Profile - The gay apology

In the year I was born, 1974, Martin Barnes set up a gay helpline in Dublin. It had a small office on Leeson Street with a table and one chair.

They wanted to call it Gay Switchboard, but the national phone company, P&T, refused to let them use the word ‘gay’ in the telephone directory. So they called it Tell-A-Friend.

Barnes recalls getting a “silent call” one time: the caller was so terrified ...