Photo: James Healy
Una Mullally, an Irish Times journalist, author and equality activist, was awarded the Foy and Zappone Award this evening by the LGBTQ+ society at an event in the Newman Building.Mullally came to UCD to give a talk and answer questions from the LGBTQ+ society ahead of accepting her award. In her talk, she spoke about the Marriage Equality referendum of May last year, and the importance of the change for LGBT people in Ireland. She also spoke about the importance of continuing to fight for equality for other people in Ireland, claiming that the country continues to struggle with inequality.Mullally also spoke about the upcoming general election on Friday and expressed concern about the potential election of conservative parties such as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, questioning why young people would vote for those parties.She also thanked the society for giving her the award, calling it a huge honour.The award, which is named after Dr. Lydia Foy and Senator Katherine Zappone, has previously been awarded to LGBT rights activists and prominent people across Irish society such as Foy and Zappone in its first year. The award was also given to Maria Walsh, who became Ireland's first openly gay Rose of Tralee in 2014 and received the award last year.