Ahead of World Aids Day on Saturday.
A trailer for ‘Becoming Cherrie’
A new documentary from Nicky Larkin about Matthew Cavan, aka drag artist, Cherrie Ontop.
Matthew was diagnosed HIV-positive aged 19, but went on to become a beloved, if heavily trolled, entertainer and spokesperson for people living with HIV in Northern Ireland.
Thanks Michael Murphy
Adam Shanley tweetz:
Irish AIDS Day is Friday 15th of June – Will you
#PledgeToTest this week? Free rapid HIV tests are available from@KnowNowIE in Dublin, Limerick, Cork and Galway. Pledge & ask your friends and followers to do the same by tweeting your#PledgeToTest. http://www.knownow.ie/#sessions
This morning.
Hawkins House, Dublin 2
Members of Aids coalition Act Up picket the Department of Health about a crisis that has seen Ireland record the highest number of new HIV diagnoses ever last year.
Buzz writes:
On the eve of World AIDS Day, ACT UP Dublin is sounding an alarm to government, community stakeholders, and the public: Ireland is in the midst of an HIV crisis.
This morning in front of Department of Health Offices ACT UP installed an alarm clock to wake Ireland’s dormant institutions to the need for a renewed effort to address the expanding epidemic.
Thanks to advances in treatment and prevention, government has powerful new ways to reduce new HIV transmissions. ACT UP calls on authorities to do more than offer words. Government should devote greater resources, and take effective actions, to address the epidemic.
From top: HIV activist Robbie Lawlor; members of Act Up and artist Will Ledger.
Pics; Press Association
Meanwhile…
From top: Trevor Clarke MLA and Eamonn McCann MLA
A Northern Ireland politician has admitted he did not know heterosexual people could contract HIV until a charity explained the facts to him.
The DUP’s Trevor Clarke made the admission in a Stormont debate calling for a new HIV awareness campaign.
He was later accused of “unconscious homophobia” by Foyle MLA Eamonn McCann.
He said it was not so long ago that some politicians had proclaimed they would “Save Ulster From Sodomy” – referring to the campaign led by the DUP’s founder, the late Ian Paisley.
Mr McCann asked the assembly: “What’s wrong with sodomy anyway?”
The People Before Profit MLA also said he would have kissed more men in his life if it “hadn’t been for the stubble factor”.
DUP’s Clarke did not know heterosexuals could contract HIV (BBC)
Update:
Sammy Wilson on HIV: people get dementia/cancer “not always as a result of their own behaviour”. Ergo HIV…
Christ the night…— Squinter (@squinteratn) November 30, 2016
Thanks Colm Dore
Images from the life and death of Pat Tierney by John Kelly
Wally Cassidy writes:
A good friend of mine documented for a book project the last few years of Pat Tierney’s life. Pat was poet from Grafton St in the 90s, he established the Ballymun Rhymers Club and several community projects with the Dublin Aids Alliance. Pat, who had Aids, took his own life in 1996 aged 39,, and at the time my friend never got around to showing the photos. Last month he scanned his old negatives, some strong but excellent images [More images and Pat biog at link below].
The Moon At His Back Images of Pat Tierney By John Kelly (OnEdgeStreet)
Pics: John kelly
An Aids poster from 1992 by Kieran O’Connor produced by the Southern Health Board.
Includes angry dad/authoritarian figure, skinhead and garden gnome.
Just look at him.
Snapped on set during the filming of Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street, he’s lost 30lbs (13.6kg) for his upcoming role as AIDS victim Ron Woodroof in Jean-Marc Vallée’s The Dallas Buyer’s Club.
