P PAUL

aul Ryder is coming back to Host The Outing Festival Valentine’s Weekend 2025

Triple-threat performer Paul Ryder has been trailing the lights of stages at Maverick Belfast, The George Dublin to Vibe Cork for close to twelve years now. His character, The Ringmaster, launched the infamous Ringmasters Drag Race, which will be 14 years of age in 2024.

His career soared with becoming a regular contributor for radio and television broadcasting and becoming a much-loved member of the Ireland AM, Elaine and Virgin Media Television team. His broad spectrum of topical reporting has kept him on the airwaves for the last 4 years, covering the likes of television’s greatest moments such as Love Island, The Oscars, The Brits, and so much more, with a new exciting segment nearly every week.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO HOST THE OUTING FESTIVAL?

I was approached by Eddie McGuinness, who I’d known for many years, working events on the scene. He said Panti was stepping aside from the festival due to her work worldwide, and he asked me to do it, and honestly, I was bowled over. The Festival had such a great reputation, and I wanted to do the best job I could.

WHAT ARE THE PRIMARY GOALS OF THE OUTING FESTIVAL?

It definitely gives a sense of nationwide community. We see LGBTQ+ Pride festivities happen all summer long, and this feels like the whole country and beyond coming together to mingle, fall in love, party, make new friends, see old friends, and so much more.

HOW DOES THE FESTIVAL ENSURE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN ITS PROGRAMMING?

Nobody can say The Outing isn’t inclusive in its programming. The team, with the directions of DJ Ruth (The George, Vibe Cork), does so much to ensure anyone and everyone is catered for in their entertainment years. Queer Magicians, singers, drag performers, Eurovision legends, reality show icons and so much more. It really is the festival for everyone.

CAN YOU SHARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS YEAR’S LINEUP?

Now, that’s a big secret. We must keep our lips firmly tight until the full line-up is ready, but it’ll be so worth it. I promise you that. I do know we have Ireland’s top Drag King, Phil T. Gorgeous to Regina George, Victoria Secret to Queer Singer Shobsy, plus Paul Middleton (UK, Germany), Stemin(Amsterdam), headlining opening night Friday 14th February.

HOW DO YOU SELECT THE PERFORMERS AND ARTISTS FOR THE FESTIVAL?

We are Queer Arts Collective, so we reach out to queer artists, performers and crafts persons to reach out to us on our social media channels as we love to hear from them.

WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU’VE FACED IN HOSTING THE OUTING FESTIVAL?

I will say keeping all our Drag performers and artists in place as it is like 72 hours of non-stop performers and events going as there is so much going on, plus my co-host Eddie McGuinness has too much energy.

CAN YOU SHARE A PARTICULARLY MEMORABLE MOMENT OR SUCCESS STORY FROM PAST FESTIVALS?

I think Blind Date is always so memorable because, just like the TV show, we don’t know WHAT is going to come from the contestants’ mouths and to be honest, the whackier, the better. The audience love it. I love. Eddie loves it. It’s just so much fun and such a laugh.

WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES FOR THE FUTURE OF THE OUTING FESTIVAL?

The Outing, along with QueareClare and Limerick Pride, are looking at coming together to bid to host EuroPride 2028, and if we get it, this means 1st time Europride will come to the island of Ireland after Belfast and Dublin Pride bidding a few years ago.

WHAT DO YOU WANT ATTENDEES TO TAKE AWAY FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE AT THE OUTING FESTIVAL?

I really always want people to feel like they’ve spent a weekend visiting a group of mates down the country and are going home a little bit worse for wear from laughing, dancing, and so much more.

HOW DO YOU ENSURE A WELCOMING AND ENJOYABLE ATMOSPHERE FOR ALL FESTIVAL-GOERS?

The festival’s location at The Inn at Dromoland, set against the picturesque backdrop of Dromoland Castle, offers a charming, intimate setting. The historic venue provides a sense of comfort and tradition, while the vibrant festival activities add a modern, inclusive twist. Staff and organizers go the extra mile to ensure everyone feels safe and welcomed from the moment they arrive.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST REWARDING PART OF YOUR INVOLVEMENT WITH THE OUTING FESTIVAL?

Seeing people laugh and enjoy themselves. That, for me, is my key takeaway every single year.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Valentine’s Weekend 14th-16th February 2025

Checkout our lineup and events at our Festival at www.TheOuting.ie

Trans communities in Northern Ireland are bearing the brunt of a political and social system which does not prioritise our needs. For over six years, the Knockbracken Gender Identity Clinic has been caught in stasis, having lost a significant number of staff and funding. For two years, between 2018 to 2020, the service offered first appointments to a grand total of zero new patients. Since then, it has been operating on a shoestring, with one part-time clinician working through a waiting list that has now almost reached 1000. A whole generation of trans people are growing up and coming out into a Northern Ireland that offers them little support or hope of accessing medical transition.

So how did we get here?

It’s no secret within trans communities that, even before the service reached a point of collapse, it was inarguably not meeting the needs of patients. Invasive questioning, endless assessment, enforced gender stereotypes, and often problematic and marginalising treatment by clinicians created an environment where trans people felt they had to fit into a box and conform to a cisgender clinicians ideal of what a trans person is, rather than being met where they are. Non-binary people within the service - at least, those who didn’t just lie about their identity in order to ensure a smoother process - were often treated with suspicion, and subjected to a higher level of questioning and assessment prior to treatment.

The problems also stemmed from the fact that all of this care was delivered within a clinic, a team and a model of care which was never intended to be a gender affirming healthcare service.

Brackenburn was never specifically commissioned or funded as a Gender Identity Clinic: the service grew out of a pre-existing psycho-sexual clinic, operating under a psychiatric model of care which treated trans identity as though it were a mental illness. From the very start, it was unsustainable, but at the very least it was functional and enabled many trans people to access hormones, surgeries, and other care that would help them get on with their lives.

The background of the clinic and its model of care is the cause of many of the issues behind the collapse: the extensive waiting times; the lengthy assessments prior to actually receiving hormones or any other interventions; the treatment with suspicion rather than empathy, respect and person-centred care. In the most recent International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) the World Health Organisation recategorised gender affirming care, moving it from the realm of mental health into sexual and reproductive healthcare; a more appropriate framework within which to support trans and gender diverse communities seeking care. The UK and Ireland, unfortunately, are reluctant to make this change. All of this, and a significant amount of campaigning and lobbying, led up to the commissioning of a review into gender affirming care services here in Northern Ireland, which began in 2019 and has been running ever since. Following a successful pressure campaign stemming from the lack of trans representation on this Review, then-Minister Robin Swann approved a Service User Input Panel composed of trans people and family members to complement it, of which I became a co-chair. We began the process with hope and optimism that we could help make a difference for the lives of trans people in Northern Ireland.

This Review trundled along through the Covid pandemic, stopping and