A Day in May

Book excerpt: There's a million in the middle - and they might go either way. On May 22nd, 2015, the people of Ireland voted resoundingly for marriage equality - making Ireland the first country in the world to introduce gay marriage by popular vote. Little about Ireland's 20th-century history suggested that the country would find itself at the vanguard of LGBT+ rights. “Homosexual conduct may lead a mildly homosexually-orientated person into a way of life from which he may never recover,” warned the Irish Supreme Court in 1982. Homosexuality remained criminalised till 1993. But a long, hard fight by determined activists, as well as the individual efforts and sacrifices of thousands of ordinary people, gradually made the case for gay rights and, eventually, marriage equality. Colin Murphy's documentary drama, based on interviews by the journalist Charlie Bird, charts the arc of that fight - culminating in the fervour of the final campaign weeks - interwoven with the personal stories of some of those who were touched by it. This edition was published to coincide with the presentation of A Day in May at Dublin's Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire, in October 2022.