Dublin Pride Grand Marshall Ruadhán Ó Críodáin: "It’s going to be a chance to advocate for queer rights, and for trans rights in particular – that’s my own focus"

Ruadhán Ó Críodáin has spent more than a decade agitating fiercely for change in Ireland’s approach to LGBTQI+ people, and the challenges they face.

Now 31, Ruadhán began his journey in queer and trans activism in 2012 as a volunteer with ShoutOut, a youth-led organisation promoting inclusion through education. Latterly, he has stepped up to the plate as director of the advocacy group.

Over the years, Ruadhán has played a key role in the campaigns for Marriage Equality and to Repeal the 8th. This year, as Grand Marshall, he will lead Dublin Pride, which is marking a decade since the introduction of legal gender recognition in Ireland.

Outside of activism, the Northside Dubliner is passionate about music, swimming and queer cinema. He currently serves as a member of the Board of the GAZE International LGBTQIA+ Film Festival.

Jason O’Toole: What does Pride mean to you personally?

Pride is a protest and it’s a party. It’s an opportunity to show solidarity with the LGBT community around the world. Pride isn’t something that can happen in every country. It’s not happening in Hungary this year. We’ve seen bans in countries like Turkey. We’re also thinking of countries where queer people are going through even more difficult things again – places where it’s frightening to be LGBT, or it’s violent. So marching in Dublin on the 28th, it’s going to be a chance to advocate for queer rights, and for trans rights in particular – that’s my own focus.

The protest element feels important right now.

It’s a big focus. It’ll be, like I say, a protest against injustices happening elsewhere – against what’s happening in terms of trans rights in the UK and the US, and also what is being done in Gaza and Palestine. That is all very heavy – but Pride is also a party. It’s where the community comes together to celebrate.

What was your first Pride like?

I was still in the closet at the time, in 2007. I would have been 14 or 15. I was still in school. I was facing a lot of bullying. I didn’t feel like coming out was going to be possible. On the day, I got overwhelmed and scared. About halfway through the parade, I said, “I need to go home.”

So coming out was scary…

It was another couple of years before I really came out to my family and friends. And so that’s something I think about with Pride every year: that it’s not just for the people who can march, it’s also for the people who can’t come out just yet – to let them know the size of the community, and all the support that’s going to be there when they do come out.

Was coming out hard in the end?

Yeah, I came out twice. I came out when I was a teenager as gay first, and that was hard. Not so much with my friends. I started off in one secondary school and I was bullied quite badly there. It didn’t feel like a space where I could come out safely. I moved at the end of third year to a different secondary school. No child should ever have to move school because they’re facing bullying. But I was lucky that, in the second school, it was really accepting, really inclusive. It was a place where being different was celebrated. And so I was able to come out there to my friends and to my family, and it was relatively smooth. Nobody in my year gave me any hassle for it.

When did you first come out as a trans man?

In my late twenties. After lockdown, after all the introspection and isolation, I realised I was trans. I had to come out again. Actually, when you’re trans, you end up having to tell more people because you have to do things like changing your name and changing your pronouns. It’s not just a case of who you’re dating. You have to come out to the bank and your doctor, and to anywhere where you need to update your details. So that wasn’t easy.

So the second time was significantly harder.

It was more difficult because transness isn’t something that most people are familiar with or understand. You have to explain what your identity means to far more people. You’re asking people to see you as who you really are – and to affirm that, by using the right name, pronouns and by recognising you as male or female or non-binary or however you might identify. And for me, it’s male. I’m a trans guy. So even though I’ve got a huge support system and I work in a queer organisation and I’ve got lots of queer and trans friends, it was more challenging.

It would take a serious toll on anyone…

And it’s still quite heavy now. There’s a lot of transphobia. There’s a lot of negativity around trans issues. And that’s something that makes you feel quite scared and vulnerable. You need a pretty thick skin as a trans person. It can be hard to have that thick skin if – unlike me – you don’t have supportive friends or family. And then, I think most queer people will probably say that you have to come out in lots of different spaces. You have to come out to a taxi driver if they ask if you’ve got a partner. You have to come out in your job. You have to come out again and again. You’re always weighing up if you’re going to be safe to come out in that space and if you’ve got the energy to handle a negative reaction. Coming out is not easy, but it’s absolutely worth it.

