LGBT culture in Ireland

• David Norris, elected as an Independent Senator for Dublin University at each election since 1987, and was the first openly gay member of the Oireachtas.
• Colm O'Gorman served as a Senator from May to July 2007. He was appointed as a Taoiseach's nominee representing the Progressive Democrats.
• Dominic Hannigan, was elected as a Labour Party Senator in 2007, and was elected to the Dáil in 2011 for Meath East, becoming the first openly gay person elected as a TD.
• John Lyons, was elected in 2011 for Dublin North-West for the Labour Party.
• Katherine Zappone, was appointed to the Seanad as a Taoiseach's nominee in May 2007. She was the named plaintiff in a case to seek legal recognition of her marriage and was the first openly gay Oireachtas member to also be married. She was elected as a TD at the 2016 general election.
• Jerry Buttimer, was elected as TD for the Cork South-Central constituency in the 2011 general election for Fine Gael. In April 2012, he became the first Fine Gael TD to come out, doing so after the party announced a new forum for gay equality. He is the chairman of Fine Gael LGBT.[9]
• Leo Varadkar, first elected in 2007, and appointed to Government in 2011. He served as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport from 2011 to 2014, and served as Minister for Health since July 2014. In January 2015, he told Miriam O'Callaghan on RTÉ radio that he is gay.[10] In 2017 he became Taoiseach (Head of Government).
• Fintan Warfield is a former Sinn Féin Mayor of South County Dublin, who is currently a Senator. He is a relation of Derek Warfield, a musician with The Wolfe Tones.
• Emma Murphy is an elected councillor for Cabra and Finglas (Dublin) for Sinn Féin.
• Chris Curran of Sinn Féin is an elected councillor on Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Council and represents the Glencullen Sandyford Local Election Area.

The gay scene in Ireland is quite developed. Irish society has become more open and tolerant as a result of increased levels of prosperity and rising liberal attitudes. Indeed, many foreigners comment that for such a small island nation of 6 million, there's so much going on,[12] with vibrant gay scenes in all major Irish cities:

• Dublin (2 superpubs, 2 gay bars + 13 club venues)
• Belfast (1 superpub, 3 gay bars + 5 club venues)
• Cork (4 gay bars + 5 club venues)
• Limerick, Derry, Galway and Waterford.

There are 8 gay & lesbian resource centres in Ireland – one each in Dublin, Belfast, Limerick, Derry, Waterford and Dundalk. Cork is home to two: one for gay men[13] and one for lesbians.[14]

There are also some gay communities in the smaller towns in Ireland. Strabane has a gay bar, and Castlebar, Dundalk, Drogheda, Ennis, Kilkenny Newry, Sligo and Tullamore all have occasional gay club nights.

All Irish cities and many smaller towns celebrate Gay Pride with parades and festivals.

The town of Sligo with less than 20,000 inhabitants has its own annual Gay Pride parade and festival and is warmly received and supported by the local population, something which is becoming increasingly common in rural Ireland.

The gay scene across the island of Ireland is brought together during the annual Alternative Miss Ireland drag contest, Ms Gay Ireland and Mr Gay Ireland events.

As in many other countries around the world, the Bear Community has taken hold in Ireland and continues to grow. The bear movement considers itself a counter culture to the mainstream gay scene and works toward challenging the single archetype of the effeminate gay man. Most things traditionally considered masculine are celebrated within the Bear community, and Bears identify as a large subset of an already diverse demographic of gay men in Ireland. There are Bear events held monthly in Belfast[15] and in Dublin.[16] An all Ireland Bear Event called Béar Féile is first took place in 25–28 March 2010 and is now held annually every March. Béar Féile was the first event of its kind to take place in Ireland.[12]

Saint Patrick's Day is another occasion for gay people to celebrate, as all of Ireland's ethnically diverse population including the gay community take an active part in the St. Patrick's Day parades and celebrations across the island in cities such as Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Derry, Galway and Waterford.

There are a varied range of LGBT-themed events throughout the calendar year in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland: