Positively Irish Action on AIDS (PIAA), HIV and AIDS activism and the Irish diaspora in London, c.1989-1996

Abstract

In recent years, the history of HIV and AIDS and queer activism, respectively, have received increased attention from scholars working on Ireland. Yet, we still know very little about the experiences of the Irish diaspora in relation to HIV and AIDS, the transnational flows of activist knowledge and strategies between the UK and Ireland, or much about the experiences of Irish activists or persons affected by HIV and AIDS themselves. This paper seeks to address this gap through an exploration of the work of Positively Irish Action on AIDS (PIAA), a community-based organisation established in London in 1989 by a group of Irish HIV and AIDS workers, drug workers and gay men who were concerned about the problems facing the Irish community affected by HIV and AIDS in Britain. Utilising oral history interviews with former members of PIAA and archival sources this paper addresses two of the key proposed themes around transnational approaches to HIV and AIDS activism by looking at a) the mobility of Irish activists between the UK and Ireland, such as through the organisation of and attendance at conferences in both Ireland and the UK, and how the work of PIAA campaigners impacted on activism happening in Ireland, and b) the efforts of PIAA activists to engage with Irish migrants in the UK. Through the creation of an emotional community of activists and clients, PIAA served as a conduit between Ireland and London in shaping a transnational community that supported people with HIV and AIDS. Through its activism, the group dually challenged the stigmatisation of people with HIV and AIDS in Britain and anti-Irish sentiment. Moreover, the article critically engages with scholarship that argues that Catholicism was quintessentially a barrier to queer activism. By contrast, it illuminates its complex relationship with the transnational community of HIV and AIDS campaigners active between London and Ireland.

Keywords: Ireland; activism; HIV/AIDS; Catholicism; emigration; London