Senator David Norris pictured library staff, Eileen Morrissey (Co. Librarian), Sinead O’Gorman and Nicola McGrath at a talk given by David Norris at Wexford Library. Pic: John Walsh

ONE OF the most influential figures in Ireland’s gay rights journey, Senator David Norris, received a rapturous Wexford welcome recently when he addressed an audience at the library.

People of all backgrounds turned out to hear from the gregarious and ebullient Dublin-based public representative and Joycean scholar who spearheaded the campaign to remove the criminal status which was attached to homosexuality from 1861 until 1993.

In an event held under the banner of ‘The Road to Equality’, Senator Norris took those gathered on a whistle-stop tour to equality which succinctly encapsulated the changing nature of Irish society throughout the second half of the twentieth century and beyond.

Naturally, there were plenty of laughs to be had along the way too.

The manner in which the uplifting Senator won a European Court challenge against the Irish State over the constitutional status of the criminalisation of homosexual acts was regaled in full nostalgic flow.

His win paved the way towards the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993.

Read more in the Wexford Echo.