The History of Greenbow

Greenbow was founded in March 1996. There wasn’t a Deaf, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) group in Ireland before this time.  A number of Deaf LGBT people decided to setup our own group and they contacted LOT (Lesbian Organisations Together) for more information and LOT agreed to let them rent a room in Capel Street for meetings.

In the early days, few people attended our meetings until we decided to organise social nights. Our first ever social night was held at Out on the Liffey pub. The gathering was very successful and we named the group, “Irish Rainbow of Deaf Lesbian and Gay Group.”

One year later, in March 1997, Irish Rainbow of Deaf Lesbian and Gay Group changed its name to “Greenbow”, as there were a number of other Deaf and blind organisations with the word “rainbow” in their names. In October 2002, our organisation was officially named “Greenbow Deaf Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Society of Ireland.”