Our 2025 Year in Review

As 2026 rolls in and THA’s work ramps back up to full speed, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on everything we’ve done in the past year. Maybe you attended one of our events, saw us at your Pride event, or have seen our advocacy work online. Whatever the case, we welcome you to join us on a short trip back to 2025, as we revisit the ways we’ve fought for a liberated healthcare system. And rest assured, we will keep the momentum going!

At Events

THA is proud to have organised multiple events over the year, and thankful for the support we received from our allies and the public. We truly appreciate everyone who showed up to our Progressing Trans Healthcare panels in Cork and Dublin (both on 12 July), where we discussed our communities challenges with our coalition partners, and took questions from the audience. We also worked closely with TENI to hold a pair of joint workshops in Trinity last May – one looking for community feedback on our shared vision for a new model of healthcare, and another aimed towards civil society organisations. A huge thanks to our community members and our allies who took the time to show up for these crucial discussions!

We were also grateful to be offered speaking opportunities at various events throughout the year! We spoke once again at the annual Gay Health Forum, informing the public on the realities of accessing trans healthcare in Ireland. We were also invited to speak on a panel at Labour’s Rainbow Rose Assembly, which was a great chance to highlight the continued failure of the current healthcare model. We also got asked to speak to students at both University College Cork, and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, giving future healthcare workers important exposure to the barriers faced by trans people.

At Prides

While Prides are definitely events, Pride season is such a large part of our year that it deserves its own section! We wore out our legs marching in Prides around the country this year, including Trans+ Pride Cork, Galway Pride, and Trans & Intersex Pride Dublin! Leitrim Pride also came to us asking for a presentation on trans health and how GPs can support their trans patients, which we were more than happy to provide.

While we may not have had enough people to march formally as THA in more regional Prides, rest assured our members come from all over the country, and took part as individuals in countless local prides too! We feel that Pride season is a truly wonderful time of the year, that keenly highlights the strength of our community. It’s always deeply moving to see our community united and resilient, despite the challenges we all face, and we’re already looking forward to all the events 2026 will bring!

Our Advocacy

2025 was a big year for our advocacy, in which we made every effort to voice our community's needs. Throughout the year, we have put out numerous statements, from joint pieces calling out the attempted closure of the NGS’ waiting list, to signal boosting the powerful investigative journalism of Connor O’Carroll at The Journal. We even wrote our own article for GCN, where we discussed the statements on Pride given in the Dáil on 16 July and how Ireland can address its shortcomings in trans health. We also re-designed and printed our new policy briefs, which we distributed liberally at Prides, panels, meetings… basically every opportunity we got to spread our message! Trans people deserve to be heard, and we will keep working hard to give a voice to our community.

Visiting Iceland

One of THA’s most exciting ventures was our trip to Iceland in March, where three of our volunteers met with and learned from the trans healthcare team in Reykjavik's Landspítali University Hospital, the LGBTQ+ advocacy and peer support group Samtokin ‘78, and the trans advocacy group Trans Ísland. The group brought back a wealth of knowledge, which we have been using to inform our advocacy. Thanks to their experience, we now include the Icelandic model in our policy brief, and point to the Icelandic model as trans healthcare done right. We also took note of what advocacy strategies were successful in Iceland, and how we might be able to be similarly effective back home in Ireland.

As Morr, one of the people on the journey, described it:

“The trip was extremely informative with significant amounts of information being exchanged about the development of the Icelandic trans healthcare system, community response and engagement with the health system. We first met with the Landspítali team who were incredibly welcoming and made us feel at home, informing us how they have overhauled trans healthcare in Iceland over the last 2 years down from a waitlist of over 700 to no waitlist at all. They also showed us their in-development model of care which is being created in collaboration with LGBT and Trans groups in Iceland. It was refreshing to meet a national team so open and friendly with the people they are there to serve, something which is largely unknown in Ireland healthcare.

“We met with Samtokin ‘78 and Trans ísland to discuss how trans rights, and specifically trans healthcare access, were enshrined in Icelandic law and how Iceland came to have one of the most trans affirming healthcare services in the world. They informed us of the long history of trans healthcare within Iceland and how the current affirming model was developed by engaging other rights and civil society groups within Iceland to ensure there was wide support for the enshrinement of trans rights into law, including nonbinary recognition.”

Developing THA

THA has undergone a lot of change towards the end of last year, following our strategic planning session in September. We formulated our goals, then broke them down into objectives and tactics. We refined and reworded our vision statement and mission statement. Biggest of all, we have entirely reworked our structure to a “self organising system”, the same system used by Extinction Rebellion UK, where power is decentralized and spread throughout various “circles”. We have retired our old committee-based structure, in favour of giving all our volunteers more equal power and autonomy within THA. The end goal of all this strategising and reorganising is to make THA a more equitable and resilient organisation, which will continue to effectively fight for better healthcare.

Part of our restructuring involved each circle listing out defined roles that need to be filled, and was followed up by a volunteer recruitment drive. We are thrilled to welcome so many new people to our organisation – including artists, web devs, grant writers, and more! As a grassroots organisation, we rely on dedicated volunteers donating their time and efforts to our cause, and we appreciate each and every one of our members for their contributions.

In another exciting piece of news, we were awarded a SEED grant from the International Trans Fund in August! While we can’t go into too much detail about our plans just yet, it’s safe to say that this funding opens up a lot of possibilities in our work, and will allow us to move forward on exciting projects. We’re going to be hard at work this year putting these resources to good use, and amplifying our impact. This is a wonderful opportunity that we are committed to making the most of.

Looking Forward

THA enters 2026 eager and hopeful. We are emboldened by last year’s results, and with our new structure, new talent, and new resources we aim to achieve even more this year! It won’t be easy work, but we know trans people deserve better than our current system. Have no doubt – we will work hard to seize every opportunity to push for our liberated healthcare. We truly appreciate all of our members and our supporters, and hope that we can continue to share good news with you throughout 2026!