Cork LGBT Archive Cork Queeros

Portraits of a Community

Emma Bidwell is a Cork trans masculine feminist dyke.

Emma Bidwell was born in 1969 in South London but finished childhood as a harassed queer teenager on the Isle of Skye. In 1993 Cork became home and has remained so ever since.

Emma ran The Other Side bookshop (an off shoot of The Other Place Cork LGBT Community Centre) where LGBT+ books and magazines could be bought alongside recycled writing paper and An Phoblacht republican newspaper. There was even a cut price condom sale that was reported in the Evening Echo. A short lived newsletter, In Other Words, was produced through the bookshop by Emma and James Walsh. Emma also wrote articles for GCN including one on domestic violence in lesbian relationships.

Together with the legend Ger McCarthy, Emma organized Pandora’s Box, a fantasy dress event partially inspired by Emma’s Parisienne model grandmother Pip. This one off event in Blackrock Castle morphed into becoming the annual Cork Lesbian Fantasy Ball. Emma could often be found in Loafers bar and was one of the organizers of the Cork Women’s Fun Weekend. And was known as Shit Pit Bidwell at Women’s Camp…

Emma went to UCC as a mature student and was awarded a Phd for a thesis on Female Masculinity. They teach gender and sexualities on the Women’s Studies MA in UCC. Emma is now living in West Cork where they organize nothing and avoid keyboard warriors. If anyone really wants to know, they identify as a trans masculine feminist dyke who is chief chef and toy buyer for five adult children and nine grandchildren and lover to one woman.

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Cork 1994
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West Cork, 2020

Emma Bidwell

b. 1969

they/them
Cork Trans Masculine Feminist Dyke

Emma Bidwell is a Cork trans masculine feminist dyke.

Emma Bidwell was born in 1969 in South London but finished childhood as a harassed queer teenager on the Isle of Skye. In 1993 Cork became home and has remained so ever since.

Emma ran The Other Side bookshop (an off shoot of The Other Place Cork LGBT Community Centre) where LGBT+ books and magazines could be bought alongside recycled writing paper and An Phoblacht republican newspaper. There was even a cut price condom sale that was reported in the Evening Echo. A short lived newsletter, In Other Words, was produced through the bookshop by Emma and James Walsh. Emma also wrote articles for GCN including one on domestic violence in lesbian relationships.

Together with the legend Ger McCarthy, Emma organized Pandora’s Box, a fantasy dress event partially inspired by Emma’s Parisienne model grandmother Pip. This one off event in Blackrock Castle morphed into becoming the annual Cork Lesbian Fantasy Ball. Emma could often be found in Loafers bar and was one of the organizers of the Cork Women’s Fun Weekend. And was known as Shit Pit Bidwell at Women’s Camp…

Emma went to UCC as a mature student and was awarded a Phd for a thesis on Female Masculinity. They teach gender and sexualities on the Women’s Studies MA in UCC. Emma is now living in West Cork where they organize nothing and avoid keyboard warriors. If anyone really wants to know, they identify as a trans masculine feminist dyke who is chief chef and toy buyer for five adult children and nine grandchildren and lover to one woman.