All language subtitles for memorial.the.story.of.hiv.aids.in.ireland.2024.1080p.web.h264-cbfm

I always liken the AIDS pandemic to war.

There was a relentless quality to the
destruction and death around us.

Everybody who we lost to the pandemic,
we owe it to their memory to keep them

alive.

the lonely deaths that they died, to
take it out of that and to replace them

somewhere better and brighter. I think
that's really important.

The Department of the Taoiseach has
announced plans to unveil a national

monument in the Phoenix Park to
commemorate 40 years of HIV AIDS in

The HIV AIDS memorial that is due to be
unveiled in Phoenix Park,

it's long overdue.

It's great to have a place where you can
go and reflect.

I think it's very necessary to remember
those who died from this pernicious

disease in Ireland.

This is the AIDS virus.

The bubonic plague of the 80s called the
TB of this generation.

Incurable, an epidemic and potentially
as disastrous for Ireland as the famine

was.

Good evening and welcome.

If you're tired of hearing about AIDS,
maybe it's because you think it'll never

affect you or yours. Don't be so sure.

The assurance of no change in the status
of Northern Ireland. If you obey the

Ten Commandments, you won't get AIDS.

Drug addicts are the biggest problem
facing the AIDS campaign in this

We can't really say they died a peaceful
death. The problem is now acute in

certain geographical areas of the city.
Those areas whose poor conditions gave

rise to drug abuse in the first place.

AIDS ruined everything for me.

Everything.

One third of the 350 haemophiliacs in
the Republic have been infected with the

AIDS virus.

Their ages ranging from 60 down to 10.

Some of the mums say that they're
literally, they're watching their child.

A lot of them, I think, are literally
waiting for death.

There really was a lack of compassion
and empathy throughout the party.

He died last night in the Mater
Hospital.

Sick prisoners in this block are not
HIV.

The basic message seems to be just don't
fool around.

Casual sex spreads AIDS.

Looking at the different clips of all
that went on at that time.

Like, or there didn't really happen.

We were all trying to grapple what this
was about.

Irish -related publications.

Because you know what, when you start
looking at newspapers, you can really

a sense of, like...

The tone of the public discourse, I
mean, the levels of fear and hysteria

were actually also being encouraged by
some of the sleazier elements, the red

tops, for example, were shocking.

It's documenting a really important and
traumatic period.

And I'm standing here as a 62 -year -old
gay man, and I think I'm emblematic of

a generation of gay men who will, for
better or worse...

our lives will be defined by AIDS, will
be defined by the pandemic.

It's just, it's inescapable.

Once we dive into it, not only are we
excavating the past,

But we're actually learning something
that we can apply to the place we find

ourselves in today.

The media response to HIV and AIDS was
stark.

Driven by fear. It was driven by
misinformation.

It was driven by a reaction.

to something that people probably didn't
understand well enough to be reporting

on and to be discussing.

The subject matter is so shrouded in
mystique, in worry. The ignorance

and fear was just so palpable. It was
enormous.

metropolitan cultural elite, gained by
sexual men and then IV drug users. And

sure, they're not really important, are
they?

The other train of thought was that
Ireland was setting itself up for a very

large problem.

We were a small island society with
almost zero public

sexual health education and culture.

One facet of the Irish government's
strategy to combat the disease is that

child should leave school without
knowing the facts about AIDS. But there

been complaints that some principals
won't allow this educational programme

their schools.

We're still bent down by really suspect
Roman Catholic ideology and morality.

The bishops at their spring meeting in
Maynooth complained that they only

received a copy of the pilot project on
AIDS from the Department of Education a

couple of weeks ago.

Already the bishops' commissions for
education and catechetics have submitted

detailed comments on the project to the
department, outlining what they see as

its weaknesses.

The fundamental issue here is not
conduct.

It's something much deeper than that.
It's the formation and promotion of

attitudes. We had all of the perfect
conditions.