Have you ever directly faced homophobia?

Oh, God, yeah. I experienced homophobia in school. I would have had awful things said to me, would have been physically assaulted, would have had rocks thrown at me on the school break, bangers, fireworks. I remember one of my friends who wasn’t gay, but was really into Nirvana, wore a dress to school, [looking] like Kurt Cobain. And he was beaten up. He was attacked with a steel ruler. And that was just what being different got you in a Dublin school at that time. And it still happens.

There have been instances…

Just two years ago, a boy was attacked outside the school in Navan for being queer – it was live-streamed. The work that I do now with ShoutOut is all about trying to make schools aware that this takes place – and to make students aware of the impact, from a cruel comment to anything as physical or horrible as an attack. I still experience homophobia. And transphobia.

It’s painful to see that homophobia still affects so many lives in Ireland today.

Homophobia is a real issue at the moment. I’ve had things shouted at me for kissing partners or holding hands in the street. People may take issue with the fact that I’m not super-obviously male, or people maybe read me as trans and make a comment on that. It’s getting worse in Dublin rather than better. I’ve had a good few friends physically attacked – particularly queer women. It’s frightening. It shouldn’t be that way.

Why is there so much hostility towards the trans community?

It’s down to a lack of education, a lack of awareness and a lack of empathy. There’s all kinds of things driving that, like austerity, the housing crisis. Everybody is under strain, and it’s harder for people to be generous with each other and kind to each other. We want more educational understanding in schools because a lot of the perpetrators who’ve committed hate crimes have been young. A lot of these perpetrators tend to be under 25.

What are your thoughts on Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the DEI initiatives?

It’s really scary. Trump is a danger to democracy. He’s a danger to LGBT people, to migrants, to people of colour. I think what Trump is doing – it’s fascist. And then in terms of the DEI piece, Trump said to all the big international companies that they won’t have access to US contracts and that they’ll be sued and they’ll face prosecution if they engage in DEI – and that’s having an impact on people who work for American companies in Ireland, whether that’s pharma or tech companies.

That’s not good for Irish people.

So many individuals in those companies have supported LGBT charities like ShoutOut down the years and they’re now trying to figure out how they could still show support for the queer community in Ireland without risking their jobs. It’s depressing to see the impact that Trump’s decisions on DEI is having on the LGBT charity infrastructure in Ireland. It’s going to affect things like our ability to deliver workshops in schools. It’s going to affect LGBT youth services and support services.

Would you feel safe travelling to the US right now?

I don’t feel like I can go safely to the US. For me, as a trans person with a gender recognition cert, my assigned sex of birth on my birth certificate is different from the sex that’s on my passport. The sex that’s on my passport is male. It recognises who I am. It means I can travel safely around the world, but Trump recently brought in a new question on the ESTA forum for people travelling to the US where he asks about your assigned sex of birth. I have other trans friends who had to cancel trips to the US. On the Department of Foreign Affairs website at the moment, there’s a warning for Irish trans people around travelling to the States.

There is a real fear that gay people in the US are going to be driven back into the closet by the current regime.

That is a real fear. It’s definitely a fear for people working in companies where DEI is being wiped out. It’s particularly a fear for trans people. People might have seen Hunter Schafer. She’s an actress on Euphoria. She’s one of the highest-profile trans celebrities in the world. She recently applied for a new American passport and it came back with the gender listed as male. Her passport does not reflect who she truly is. We’ve also seen a number of states ban trans healthcare for minors, and move to ban trans healthcare for adults in public hospitals. Some states are banning trans people from participating in sport. And there’s detention and incarceration of trans and queer migrants. It’s really frightening.

There’s a genuine fear that it could lead to tragedy.

I know somebody working in trans legal rights in the US – she’s a lawyer and she’s trans – and she’s like, “I don’t just go into work scared that I’m going to lose a case – I go into work scared that somebody will shoot me!” Violence is a real issue in the States. Gun violence isn’t an issue here. But I’d be really frightened to be a trans person in the States right now.

Looking back at the old covers during the ’80s, Hot Press was very strong in its support for gay rights. Were you aware of that history at all?

