LEADING sportswoman and Grand Marshall of this weekend’s Pride Parade has warned that people who post hate-filled homophobic comments online risk driving young LGBTQ+ people to their deaths.
Sharing her own attempt at ending her life for the first time, the local sporting legend warned that online bullying in some cases can lead to suicidal ideation in young people, as well as fears over revealing their sexuality.
Recounting her story for the first time publicly with the Limerick Post and in a message on social media platform TikTok, Jackie McCarthy O’Brien says that “we can’t have young people saying ‘I don’t want to live with this much hate directed at me”.
The former Irish international rugby and soccer star spoke to the Limerick Post in the wake of horrific comments she witnessed across the Dublin Pride site.
Ms McCarthy O’Brien said comments included threats to the lives and safety of members of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as spurious rhetoric around the community attempting to “turn” school children.
“I won’t lie, I cried,” Jackie told the Limerick Post.
“I’ve spoken with the suicide prevention patrol members and these are the kind of comments that drive young people running back into the closet or down to the river to take their own lives.”
Jackie revealed that when she was a teenager and just realising what her sexual orientation was, it was this kind of hatred that drove her in an attempt to take her own life.
“I was in love with a girl. There were no helplines or support groups. Even when they got me to hospital and I had my stomach pumped, I couldn’t admit the real reason I took tablets.
“I lied and said I had a headache and took twenty tablets and when that didn’t work, I took twenty more. No one thought to probe any further.”
“Yes we voted for marriage equality but homophobia is still alive and well and living in Ireland.”
Jackie said that even now, with increased visibility for LGBTQ+ communities and annual Pride events, young people still find it hard to talk about sexuality.
“My fear is for the children because you start getting an idea about your own sexuality as young as 14. How does a child, seeing those comments, think about what is happening to them? How do we ensure that our children and grandchildren don’t have to say ‘I don’t want to live with that much hate directed at me’?”
Jackie feels she had to speak out “because I’m very honoured and delighted to be Grand Marshall at the Limerick parade, but what is the point if I don’t put my money where my mouth is?”.
“We need to remember that Pride, 50 years on, is a celebration, but the first Pride was staged as a protest for a young gay man being brutally murdered in Fairview Park.”
The murder of Aer Rianta worker Declan Flynn in September 1982 in Fairview Park in Dublin is widely seen as the catalyst of the Pride movement in Ireland.
“These sad, small minded people who post hate comments are putting young lives in danger,” Ms McCarthy O’Brien concluded.
