Disregard of Historic Offences for Consensual Sexual Activity Between Men Bill 2025: Second Stage [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Aengus Ó Snodaigh (SF), Dublin South-Central

I wish it was this good all the time. I thank the Minister for his positive comments throughout - from the get-go when I asked the parliamentary question to the First Stage, when I talked to him afterwards and the debate today. I thank all of those who took part, including na Teachtaí Louise O'Reilly, Máire Devine, Paul Donnelly, Eoin Hayes, Pádraig Rice and Roderic O'Gorman agus, dar ndóigh, an tAire féin.
Gabhaim buíochas leo mar, go minic, bíonn sé deacair daoine a fháil chun páirt a ghlacadh i ndíospóireachtaí tráthnóna Déardaoin. Gabhaim buíochas leo siúd a sheas an fód agus a bhí anseo. Is léir ón oiread daoine a bhí anseo don díospóireacht cé chomh tábhachtach is atá sé mar ábhar. Nuair atá seans againn ceart a dhéanamh nuair atá ciapadh tar éis a bheith déanta ar dhaoine, ba chóir go dtapaímid an deis chun ceart a dhéanamh agus an rud sin a chur i gceart.
It has been a good debate. I thank those who contributed today and those who have been raising our awareness over the years, in particular the LGBT+ Restorative Justice Campaign. I mentioned Brian, Kieran and Karl earlier. Some of them are with us today. There are also the drafters, Céile and Ciaran.
I draw people's attention to the booklet they produced, Disregard and Redress . It is a useful introduction if there are people listening or looking in who are interested in the topic. In its few short pages, it outlines the effects much better than I can on the people affected by the criminalisation of homosexuality in this State and, when people went before the courts, what they were faced with. Mention was made of Declan Flynn. There are a number of them in Rathmines and so on in the seventies. I was a very young child at that stage but I remember the eighties, similar to Deputy Donnelly. The one I remember is when Charles Self was stabbed to death in 1982. It was not the fact of the horrific death. That was bad enough but it was the glee - I do not know whether I am using the wrong word - with which the gardaí took it upon themselves to seek out nearly every gay person in this city, interrogate them, visit their workplaces and hound them day in and day out until they gave their fingerprints or accounted for their movements, just by virtue of the fact they had got it into their heads that a person who was gay had committed the killing and stabbing of Charles Self. I do not think that murder has ever been brought to a conclusion but its effects are explained in this booklet.
The booklet was put together to encourage us as parliamentarians to address this issue. That is when, in many ways, I came to this issue. A redress or disregard process is not something that happens all the time. We have a relatively new State. It is 100 years old and still grappling with the legacy of colonial laws. Every couple of years in this Parliament, we have legislation repealing hundreds or thousands of old colonial laws. We do that but the legacy here is still live. My colleague, Deputy O'Reilly, quoted from a case in 1992. There are probably more.
I have taken a cursory glance through files and shared some of the documentation with others. If people want them, I am happy to share. It is just what is available in this new modern age in the archive of newspapers online. You put in a search and, all of a sudden, get results. I was only searching for two words: "gross indecency". I did not search for the other charges that might have been brought. I have not finished. I have about 80 pages - one page per newspaper article. I have 30 more years to do since the founding of the State. That is me, an amateur historian, throwing in a word.
We need to find out the full effects and we will when the disregard scheme is up and running. We will hear people's stories or, maybe more so, become aware of them, especially those who, as my colleague, Deputy Devine, said, emigrated. There are so many people. I and probably everybody in this Chamber know people who feared prosecution and the persecution that came afterwards, and sometimes before. Even my cursory glance showed people not turning up in court. It is obvious they got the hell out of Dodge before their whole world collapsed. In many cases, it did collapse. They had to leave their jobs and had their full details published in local newspapers and endured the scandal that drew upon them. They then became open to being targeted by conservative elements in small communities. The Valley of the Squinting Windows springs to mind. There was definitely that kind of view in small-world Ireland, not rural Ireland but Ireland as a whole. You had it in urban communities as well. That persecution, prosecution, marginalisation, isolation and ostracisation went with it. We are trying to right that in a small way.
This is not the end of this. There were 95 recommendations. Many have been addressed. There are still some we need to address. By us having this debate today, I hope it sends the message we will not stand by and allow the comments that Deputies O'Gorman and Donnelly referred to. There is now an increase in homophobia again. As a Parliament, we are united on that and will not stand for that. It is not just coarseness in debate or discourse. It goes beyond that to physical attacks now. It seems to be becoming acceptable to attack people who stand up for gay rights or LGBTQ rights or even speak about it. I know that on my Facebook tonight I will be targeted just for having the gall, in their eyes, to stand up and raise an issue. It is easy for me; I just delete, hide, block. I am not the one who has to move around the city and make a display of affection with another man or another woman. That can draw physical attacks from some of these idiots. We have to stand against that type of attitude. We have seen it in other countries in the EU and we will not tolerate it here. We have come a long way and need to stay well away from that which gave us the title of a conservative society. We are not. We are a welcoming society and always have been but there have always been elements which have wished to make us a close-minded, conservative and retrograde society.
Gabhaim buíochas arís le gach duine as a bheith liom sa díospóireacht, go háirithe iad siúd a thug tacaíocht dom leis an mBille ar an gCéad Chéim. Tá a fhios agam nár chóir dom labhairt faoin Uachtarán ach bhí sí anseo nuair a bhog muid an Bille seo ar an gCéad Chéim. Tá súil agam go mbeidh sí i láthair nuair a théann an Bille os comhair an Uachtaráin. Beidh sí an-sásta go raibh sí mar chuid den phróiseas, idir thús agus dheireadh an phróisis.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-16