Were they conditioned to rampage?

It was a privilege and a misfortune at
the same time working with people in

St James' Hospital who were living and
dying with AIDS in the early to mid

-1980s.

I'd never seen a plague before.

Unfortunately, we learned, as we were
learning, we weren't even sure then how

HIV was transmitted, but it was killing
everybody on the AIDS unit.

As a nurse and a midwife, I'd been used
to helping people get better, and

certainly not young people my own age,
in my early 20s, and just a bit older,

getting sick and dying.

Looking back now, I almost think we
really needed counselling ourselves.

because you try to do the best, you try
to lift the mood, and

yet in that part of the three -unit war,
top of one, everybody there at that

time died, and it was hard to take.

It's just beginning to move into the
heterosexual population.

Just one act of intercourse may give you
AIDS and lead to death.

I was introduced to a substance called
crystal meth, and this was delivered

intravenously. How far down the road are
you in the HIV? I'm in what's known as

stage three. That's to say that my
immune system has been significantly

When I do reach stage four, I will be
considered to have full -blown AIDS.

I know I'm dead, honestly.

That's the only way I can take that.

But it's my family.

How are they going to survive without me
gone?

I remember my friend Barry's wake up in
Capra Downs in a lovely leafy Victorian

suburb of Dublin.

And less than a dozen of his closest men
and women friends sitting around the

bed and Barry laid out in the bed, my
age, 27, laid out in the bed, thick

tin.

Every part of that wake.

I remember very clearly.

I remember the music that was played. I
remember smoking spliffs.

I remember sitting around sharing
stories about Barry while he's there.

I remember wanting to go over, feeling
the urge to go over and shake him and

wake up, wake up, wake up.

And now, when I think back on it now,
and as I'm saying it to you, I realize

that that was me trying to...

process and modulate my grief and just
the sheer fucking horror you

know that we were surrounded with

so

far over 500 people have the virus Over
300 are drug users.

What we're facing now is a doubling of
AIDS cases in a nine -month period and

it's ravaging those communities least
equipped to resist it or to contain it.

I had been living in Dublin and I wasn't
in a very good relationship.

The relationship was very volatile.
There was a lot of violence.

I was only 15 and he was two years
older.

Heroin had come to Dublin.

And he got swept up in that.

In order for me to live, it was to get
out of this relationship.

The violence was quite horrific at
times.

And when I walked out of the house, I
didn't know where I was going.

I had the children, and I knew I was
getting on the fourth bus.

But where, I didn't know. And I was very
conscious of, I'm still in Dublin here.

You know, he's going to find me.

He always said he would find me no
matter where I went.

So I knew I couldn't stay.

And I ended up in a tiny little village
in Galway.

I knew my partner had tested positive.
And I was starting to get a bit sick

myself.

And I wanted a test for myself.

The test was sent off to Galway City.

I was waiting and waiting and waiting
and it felt like forever.

I went up and sat in the surgery and I
could hear him and his wife talking in

the background, chatting and like, how
am I supposed to go out and tell this

woman? How am I to tell her she has four
small children? How am I to tell her

this news?

So I already knew the news before I
even...

got into his little surgery room and he
said, well, Elizabeth, I'm very, very

sorry that I had to tell you that your
results came back and you're positive.

Ireland now has the highest number of
babies born with AIDS antibodies per

of population than any other European
country. This is due to the prevalence

the disease among drug abusers.

I had just had my...

my son that August.

The doctor said, you know, we really do
need to do this test to see he had been

ill and he wasn't responding to
antibiotics.

And the doctor said, you know, like,
we'll...

we'll do this together i'll completely
support you you know and the test came

back and uh it was negative and i
remember uh my mother being so overjoyed

was doing a little dance in the surgery
and saying it's a miracle you know yeah

it was a miracle my ex -partner died

20 years ago it was a decision that he
had made

He doesn't want to start treatment.

