Belfast’s queer history is all around us – and the LGBTQIA+ Heritage Project NI is aiming to uncover more. As part of their work, the project organises volunteer-led walking tours which usually start from Writers’ Square and snake all around town, from Botanic to Cathedral Quarter. The heritage trails retrace the steps of old Pride marches, reveal spots which used to house covert gay bars during the Troubles and highlight the vital work of activists. “If we included everything in one tour, it would take us about four hours!” laughs Mary Ellen Campbell, the project’s coordinator. “People tend to imagine that our history is just bars, whereas we see our heritage as being in every sphere of life – politics, art, religion, business… as well as [in] bars and [as] entertainers,” she explains. “LGBTQIA+ people are and have been everywhere. Now it’s about acknowledging and celebrating that fact.” Mary Ellen was involved in the original project which finished in October last year and has come o...
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