IrishCentral's top ten Irish, talented and gay- PHOTOS

Keep reading to discover some interesting facts about our acclaimed list of Irish and Irish Americans who are openly gay

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Rosie O’Donnell

Photo by Harpo

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Kelly McGillis

The Irish-American actress was born in Newport California in 1957. In her teenage years she dropped out of high school to pursue a career in acting. She is most well known for her role alongside Tom Cruise in “Top Gun”. In 1995 she joined Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, Aiden Quinn and Brenda Fricker in narrating the documentary “Out of Ireland”, which traced the history of Irish immigration to the US. According to the New York Times she married her partner Melanie Leis at a civil union performed in New Jersey last year.

Boy George

The infamous singer-songwriter was born George Alan O'Dowd in 1961 in South London to two Irish parents originally from Thurles, Co. Tipperary. He became well known for his contribution towards the New Romantic movement which emerged in the UK in the 1980s. From 1981-1986 he was the lead singer of eighties band Culture Club. In 2006 he was named as one of the most influential gay men in Britain by the London Independent. He recently collaborated with British Dj Mark Ronson.

Graham Norton

Graham William Walker was born in Clondalkin Dublin in 1963. After dropping out of college in University College Cork, the Irishman moved to San Francisco where he began to explore a career in acting. Although he is Irish, the bulk of his television career has taken place in the UK. Known for his camp personality, he has hosted a number of his own chat shows including “So Graham Norton” and “V Graham” Norton” and “Graham Norton's Bigger Picture”.

Stephen Gately

Dublin born Gately was most well known as a member of Boyzone, one of the biggest boy-bands of the 1990's. Sadly at the age of 33 the singer-songwriter and author passed away in October of last year. During his time with Boyzone he achieved 17 top 5 single and 4 number 1 albums. After the band split, Gately continued to advance his singing and acting career including performances on such hit shows as ITV's “Dancing on Ice”.

Colm Toibin

A Wexford man Colm Toibin was born in Enniscorthy in 1955. The multi award winning author is one of Ireland's most prolific writers, Toibin first studied at University College Dublin. He is a regular contributor to the Dublin Review, the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. Earlier this year he was awarded the AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award.

Emma Donoghue

Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma was shorted listed for the 2010 Man Booker Prize for her novel “Room”. She spent the first twenty years of her life in Ireland before moving to Cambridge (England) to pursue a PhD and then onto Ontario in Canada. Named after Jane Austen's novel Emma, as a child she had wanted to become a ballerina. She started writing poetry at an early age and got her first book deal when she was 23.

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