediums such as gaycork.com and other such similar facilities available to us.

• Format. By this I mean mainly the way the workshop series will be presented. We would aim to do each series of eight on a theme by theme basis. It is the intention that this social His/Her-Story spans the entire LGBT community and as such the panelists and topics on discussion will aim to achieve this.

The End…

• For me I think the social His/Her-Story of gay cork is something that should never really end. But should be pushed as far back as living memory will allow. And failing that we should look to our own ingenuity and try and discover a means and a way to unlocking that. But for now we should try and record what’s available now to us. And even more importantly make sure the events going on around us aren’t forgotten too. Our present past as historians often call it.
• The political History of cork can be left to political annalists as the richness of our culture lies in our social past.