On May 23, 2015, Ireland became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. Two months earlier, Charlie Bird, veteran Irish journalist and chief news correspondent with RTÉ News radio and television, became the chair of the National Yes Equality campaign for civil marriage; he traveled around the country interviewing people about why they were voting for the referendum. A Day in May: Real Lives, True Stories collects 52 of Bird's interviews, which have been edited into compelling and moving individual first-person narratives with members of the LGBT community, their friends, family and straight allies.
The ordinary men and women who tell their remarkably eloquent stories create a fascinating tapestry of voices and experiences that epitomizes the phrase "the personal is political." The bite-size chapters introduce readers to Kathryn O'Riordan, who discusses the difficulty of adopting her baby daughter in 1997, and straight 16-year-old Brandon, who talks about his two foster fathers: "They are like family now. Not like blood, but by heart." Colin O'Mahony's partner tells him, "Your mother wears her gay son like a badge of honour." Arthur Leahy, who was one of the first people in Ireland to go on TV to discuss being gay in the 1970s, remembers, "The reaction was very favourable. It had quite an impact."
The personal stories here also have quite an impact. As Colm Tóibín writes in his introduction, each gay testimony "moves our lives from shadow into substance." A Day in May is an uplifting, enlightening and powerful collection. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant