Dublin

Dublin has a compact LGBTQI+ scene concentrated in the centre. There is no declared gay village in the style of Soho or Chueca: the ecosystem is spread over three or four streets that sit ten minutes' walk from one another. The George, on South Great George's Street, opened in May 1985 and is still the best known gay bar, with drag nights, bingo and a dancefloor every weekend.

Pantibar, on Capel Street and open since 2007, is Panti Bliss's bar, the drag figure, key activist of the 2015 referendum and author of the famous Noble Call speech at the Abbey Theatre. Street 66, on Parliament Street, and Pygmalion, on South William Street, cover the more mixed and daytime crowd. And Mother is a roaming queer club that stops at Lost Lane on Saturdays. The scene has not stopped growing since 2015.

Dublin Pride is held on the last Saturday of June, closing a ten-day festival. The first edition, on 25 June 1983, marched from St Stephen's Green to the General Post Office, on O'Connell Street. Between 2017 and 2019 the route ended at Smithfield Square, and since 2022 it finishes at Merrion Square, where the Pride Village is set up. In 2010 and 2011 more than 22,000 people marched according to the organisers, and later editions have kept growing.

The event was interrupted between 1985 and 1992, by mass emigration and by the AIDS crisis. Before all that there had been a demonstration for LGBT rights on 27 June 1974. It is organised by the non-profit Dublin LGBTQ+ Pride, with volunteers and the support of the city council. The calendar is rounded out by GAZE, the LGBT film festival in August, and by the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, in May.

Unlike London with Soho or Madrid with Chueca, Dublin has no declared gay village. The scene is spread over three or four streets in the centre, all comfortably walkable.

South Great George's Street is the night core, thanks to The George. South William Street has Pygmalion, with a casual, daytime feel in the Creative Quarter, and Parliament Street has Street 66, next to Temple Bar. North of the Liffey lies Capel Street, with Pantibar, on a street partly pedestrianised since 2022. And Temple Bar works as the gateway, because it concentrates the hotels and leaves the gay core five to ten minutes away on foot. The whole thing can be covered in a good fifteen minutes.

The National LGBT Federation, BeLonG To, which works with LGBT young people, and TENI, the trans equality network, are all based in Dublin. The magazine GCN, Gay Community News, has been the country's longest-running since 1988. And Outhouse, the LGBT community centre on Capel Street, offers space, a library and support groups.

On health, the public system, the HSE, does free rapid HIV and STI testing at clinics such as the GUIDE at St James's Hospital and through MPower, run by HIV Ireland. PrEP has been free since 2019 for residents through that route. Post-exposure prophylaxis is available at any hour in hospital emergency departments, within a 72-hour window. Visitors need insurance or a private consultation, though the Gay Men's Health Service, also part of the HSE, sees people free of charge.