I was aware of Hot Press as a socially progressive magazine. I remember my big brother in college getting the Hot Press, and me always robbing it, because it was somewhere you could read about sexuality and gender in a way that wasn’t sanitised, in a way that wasn’t misogynistic, and in a way that was forward-thinking. It was talking about things like abortion and contraception in a way that was mature and respectful of the people reading it.

Even when homosexuality was illegal, Dermod Moore wrote Boot Boy, which was an amazing, incredibly honest and very revealing fortnightly account of life as a gay man.

What Hot Press was doing then – and now – was reaching not just the queer community, but also allies who wanted to learn about the queer community, who were excited about the queer community and who didn’t want to turn away from it. I’ve read some of the older articles. Hot Press has always been a really reliable voice on queer issues – especially when it comes to being open about things that Irish people refused to talk about before. On the very first issue of Hot Press, there’s a gay couple kissing in the background, and that was in 1977. That was unimaginable for Ireland at the time.

Collectively, we’ve set the bar here in many ways.

Ireland has some of the best gender recognition legislation in the world at the moment. It’s based on the principle of self-declaration that every individual knows who they are and is able to identify themselves as male or female, depending on what feels most appropriate for them. It just gives me that dignity and that safety to be seen as who I truly am in the eyes of the state, particularly when I’m travelling. And it is a really straightforward bit of legislation.

How does it work?

You fill out a form, you send it to the Department of Social Protection and you have it witnessed by a solicitor or peace commissioner. I feel really proud to live in a country where we have that legislation. And we’ve 10 years of that legislation now – that’s what we’re celebrating with Pride this year. That’s why I am the Grand Marshall. And it’s really important to celebrate. It should be a fundamental human right for trans people, but it’s not in existence in the UK and the US.

Are there improvements you’d like to see here?

We still don’t have it for young people, which means it’s harder for young people to be recognised in education as their true selves. It is about children also having the right to self-express and to be who they truly are, and have a voice to define themselves. We also don’t have that legislation for non-binary people in Ireland. So it is something that needs to be modernised and updated.

Is there a fear that a kind of oasis period for the LGBTQI+ community is under threat and maybe even over?

I think there’s definitely that fear. When the Supreme Court decision went through in the UK to say that trans women wouldn’t be recognised as women, in Ireland it was a splash of cold water. It was a shock to the system to see that happening with a country that’s so close to us and that our government often follows when it comes to policy ideas.

A lot of people were shocked.

Ten or 15 years ago the UK were the No.1 country in Europe for LGBT equality – and now they’re No. 22 in the ranking! So progress isn’t something that’s linear – progress is like a pendulum. And I think at the moment we’re on a bit of a downswing.

Hasn’t organised religion got a lot of responsibility for that – for example, the way that Catholicism still insists that gay sex is a sin?

I think religion in Ireland has done an absolute number on us, particularly religious control of education and hospitals. In Ireland, women, children and LGBT people have been controlled or repressed or dominated in the name of religion. Religious faith within individuals can and should also be a tool for social justice, for kindness and for social change. We saw a little bit of that under Pope Francis. We saw a slightly kinder Catholic Church in terms of some of the things he said.

Pope Francis clearly didn’t go far enough.

He absolutely didn’t go far enough in terms of gay marriage or women in the church or trans people, and he still said pretty vicious things about trans identities, and he used terms like “gender ideology” which is a transphobic term.

Right wing religious nuts tend to forget that some in the LGBTQI+ community have deep faith too.

I think the LGBT community and our allies have the potential to take back religion and faith as something that we are also entitled to, something that we also own. I was baptised as a baby, like most of Ireland. I was raised within the Catholic Church. I went to mass every single week, and for a long time I threw that experience away and said, “Well, this has nothing to do with me because this is the same group that criminalised abortion. It’s the same group that put women and children into homes, the same group that said what I did was a sin.” But as somebody who was raised Catholic, I have some ownership over the religion and there is something in there around kindness and neighbourliness and peace and pacifism that I think have some value today.

Some trans people find it difficult to talk about their story, which is understandable. But it’s great to see that you’re very open about it.

