In Out & Proud, a new series on RTÉ Radio 1, Trevor Keegan chats to prominent people from the LGBTQIA+ community about how they've embraced their identity and are living their lives out and proud.
In this episode, actor, screenwriter and playwright Mark O'Halloran of Adam & Paul, Rialto and Conversations After Sex fame joins the pod to discuss representation, claiming space and falling in love.
Growing-up in Ennis, Co. Clare as one of 10 children, Mark had two gay siblings. His older sister came out first but the idea that this in some way 'took the pressure’ off him, isn’t quite accurate.
"I’ve a gay sister and a gay brother as well … it doesn’t take the pressure off in some ways because everyone’s coming out is a personal journey that they go on and I think that coming out is actually a personal journey of self-acceptance. It’s a point you get to where you go ‘look I’m ready to tell you this cos if you’re not ok with it, then I’m moving on’, it’s that."
When Mark moved to Dublin in his early 20s, he had enough of coming out and just decided to be out of the closest and live his life, which he says came as a great relief to him.
"I think the generation I came from claimed our space. After the traumas of AIDS and all of that, we claimed our space, we stood up … a lot of the boys and girls that I knew just said 'we're not leaving Ireland, we’re not’."
Mark generously shared his experience of being in love through transformative relationships, heartbreak and amicable separations. Trevor was fascinated by his ability to retain friendships with people post break-up.
"I always think that if you fall in love with somebody and somehow an incompatibility arises where you can’t be lovers anymore, but if you’ve invested all that stuff, you can’t just let somebody walk away, so even the heartbreakers I keep in contact with."
And what about finding love again … you’ll have to listen to find out!
Listen to Out & Proud, Tuesday nights at 10pm on RTÉ Radio 1 and the RTÉ Radio app or anytime wherever you get your podcasts.