And I do believe that I made the right
decision because if I didn't, I wouldn't

be here.

I always feel really weird walking
around the streets of Dublin because

alive with ghosts.

I made a mental note of all the people I
lost.

And at one point, I was able to count to
43 the number of people I knew who died

of AIDS.

What's shocking is actually there have
been more since.

All you can think of is having some
bright future together with your friends

only to discover that bright future
snuffed out.

The friends you imagined you were going
to have a lifetime of memories not being

with you.

And actually there's a few of them, I
think about them every single day.

Part of that's a determination to offset
the anger I felt that society had

forgotten them.

That Ireland hadn't done enough to
remember the people we lost from AIDS.

We were delighted to be invited onto the
Oversight Committee, which was formed

and led by the PSOC's office to bring a
monument to reality.

The Oversight Committee had two
functions. One was to ensure that the

project came to fruition, but also to
select the actual winning design.

What was chosen, I think, is the most
stunning, the most appropriate, the most

impactful design.

that was put before the jury and the
oversight committee.

something else than just look at it. So
if you can create a seat or a monument

that people can walk or climb or
interact somehow, it has become

and it gets much more interest.

I first draw the red ribbon and then I
close it in a shape and then it was

something like this that is an embraced
loop and people sitting there.

And then I put these lines in the
computer and then I start doing some

experiments.

I'm trying to do a composition that will
focus on the shape of this

ribbon.

This symbol of awareness would connect
so much the community and bring people

together and then they will talk about
the HIV and the memories.

It's great that they choose the location
of the park because it's silent, you

can feel the nature around.

You have a much better experience when
you have this type of surrounding.

My vision was to get everything in this.

In this color palette that where the the
curtain steel is the is the heavy color

the dark color That's the loop and and
then we do the entrance from here and

then we can grow This entrance here.

Yeah And then people will enter here so
it's really nice to imagine how

the concept of the Ribbon bring this
community together and that the people

the city can enjoy it It's really nice
to imagine.

You've got to be careful too as well,
and this is what I was saying earlier on

in the week.

We need the size of the toil for the
timber, because you've got to agree to

that. Haemophiliacs' blood doesn't clot
in the normal way.

Bleeding damages muscles and joints, or
it can be life -threatening. To avoid

this, patients must have transfusions to
make their blood clot.

100 of the 350 haemophiliacs in the
Republic have been infected with the

virus after getting contaminated
transfusions.

What we can see from here is the big
Elysian straight in front

Into Cork Over to the right

hand side the white building the white
structure. That's Parkey Cove I've the

green here and that's the city. You
can't go wrong Ten minutes I'm in

Street traffic defending.

Yeah, and I love it

lovely part of the world.

My name is Colm Wall.

I'm 48.

I am a severe factor IX deficiency
haemophiliac, and I live life to the

full.

Here are the family.

That's my mother and father.

That's Brendan.

That's me, and that's my sister Susan.

Brendan was a big man. He was like me.

To look at us, you wouldn't think we
were haemophiliacs.

He travelled, he had a girlfriend.

He lived life.

And at the same time, he was always
looking out for me as well.

This doctor is preparing the
concentrated blood plasma, which is the

treatment for all haemophiliacs.

It is called Factor VIII and is produced
from a large quantity of blood given by

a large number of blood donors.

Every Wednesday after school, I remember
distinctly, up to the hospital in the

mini, we'd go down to the blood bank and
then pray that there was a doctor

around that could infuse us.

So that was our life for a good portion
of it. We didn't know where

the product was coming from. We were
just there.

giving me freedom, giving me
independence.

Since the 1960s, haemophiliacs have
depended on plasma to keep them alive.

As knowledge and technology improved,
they began to look forward to a better

lifestyle and a longer lifespan.

In the 1980s and up to the mid -90s, the
treatments used for haemophilia were

factor VIII or factor IX concentrate,
made from vast pools of human plasma.

