The night before the Dublin Pride Parade, the feminist, LGBTQ+ activist and inspiring trans woman, Philippa Ryder, will be reading some pages of her book My Name is Philippa at Outhouse LGBTQ+ Library.

The event takes place at 7 pm and is part of the Outhouse Pride 2022, a series of events that happens before the Dublin Pride Parade and integrates the Dublin Pride calendar.

Philippa's book is a memoir about her journey as a trans woman and intends to reach not only the LGBTQIA+ community but a wider audience. It was published by Mercier Press in late 2021.

“It’s so difficult to show general society that [Transgender people] are just ordinary people with a particular element of our being that we need to explore, that we need to portray. And, for me, it’s the core of my being. I am Philippa. My name is Philippa” - Philippa Ryder, to GCN.

Cat McIlroy, LGBTQ + activist and former co-ordinator of TENI, will be asking questions interspersed throughout the reading. 

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Philippa Ryder bio

She became involved with LGBTQ+ activism when she came to terms with herself as transgender, eventually transitioning about 12 years ago. She was very involved with both the Marriage Equality and Repeal the 8th referenda. She describes herself as a passionate, inclusive feminist.

Over the past 15 years, she has been a board member and chair of Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) and part of the Steering Committee of Transgender Europe (TGEU). She was a founding committee member of Sporting Pride, Ireland’s LGBTQ+ sports organisation.

She joined the civil service, the Property Registration Authority, in 1980. Before she retired in January this year she was also chair of her Civil Service organisation’s LGBTQ+ Network and helped to set up a Civil and Public Service-wide LGBTQ+ network.

In 2019, she was one of the founders of Under the Rainbow, a diversity, inclusion and belonging company which also offers counselling and therapy to all, not just the LGBTQ+ community. She is currently a director of Under the Rainbow, delivering presentations and workshops in the area of DIB. She is also a board member of Dublin Pride.

Philippa is married to Helen and they have one daughter.