Declan Flynn was a 31-year-old working at Dublin Airport for Aer Rianta. Were he living in 21st Century Dublin you might see him as just another good looking young gay lad smiling in a selfie on Facebook or maybe bopping on the dancefloor of The George with his mates of a Saturday night.
The Whitehall man's life was brutally snuffed out by hatred and ignorance in Fairview Park in 1982 - but his tragic death set the wheels in motion for the Pride movement and even marriage equality. Declan, and countless others like him, lie cold in the grave now, his young life brutally snuffed out by hatred and ignorance on a cold September night in 1982.
Dublin in the early eighties was a grim place to be gay. Criminalisation made it extremely difficult to learn about other LGBT people, let alone actually meet them.