Now, thousands and thousands of
donations would... would be pooled

then they'd make batches of factor VIII
or factor IX from this. The problem was

if one or two of the donors had HIV or
hepatitis C or hepatitis B, then the

entire pool would be contaminated.

It was basically a lottery of death.

It was our normal injection, our normal

routine injection.

up to a few hits, went up that day, got
the doses we were supposed,

got the amounts we were supposed to get
and Brendan got HIV, I didn't,

I got Hepatitis C. We took the same dose
on the same day and Brendan got the HIV

and I didn't.

And that's a bit tough and I still get
the lump in my throat because

what after happened then, it kind of
determined a lot for our lives.

To put it in perspective, in the 1980s,
you probably had about 240 people with

serohemophilia in Ireland.

103 got HIV.

to blood and blood products and the vast
majority of those were also

subsequently infected with hepatitis C.
So it devastated the community and to

the extent that if you look at all
deaths of people with haemophilia in

from 1983 to now, I think there were 124
deaths, 120 of those were due to the

treatment.

He was okay. He was getting migraines,
and they were bad migraines, but he was

still as big as ever. There was never
any issue with him losing weight or

anything like that. He was still going
on holidays. He was still working.

But then, all of a sudden, the migraines
started progressing, getting worse and

worse and worse.

And we did not know.

We had no idea what was going on.

He went into hospital on a Friday.

He was a good enough arm. And I was
there, come on, get up, you're OK. I

help.

I remember Mum and Dad going up to him
on a Wednesday.

Things were not good.

He was after deteriorating fast.

And... I remember

that it was a Friday morning and my
parents coming home

and my father just going like that.

My mother was in bed.

Susan ran down to her bedroom like it
was just a mess.

My brother had passed.

And the thing was...

we didn't know the reason behind this
and that was his

wish and you know something I respect
that Brendan obviously he

was so strong he took it on the chin and

for

that I said thank you

but It must have been horrific.

He didn't want to tell people with the
stigma around it because people did not

know the facts, the full story.

That pressure on Brendan back then must
have been enormous.

When I remember starting getting ill
with HIV and AIDS,

There really was a lack of compassion
and empathy throughout society.

It was very, very difficult. These were
dark, dark days.

There were major deficits in the actions
of doctors and hospitals and the entire

health care system. There was a
paternalistic culture. You didn't

doctors.

We were importing factor concentrates
from the USA right from the late 70s. In

looking back, in fact, at the files
afterwards, I found notes from 1980,

where they kept talking about self
-sufficiency and we would start

enough plasma to make factorate from
Irish plasma and they talked about this

talked about this and there were all
sorts of issues of production and

from the Department of Health and it
never happened.

We started making factor from Irish
plasma in 1986, which was...

far, far too late. At that stage, if
they had started as they were supposed

do in 1980, 81, a lot of the deaths
might have been avoided.

To this day, the effect it has on my mum
and dad is unreal.

Susan, the same.

I'm... I take it one day at a time, but
that was then. I'm

after living my own life as best I can.

Patients were told the problem would be
investigated by the Findlay inquiry, but

Haemophiliacs withdrew, saying that
terms of reference didn't allow the

to scrutinise their grievances.

In the last 11 months, we've had three
financial tribunals being set up and one

of them completed, and yet this
tribunal, which is dealing with people's

and not with funds, has been very slow
in getting anywhere.

Haemophiliacs were assured there would
be ongoing consultation about the terms

of reference for the new inquiry.

The recommendations of the Lindsay
Tribunal were somewhat general, but we

able to use those to put in place
specific measures to make sure that this

of tragedy could not happen to the
community again.

Let's concentrate on the future and what
we can do to make sure that

nothing like that ever happens again.

And quite frankly, we won't accept.

unsafe products now or in the future. We
won't accept not being consulted.

That's the change that's come.

The monument that they're making at the
moment is just a fitting tribute to them

and I think it will be lovely.

