Aunt Sally’s Tea Dance deals with the politics of the archive and the subsequent visibility or invisibility of LGBT identity and queer Ireland by looking at the collected material in three archives, well established and in development. The Irish Queer Archive is housed at the National Photographic Archive, Dublin, Cork LGBT Archive is being developed by researcher Orla Egan and includes the Arthur Leahy Collection, while the Belfast Exposed Archive, is the founding collection of the Belfast Exposed Gallery. This website developed to present the findings from our engagement with the archives, archivists, researchers and curators. We focused on ephemera and photographs relating to ‘parade’ and ‘community’ to inquire how photography has been used to activate public attention, change public opinion and re-present LGBT movements and much of this material has not been exhibited in the public domain before.
Alisha’s role in the development of this project was varied and included her research in the Cork LGBT archive and Belfast Exposed archive as well as the development of the Aunt Sallys Tea Dance website alongside Josef Kovac.
