School of Social Work and Social Policy, Annual Lecture

The story of LGBTQ+ change in Ireland is often told through milestones and moments. But the real story is about power: how it is built, who holds it, and what it takes for communities pushed to the margins to claim it for themselves. The progress we’ve seen was not inevitable. It was organised, contested, and led by communities who refused to be spoken for. In this talk, drawing on How Ireland’s LGBTQ+ Youth Movement Was Built: Civil Society in the Pursuit of Social Justice, Dr Michael Barron reflects on what that journey can teach us now. He shares personal and collective learning from over 30 years of activism, considering what helped build power, where we compromised, what we got right, and what we would do differently. At the centre is a simple but vital idea: that minority communities need the space, resources, and confidence to advocate for themselves. When that space is weakened, whether through funding pressures, institutional capture, or the quiet reshaping of agendas, something essential is lost.We are now living through a period where anti-LGBTQ+ narratives are becoming more organised, more visible, and more normalised. Disinformation is shaping public debate. The ground is shifting again.

So this is also a conversation about what comes next.

What does it mean to hold onto community power in this context? How do we support new and emerging activists without asking them to start from scratch? And how do we stay connected to a sense of possibility - to Queer Optimism - even when the conditions are hard?

This session opens out into a wider conversation with a panel of voices working across activism, research, and practice. Together, we will reflect on what we have learned, what we need to protect, and how we continue to imagine and build the futures our communities deserve.

The talk will be followed by a panel discussion.

About the Speaker: Dr Michael Barron is a social scientist, activist, and human rights researcher whose work focuses on how communities pushed to the margins build power and shape public policy. Over more than three decades, he has worked across civil society, government, and international organisations on issues including LGBTQ+ rights, youth policy, and social inequality.He is the author of How Ireland’s LGBTQ+ Youth Movement Was Built: Civil Society in the Pursuit of Social Justice, which traces how self-organised communities drove significant changes in Irish law and policy.

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