We were approached by Anasia and Michael
to work on the project.

What they perceived was the emblem for
the AIDS and HIV, which I remember

greatly through the 80s and the 90s.

This looks much more black than this
one.

Yeah, but that's at the 80s stages and
after about three or four years it will

come down to that colour.

Yeah,

I think this one is more like this.

We've a couple of weeks, probably the
guts of about six to eight weeks in

of us.

And look, it's a privilege to work on it
because it's a very sad story.

Children,

adults, they'll all want to feel it and
touch, get that sensitivity of the piece

out. As you can see, there's rust on my
hand, but this will, after a while, that

will seal itself and it will fade out
with the cortex.

But most importantly, you can see that
I'm not afraid to rub it really hard so

there's no sharp edges.

This actually is the gateway into the
private area.

And it's an area where people who want a
bit of solace and they just want to

meditate, think about all the people,
all the misfortunates and unfortunates

that, you know, were affected by these
horrible diseases.

over the last two or three generations
that just want to spend a bit of

time in the park what can i say there
was some

horrific scenes all around the country
with people that were badly affected by

it people

that

you knew two years ago were find solid
people and then you meet them and

just a shadow of what they were.

You could see the haunting look on them
and you could see them wasting away.

Just to see somebody waste away is
haunting.

It's just marking an era that was just
like COVID will be marked in a few

time. It's just to say that I lived
through it.

Last year, 60 ,000 people left the
country of their birth to find the one

that Ireland could not give them, work
and a new life elsewhere.

And once again, Ireland loses its best
asset, its youth, who are voting with

their feet and heading towards London.

So I was having my gender reassignment
surgery and it was compulsory to have an

AIDS test.

And I will use the word AIDS because of
time and when it happened.

I genuinely thought absolutely nothing
of it because what I'd heard on the

streets really was it either came from
darkest Africa. These were the words

we're using of mine.

It either came from darkest Africa.

or you had to be gay and into like
really heavy rough trade as we would

called it back in the day and i thought
well that couldn't be me you know

i come from ranelagh things like that
don't happen to people like me

the

minute i was told by the doctor. He sat
me down. He was very cold, very

matter of fact, and said, you've tested
positive for AIDS.

When somebody tells you that, your world
ends there and then.

My whole world stopped.

And I remember flirting out the only
words I could think of to say were, can

still have my surgery?

And he went, Most definitely not.

My world stopped that day.

Something that I thought in my childhood
was just something in my head.

And because I'm Catholic, that it was
probably evil, you know, to think that I

could be a girl.

And then when I find out that it's
possible, and I go to every length to be

person, me, the real me, to then feeling
some form of

freedom, or that freedom was on the way,
and I would go and have my surgery.

And then this fucking AIDS came in.

AIDS ruined everything for me.

So I'm fighting with my gender.

And I'm fighting with my life.

At this stage, I'm trying to change my
name by depot.

I can't have a bank account.

Nobody would give me one.

And I ended up on the streets of Soho.

You just think to yourself, fuck this.

Somebody rang me and said, have you ever
thought about writing a book? I said,

yeah. And I wrote the book, and I
mentioned all the stuff I'd done, sex

heroin, crack, running a brothel in
Amsterdam.

But there was no way I would put in HIV.

Them reading about me running a brothel
or being a heroin addict was, yeah, a

job for even being a sex worker.

But for kids, that's somewhere along the
line.

But not the HIV.

I thought Ireland wouldn't forgive that.

John, I'm over here with the lad
spittering down at the minute on the

documentary. Any chance to comb your
hair down and come over here quickly

the light's fast?

They're looking for a really good
looking guy to be in the snapshot.

I'm happy with the lines, the way that
they wanted the lines. You can see the

vertical lines.

I'm happy with that. You? Yeah, I'm
really happy, Brian, yeah.

All of that shape now, just tack
everything in. Now we need to get that

and get a twist on it. Yeah.

