Not your own story: the complexities of HIV disclosure in Ireland

Dublin-based writer and performer Shaun Dunne has an up-close relationship with HIV disclosure. In 2013, his ex-boyfriend asked to meet at Eddie Rocket's, a diner off O'Connell Street, to share his positive diagnosis. That moment of necessary, terrifying honesty became the catalyst for Rapids, a documentary theatre project in which Dunne and two other actors gave first-person accounts on behalf of people in Ireland who were not willing or able to be open about their HIV-positive status. That was in 2017. Some time after, Dunne teamed up with writer and director Anna Rodgers to create a follow-up documentary, How to Tell a Secret. Released on World AIDS Day in December, 2022, the film artfully weaves together monologues, dramatisations, and more traditional documentary techniques into a stylised exploration of the complexities around HIV disclosure in Ireland.