I can tell my story, and I feel safe to do so. I wouldn’t feel safe in every interview or every conversation. There’s always the risk that you’ll be targeted. It’s a bit easier for me as a trans man. We don’t experience the same level of hate that trans women get. Trans women have been demonised, especially in the UK. They’ve been painted as deceitful or as dishonest. Painted as predatory. And it’s some of the cruellest, most inaccurate and most dehumanising language that we’ve seen out there. Trans women, particularly in the UK, have been monstered by the press.

It must be really difficult for someone who’s transitioned to female being told that you can’t go into a women’s toilet…

We’re not out there to deceive anybody. We’re not trying to gain access to spaces. I can’t go into the women’s toilet. I wouldn’t want to be in the women’s toilet. I might make a woman uncomfortable in that space. We just want to go about our lives and be able to use the toilet safely. And a lot of trans people don’t feel safe using the toilet in public; they don’t feel safe doing things that should come easily, like going to a gig or a bar or trying on an outfit in a shop. All we want is just to live our lives in peace and privacy. It’s not something that should be up for debate.

Where does Ireland rank for trans healthcare?

We’ve got the worst trans healthcare in Europe! We’re worse than countries where it’s quite difficult to be trans, like Hungary or Poland! It’s an absolute disgrace. The government needs to do better. The HSE needs to do better. And in particular, the National Gender Service needs to improve.

You’re clearly not a fan.

When you’re seen by the National Gender Service, the initial assessment is very invasive. It’s dehumanising. It’s up to four hours long. Adult patients are often asked to ring their parents to validate what’s said in the assessment. Patients have been asked horrible questions about their sex life. It’s not respectful or dignified, and it doesn’t happen quickly enough for trans people whose mental health will be suffering when we’re trying to access healthcare.

It can be a slow process.

I, myself, was referred about four years ago now. I’m not expecting to be seen this year. It’s up to 10 years now , based on the number of people who are on the waiting list and how slowly they’re seeing people. And for young people in Ireland, there just is no trans healthcare service.

Surely that has to change...

Trans healthcare is seen as the biggest thing that any trans person needs to access urgently. Ninety percent of trans young people have considered suicide. Honestly, we can’t talk about it enough. There’s no reason for it to be this bad. This is something that a lot of GPs could be delivering in terms of access to hormones and referrals for surgeries. There is a lack of expertise and a lack of training, particularly around surgical expertise. There is the possibility for people to be referred abroad under the HSE Treatment Abroad Scheme. But what we are seeing is, I suppose, an insistence by certain clinicians within the Gender Service to control the model of care and to not deliver a more patient-centred model, centred around the idea of informed consent.

Why is that happening?

It comes down to maybe certain doctors or certain clinicians not trusting trans patients to know ourselves. So it’s a huge issue. It’s going to be kind of top of the table at Dublin Pride this year and at Trans Pride in July. We’re a very rich, modern country. We shouldn’t have the worst trans healthcare in the EU.

Social media can often be a toxic environment.

I’ve deleted my X/Twitter account years ago, because if you post about being trans, you just get absolute vitriol online. We get targeted for the work that we do as a queer charity and so do all the other queer charities in Ireland.

Mental health is a massive concern for the LGBTQI+ community. To what extent is that down to how social media enables a mob to vent at people who are perceived as being different?

I think the impact of social media in the last five years can’t be overstated. It’s responsible for waves of transphobia in the US and the UK. It’s led to things like trans people being blocked out of sport, and not being able to access youth healthcare. It’s led to really transphobic policy decisions in the UK, particularly around the recognition of trans women, and in the US around healthcare, immigration and sport. We’ve been lucky in Ireland, that it hasn’t affected policy in the same way. But we’ve seen awful things like protests at libraries and protests at Pride events. I think social media does have a lot to answer for – especially, X/Twitter for not moderating violent hate speech. A lot of this is also proliferating on the likes of Telegram.

What can the government do?

We need more investment in LGBT youth services, in LGBT inclusive education and in ensuring young people have access to safe spaces offline. We need more regulation of what’s happening online.

Will that happen?

