1. Introduction The State of Ireland becomes a reality after centuries of oppression, when very restrictive legislation, such as the Penal Laws, was enforced on religious grounds. This was followed by several rebellion attempts, the Easter Rising insurrection against British rule in 1916, the Anglo-Irish 1921 Treaty, and a subsequent one-year Civil War that divided the nation politically and geographically. The Republic is built on a Constitution which, although in need of amending to better meet the needs of society, from 1937 onwards has reinforced Irish ethics. Likewise, it has also been shaped by the violence of the Troubles shaking the south at various times, in direct contraposition with a literary tradition of incontestable influence world-wide; or the most recent debate on nationality becoming gradually harsher after a referendum against automatic entitlement to such a condition was encouraged by anti-immigration positions (Chopin 2006: 236). Very influential pillars of contemporary Ireland are leading figures of the height and diametrically opposite personalities of Eamon de Valera and Mary Robinson, or science Nobel Prize winner Ernest Walton, lead singer of U2 Bono, Golden Globe winner Colin Farrell or Tony Ryan, the controversial founder of the low-cost airline. Furthermore, the present time of the so-called Emerald Isle relies very heavily on both social and financial changes that, by the end of the 20th century, definitely transform the profile of a largely rural and Catholic country (Ferriter 2010). The Irish economic miracle was due to several factors (Murphy 2000, Brener 2006, Sweeny 2004): Governmental expenditure cuts in health, education, infrastructure or housing helped to lower corporate tax rates. This policy encouraged the inflow of capital from abroad; the establishment of pharmaceutical, food and high-tech companies; the reduction of the unemployment rate; and a new migratory movement resulting in an increase of about 10% of the country's population; accordingly, from 1995, low- and high-skilled young people, many of them from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, others from Irish ancestry, were incorporated into the labour market. On the other hand, the decline of the Church's power, after revelations of scandals involving paedophilia and sexual abuse, (2) has eventually affected the perception of issues such as gender and sexuality (Bacik 2007, McGonigle 2013). At the same time as women start adopting new roles in the public sphere, (3) the traditional form of family coexists with new alternatives, whilst marriage is less common and divorce is more frequently occurring (Fine-Davis 2011, Lunn and Fahey 2011). Although in 2013 abortion was legalised in cases of risk to life for pregnant women, (4) right up until 1996, women had still been sent to Magdalene Laundries for having children outside of marriage (see Ramblado Minero and Perez Vides 2006), and it is only in 1993 when contraception without prescription became available. (5) In the last twenty years or so, the legal framework of homosexuality has evolved so that male same-sex relations are no longer an outrage on decency, as once claimed in the Labouchere Amendment (1885-1967). (6) Its de-criminalisation in 1993 has allowed for a fairer reading of both Irish history, and the biographies of some Irish politicians and sports players such as Leo Vardkar or Donal Og Cusack (Walshe 2005, Lacey 2009, Duffy 2011). On 22 May 2015 a referendum will be held in which the Irish Parliament will encourage society to back same-sex unions. Before this historic event, violence against gays (including, for instance, the murders of Declan Flynn and Michael O'Connor in the 1980s) is one of the tragic consequences of homophobia. (7) All in all, suicide risk among young students suffering homophobic bullying at school (Minton et al. 2008; O'Higgins-Norman 2008, 2009), which seems to be a social malady in Northern Ireland and the Republic, (8) has been evidenced so often that it must have been addressed in various forms. …