About

Orla Egan is currently developing a Cork LGBT Digital Archive to preserve, store, share and display information in relation to the rich history of the LGBT community in Cork. See http://corklgbtarchive.com/ and corklgbthistory for more information. Also follow the Cork LGBT Archive on Facebook and Twitter and Orla Egan on Twitter.

I am a PhD student in Digital Arts and Humanities (DAH) in UCC and a part-time tutor / lecturer in DAH, Women’s Studies and Applied Social Studies in UCC.  I completed the MA in DAH in 2014, the MA in Women’s Studies in 1992 and a BA in European Studies in 1987.

I have a particular interest in LGBT History and community activism.  I have been actively involved with the lesbian community in Cork since the 1980s.  I worked in the Cork Women’s Place and The Other Place LGBT Resource Centre, both in the early 1990s.  I organised the first ever lesbian and gay float in a Patrick’s Day Parade in Cork in 1992, partly in response to the banning of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organisation from marching in Patrick’s Day Parades in New York and Boston.

I was a member of the Irish Equality Authority’s Advisory Committee on Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals, which led to the publication of their report on Implementing Equality for Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals.

I have carried out research on the history of the Cork Lesbian Community and published a number of papers on this.   I was one of the presenters of Out and About, a film produced by Framework Films as part of the Cork City of Culture in 2005.

I have campaigned publicly for the recognition and rights of lesbian and gay families.   This has included television appearances on the Late Late Show, Prime Time, Afternoon Show, and the Six-One News and interviews in the Irish Times.   I have a ten year old son Jacob.

I have over 20 years experience working within the Community Development, Social Inclusion, Equality and Educational arenas in Ireland.

You will find links to some of the research I produced as part of this work on this site.  This includes a series of publications on educational equality that I edited as part of my work as Director of the Higher Education Equality Unit (HEEU) from 1992-2000.  There are also links to research carried out as part of my work as Co-Founder and Director of CLARITY RDT Ltd, an independent social inclusion support agency.

With CLARITY RDT Ltd. I worked with a wide variety of community, voluntary and statutory agencies providing the following services:

• Project Management
• Planning
• Evaluation
• Research / Publications
• Training
• Facilitation
• Empowerment

I have been involved in the development and delivery of courses in Women’s Studies in UCC, including Co-ordinating the Diploma in Women’s Studies, Chairing the Adult Education Board of Women’s Studies and teaching on the MA in Women’s Studies.  I also established and co-ordinated a National Women’s Studies network in the 1990s.  I currently teach part-time in UCC on the Masters in Women’s Studies, the DAH programme and I supervise final year projects in Applied Social Studies.

I have been involved in a Drama Group linked to the Cork Lesbian Centre, Linc.  In 2014 we wrote our first play, Ordinary Love, which was performed in the Cork Arts Theatre in March and in May 2014 and will be performed again in 2016 in Cork and as part of the Gay Theatre Festival in Dublin.