Our T -shirt clear for that is due to
open, I think, on the 3rd of December.

So there's a mad scramble, obviously, to
get it finished for that date.

It has to be split now for transport.

Ideally, I want to leave the loop on it,
so I've got to see what way I've got to

strengthen it and put it all together
for transportation and splitting it.

It's like lifting maybe 10 or 12 dozen
eggs in one go because of its

irregularity in size and shape.

It's not a proven science.

And at the end of the day, it'll be down
to skill, knowledge, and a bit of good

luck. A lot of good luck.

No matter what happens, I have to get it
across the world.

The first medications that came out, I
was on them, AZT.

We used to, like, have a dark joke
between ourselves.

We used to say, if AIDS doesn't kill
you, the meds will.

Up until now, a drug known as AZT was
reckoned to be the best treatment to

down the spread of AIDS.

It's not a cure, and one of the
drawbacks is that it can kill healthy

well as the virus.

I don't want to get into an argument
about AZT. What I want is a drug, any

I don't care. A hundred drugs will be
given that will stop AIDS.

One colleague recalls a bucket.

being put in the corners of rooms so
people who are working here and

the community would have a place to
throw up because the impact of being on

medication like AZT in the early years
was really, really, really difficult.

Millions of dollars have been spent on
research, but is there any sign of a

cure? There is no cure currently.

Research teams in the USA have also
released details about new drugs that

stopped the virus making copies of its
face. I feel very lucky and I feel

blessed to still be here.

and to be alive and to have lived long
enough to be able to experience the

advancement in medication.

You know, I have lost a lot of people in
my life.

Yeah, I'm one of the lucky ones.

Nowadays, a person can manage the
condition with as little as one pill a

and that... medication will ensure that
they will reach an undetectable viral

load. So essentially the medication will
reduce the amount of HIV in a person's

system whereby it becomes undetectable.

It's exceptionally important that people
understand what it means to be

undetectable. Studies have shown that if
you are undetectable you cannot pass on

HIV through sex to a sexual partner. It
cannot be done.

Thanks for taking the call. I just
wanted to come back to you on the

the mobile pet and van in 2024.

HIV has changed because the technology
and the medication have changed. And a

person now living with HIV can live a
full and healthy life.

For a large majority of people living
with HIV, we tend to be healthier than

people in the same category who are HIV
negative.

Why? Because we undergo routine checks.

Sometimes for the wrong reason, but we
end up doing it, taking more care of

we eat and how we go on in life. So my
point is that living with HIV, the life

expectancy is exactly the same or more
than a person in the same group, in the

same category.

Younger people that have HIV nowadays,
they didn't.

go through this drama and pain of the
90s and stuff like this, for them it's

different.

And it's a completely different story.

The stories of HIV now are stories of
people living with HIV, not dying with

HIV, so we need to change the narrative.

The only problem is societal, the only
problem is stigma, the only problem is

misinformation, lack of information.

So that's the only problem.

But even removing the virus from
somebody's body will not fix society if

don't focus on education.

My house was egged and I was told to go
back to Dublin, back to where I

belonged, and my children were spat at.

I felt that the only way that I was
going to do this was to face this head

on. and I became involved in education
and awareness.

People started to understand what it was
like living with stigma.

You know, you think about it, it's the
perfect mix of sex shaming, body

transgressiveness, cultural
transgressiveness, criminality, taboo.

There was a lot of silence and stigma.

So, yeah, it wasn't really discussed
until somebody famous, they became

infected.

LAUGHTER

So I've been living with that for the
last four years.

So this is the big mystery of the
mysterious illness that has been written

about.

There were activists at the time, like
Tom Ginty, the Dice Man, who people will

remember as a street artist in Dublin.

And this was somebody who was living
with HIV, who used the platform that

had to draw attention to the injustice.

that existed around HIV and AIDS at the
time, whether it was lack of action,

lack of political will to put forward on
treatment, to put forward on research,

or to support the community of people
living with HIV and AIDS.