One thing I will say for social media is that, for queer people, it helps us to access community. If you’re a young LGBT person and you’re the only LGBT person in your school, you don’t have LGBT friends, social media can also be a lifeline. So it’s kind of double-sided. When we talk to young people in schools with ShoutOut, they’ll tell us how much it means to see somebody who is trans or black and trans tell their story. It helps them feel less alone. So it’s not all bad. But we definitely need more regulation – and we need more responsibility from social media companies.

Would you consider running for elected office?

I’d definitely consider it. It’s a really hard job at the moment. And I don’t necessarily think it’s a very safe job for a queer person or a person of colour to take on. I have huge respect for politicians who are using their voices for the rights of marginalised people, who are using their voices to try and advocate for better housing in Ireland, better healthcare. And especially for politicians who are strongly calling for an end to the genocide, in Gaza.

What do you think when a politician says something like, “The best thing for children is to be brought up by their father and their mother, a man and a woman in a stable relationship underwritten by marriage. And I think the state should support that.”

It’s a massive slap in the face to amazing families of all kinds. I know so many queer parents who are doing a better job raising their children than maybe some parents with a traditional heterosexual family. Queer parents have to work very hard to have children. I think that comment is a massive kick in the teeth to queer families. Which politician said that?

It was said way back by Leo Varadkar, in the Dáil.

I’m glad he changed his tune. He changed his tune on abortion. I think he changed what he had to say on LGBT rights a number of times and I’m glad that he came out when he did, just before the marriage referendum – but I think he came maybe a little bit late to the party. But we also have to be open to people coming around and publicly changing their stance on certain issues. I’m conscious that people like Leo, Norma Foley, Micheál Martin – who would be very mainstream in their politics – have been firm on trans issues. Norma Foley made it very clear that Ireland wouldn’t be following the UK’s lead when it came to the issue of trans people. But the support the politicians show for trans rights in Ireland needs to be firmer and louder, especially on issues like healthcare and extending gender recognition.

You’re involved in campaigning for inclusive education. How far away are we from that?

We need to have a huge rethink. There is a big convention coming from the government on education, and I think that’s quite exciting. It will cover things like school patronage and mixed versus single-sex schools. One of the biggest barriers for trans students is the fact that we have so many single-sex schools. That is also quite unusual in the European context, where you’re more likely to see mixed schools with a secular ethos and religion being something that parents and families can opt into rather than being dictated as standard.

What would you be hoping for?

We need better policies for trans students. We need bullying to be tackled. We need more support for teacher training, so teachers know how to tackle bullying head-on. Teachers aren’t given space or time to train up around things like cyberbullying or even things more broadly like LGBT inclusion. We also need the sex ed curriculum to be implemented and given the proper support. SPHE [Social, Personal and Health Education], as a subject, isn’t respected in Ireland

Berlin has a reputation for a great gay scene. Where is the best scene of them all?

In the past, I maybe would have said somewhere like New York or London, but the best scene that anybody can be a part of is their home scene. You can’t just complain that the scene isn’t good enough and keep going to parties elsewhere. You have to invest in your clubs, you have to invest in your nightlife. Irish people love moaning about something and not doing anything to make it better. We have to show up.

What message would you give to someone who has never attended a Pride event before?

I think if you’re a straight person who hasn’t attended Pride before, you should know that it is for you and that you’re very welcome to attend if you’re an ally and if you’re sensitive and aware to the issues that the LGBT community is going through. If you’re not attending because you’re in the closet, you’re too scared to come, there’s still ways for you to take part in Pride. You can still come to smaller events, you can maybe go to a Pride outside of your hometown, a Pride in a different county or a different city if you just want to dip your toe in. Just come along. The nice thing about Pride in 2025 is that there are lots of events happening where you can make friends.

What are you most looking forward to?

We’ve got a gorgeous little gig coming up on the 26th with Sorcha Richardson, who’s one of our favourite musicians. There’s Pride stand-up nights, Pride open mic nights, reading clubs, movie clubs. I’m part of a queer film festival that happens in August as well. There’s lots of ways that you can find your tribe in the community now. So have a think about where you feel most comfortable and just come along, get involved. Ireland is a progressive country, especially when you compare it to the UK, the US and certain other countries in Europe. And I think that we’ve got a bit of a responsibility to remind our government that we want it to stay that way.

Read Hot Press's guide to the best events coinciding with Dublin Pride 2025 here.