DUBLIN -- Gays in Ireland lived in the shadows for decades, lest they face ridicule, assault or even prison in Victorian times. Friday's referendum asking voters to approve gay marriage is the latest landmark in decades of struggle for Ireland's homosexual minority to gain greater rights and respect.
1861: Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, becomes subject to the Offences Against the Persons Act. It makes "buggery," or gay male intercourse, a crime punishable by up to life in prison, but only if sexual penetration is proven.
1885: A new British law creates broader, ill-defined offence of "gross indecency" used to prosecute gay men for wider range of sexual practices.
1895: Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde convicted of gross indecency in London court, given two-year prison sentence. Scores of other men received similar sentences in the late 19th century in Irish courts.
1922: Predominantly Catholic south of Ireland wins independence from Britain, keeps British anti-gay laws in its criminal code without alteration. Britain decriminalizes homosexual acts in 1967.
1974: Trinity College literary scholar David Norris leads formation of Ireland's first gay rights group, the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, seeking to decriminalize gay sexual practices in Ireland. Two future presidents of Ireland, Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson, serve as the pressure group's legal advisers.
1980: Norris sues Ireland, argues British anti-gay laws are unconstitutional under terms of Ireland's 1937 constitution pledging equal rights for all. High Court in 1980 and Supreme Court in 1983 reject his arguments, citing constitution's Christian ethos.
1983: Declan Flynn, 31, beaten to death in Dublin park by gang taunting him as a homosexual. Gay Pride movement in Ireland formed in response, its inaugural parade featuring placards demanding police protection from anti-gay attacks in street. Parade grows over three decades into a 10-day festival.
1987: Norris elected to Ireland's upper house of parliament, the Seanad, by Trinity College students, and is still serving.
1988: European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, finds Ireland guilty of violating gays' right to privacy under the Europe-wide Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Ireland ordered to comply and pay Norris' past five years of legal costs pursuing the case.
1993: Ireland passes law decriminalizing homosexual acts.
1998: Government passes Employment Equality Act outlawing discriminatory treatment of gays in workplace, but religious organizations -- chiefly the Catholic Church, which runs most schools and many hospitals -- receive opt-out.
2000: Equal Status Act outlaws discriminatory treatment of gays by businesses and government-provided services. Designed in part to stop pubs and clubs from barring gays, banks from denying loans, and landlords refusing to rent properties.
2006: A lesbian couple -- an American theologian and an Irish former nun who met at Boston College and were married in Canada -- sue Ireland to have their marriage recognized domestically. High Court concedes that Ireland's constitution does not explicitly define marriage as between a man and woman, but rejects women's case on grounds that Irish law universally recognizes marriage as a heterosexual institution.
2010: Parliament passes civil partnerships law, creates marriage-style contracts for gay couples granting them nearly identical financial benefits to married couples in tax, pensions, property ownership, inheritance and other issues. More than 1,000 gay couples have their civil partnerships registered in marriage-style ceremonies.
2013: constitutional Convention advises government to hold referendum to legalize gay marriage, finds dozens of legal deficiencies in civil partnerships versus marriage, particularly on recognition of gay couples' right to be recognized as parents.
2015: Ireland votes on legalizing gay marriage.