It's quite extraordinary how the
government of the day dragged its feet

intervening in this horror.

When I look at specific examples of how
the government of the day let us down, I

have to temper my anger at how the
government failed us.

The government failed us by, first of
all, censoring access to information.

being slow on funding and access to
information.

But the disease has been in this country
for four years, and yet nothing's been

done. The HEB haven't yet produced a
leaflet.

Well, the HEB haven't produced a leaflet
on AIDS because it's very difficult to

know exactly what kind of a leaflet you
can produce.

As far as I know from the people at Gay
Health Action, there's only been about

£700 allocated to help out with this
pamphlet, and that pretty grudgingly.

So, you know, that's not going to do it.

For people with AIDS and their families,
Cordia provides support and friendship.

Cordia has received no state funding to
date. It's run on money raised through

collections and private donations.

Gay behaviour is still criminal. What is
to be done? Does it not require a great

societal change in attitude?

Like, I am a criminal in this society.

Slow in addressing the decriminalisation
of condoms.

The action was brought against the Irish
Family Planning Association for selling

a condom at the Virgin Mega store on
January the 10th last.

To actually discourage the use of
condoms is possibly going as far as

some people to death.

At least 50 % of pharmacists will not
stop them and many young people are not

clear on how to use them safely.

The best antidote to AIDS is virtue.

We were clobbered with AIDS in 1981 and
condoms were

only... Fully made legal a decade later.

Excuse me?

That is the dreaded object.

There it is. That's what it looks like.
Out of the thing.

People falling in a swoon all over
Ireland at this moment, looking at that.

Okay. If you'll pardon the expression,
Roisin, would you roll it there, please?

In 1988, we did a very complete survey
of all our members with HIV and we asked

them what their needs were. Their needs
were apparent.

So we sent in a submission to
government, which was ignored for

So we had to go the media and political
route to try and raise awareness of

this. And that subsequently led to a
debate in the Dáil after a private

bill and the government were defeated.

And that led to an establishment of a
trust fund. So we learned a lesson

You're not going to get what you want
quietly and just by sending in a

reasonable case. And if you don't put on
pressure, you just fall into a long

list of other issues that they're trying
not to deal with.

There was a lot of barbarism, there was
a lot of cruelty, there was a lot of

exclusion.

But there were also extraordinary
gestures of compassion and generosity.

There was bravery, there was
resourcefulness.

AIDS is a lonely illness, whether you
have the full -blown version or you've

been diagnosed HIV positive.

Those who've contacted the virus speak
of isolation and discrimination, and

find it difficult to share their
suffering with family and friends.

Cordia provides support and friendship
for these people by means of a

befriending system based on volunteers
and those who wish to be befriended.

A welter of voluntary organisations have
sprung up to give comfort and

counselling to AIDS sufferers. The

criminalisation of

same -sex relationships and a ban on the
sale of condoms in Ireland paralysed

any meaningful response from the state.

Community groups, activists and
healthcare workers stepped in to provide

information and care.

And so we're here today on a chilly
December afternoon, experiencing the

people's gardens in its winter shades.

But as the seasons unfold, Embrace Loop
will be visited on warmer days, and it's

my belief that this monument will become
an inclusive space for people to

gather, to reflect, and to remember.

nearly 4 ,000 new HIV infections are
transmitted every day. That's yesterday,

today, tomorrow, globally every day.

Just over 2 .5 new cases diagnosed now
every day in Ireland.

It's too many.

Let's concentrate on the future and what
we can do to make sure that

nothing like that ever happens again.

Right throughout the unveiling ceremony,
it felt like finally we've arrived at

the point where Irish society is
allowing us to grieve. Irish society is

allowing us to anchor some of the
sadness and the anger and the grief that

we've carried with us over the years and
make some sense of it.