04/10/2026
What s day!
On Friday, Gay Health Network brought together community organisations, healthcare professionals, researchers, advocates and policymakers for Gay Health Forum 2026: At the Intersections.
The Forum was opened by Deputy Chief Medical Officer Philip Dodd, with opening remarks from Adam Hurley of the Gay Health Network Board. Our thanks to both for joining us and getting the day underway ahead of a packed programme exploring s*xual health and wellbeing from a wide range of perspectives.
Across the day, we heard about s*xual health services and STI prevention, PrEP and DoxyPEP, ageing and living with HIV, trans and gender-diverse health, chems*x, migration, psychological supports, s*xual violence, and intimate partner violence and abuse.
We were also proud to support and screen Pradeep Mahadeshwar's new film, Inter // Sections, launch the Gay Health Network 2025 Annual Report, and launch important new research into the s*xual health service needs of LGBTQ+ International Protection Applicants in Ireland. Our thanks to Dr Thelma Begley for presenting the findings. We'll be sharing much more on these in the coming days and weeks.
A huge thank you to all our speakers, panellists and organisations who contributed to the programme, to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission for hosting us, and to Verena Tarpey, CEO of GOSHH Ireland, for closing the Forum.
Particular thanks to our panel who spoke to the changing landscape of STI Testing and proposed changes to how we test.
And, of course, thank you to everyone who attended in person or joined us online. The questions, conversations and different perspectives brought to the room are what make the Gay Health Forum such an important part of GHN's work. We greatly appreciate the time and effort that goes into every presentation, and, more importantly, the work behind them throughout the year. Thanks also to Alice Linehan and GCN for live streaming the forum across the day.
Finally, a big thank you to our GHF organising committee: Bill Foley, Pádraig Burke, Anita Whyte Moran, James O. Hagan, Daniel McCartney, Karen Johnston and Verena Tarpey.
