Cork opens Ireland’s first-ever permanent LGBTQ museum + displays Gilbert Baker’s original Rainbow Flag

Now we have yet another reason to visit Cork one or Queergurus favorite cities on Irelands West Coast as they are home to  Ireland’s first-ever permanent LGBTQ museum which just opened this past week,.  The first exhibition  “We Were Always Here”, opened  at the Cork Public Museum in Fitzgerald Park and is a collaboration with the Cork LGBT Archive and features both a physical collection and a digital archive.  Included in this exhibit is  the original Rainbow flag known as The Golbert Baker Flag named after its designer the activist and artist Gilbert Baker back in 1978.  Cork is the  first city in the world outside of the United States to  be loaned this iconic symbol of queer history 

In a statement curator Orla Egan,  who is also the founder of the Cork LGBT Archive, explained  “Too often the history of the LGBT community has been invisible, ignored or erased. Having Cork’s LGBTQ history on display in the Cork Public Museum will ensure that is it accessible and cannot be forgotten or ignored. It sends a powerful message of respect and inclusion for a community that too often has experienced prejudice, punishment and exclusion. This is even more important in today’s world when we are witnessing an increase in transphobia and homophobia.”

Egan added that the exhibition traces LGBTQ history in Cork through the stories of the people and organisations that sought to support and defend the LGBTQ community, especially when it was illegal to be homosexual in Ireland until 1993.

The exhibition, which is funded by Cork City Council, the Heritage Council and the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, also marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the first gay centre in Cork when the Irish Gay Rights Movement rented a premises on MacCurtain Street in the city. https://queerguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/flag.mp4