About

About Paud Hegarty

Paud Hegarty joined the Gay’s the Word staff in 1983, and was manager from 1985 until 1997. He made the shop available as a meeting place for a range of queer causes, including Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners during their fundraising campaign for striking pit communities. He was also involved in the campaign to defend the shop following a Customs & Excise raid that saw stock seized and the business’s survival thrown into doubt, with Paud and the shop directors facing trumped-up obscenity charges. After gaining a law degree at Birkbeck in 1997, Paud was training with a legal firm specialising in human rights at the time he died, on 16 March 2000, from Aids-related pneumonia.

Colin Clews, author of Gay in the 80s, said of Paud: “He was a brave man and I hope his contribution to our community is fully recognised.”

Russell Butler: “Paud was not just talented and dedicated and determined and practical, above all he was excellent company, a caring companion and an uncompromising friend.”

Read the 2000 obituary of Paud Hegarty in Gay News – click here.

If you knew Paud Hegarty and have biographical information and memories to share to expand this biography, please get in touch.

About Gay’s the Word

Gay’s the Word is an LGBTQI+ bookshop in Marchmont Street, London. It was founded in 1979 by a gay socialist group, and has been a community and information resource for the community for four decades.

About Gavin

Paud Hegarty’s archive fell into Gavin McGregor’s hands when his friend Louise discovered it in her attic and, recognising its cultural significance for the LGBTQI+ community, entrusted it to him to find a home and a purpose for it. After some detective work to discover the identity of the archive’s former owner, he was delighted to be able to return the collection to Gay’s the Word, where the badges will be put on public display in the near future. In making the badges available to view, and in working with Gay’s the Word, he hopes Paud Hegarty’s collection can be, for many people, a powerful catalyst for bringing people’s memories and stories into the light.