8. Damian McGrath

Damian is a 66 year-old retired teacher living between Dublin and his home town of Tuam in Galway, he was a a founder member of the Irish National Teachers Organisation’s LGBT group, which started in 1979. After college he lived in Australia and London, returning to Ireland in 1992 – a year before homosexuality was decriminalised – having to conceal his identity in his workplace due to Section 37.1 of the Employment Equality Act (allowing workplaces to discriminate in terms of employment “…in order to maintain the religious ethos of the institution”) took an enormous emotional toll and resulted in him having a breakdown, since this time he has gone on to advocate for greater protection or LGBT Teachers.