Northern Ireland AIDS Memorial Quilts put on Public Display for first time since 1996

As part of World AIDS Day, which is marked every year on the 1^st of December, the Rainbow Project is displaying a collection of AIDS memorial quilts originating in Northern Ireland, likely last exhibited in 1996.

The quilts, which formed part of ‘the Names Project’, were part of the world’s largest community folk art project, with panels being made to memorialise and celebrate the lives of those lost to AIDS-related complications.

Scott Cuthbertson, CEO of the Rainbow Project, said: “This powerful display of quilts memorialising members of the community lost to AIDS-related complications is an important reminder of how far we have come in tackling HIV and AIDS, as well as how far we need to go. Contracting HIV is no longer a death sentence, and those living with HIV can lead happy and healthy lives with effective treatments and support. However, whilst we are living in a time where HIV is a long term but manageable condition, stigma remains an issue, and we need to see a whole society approach to tackling stigma, encouraging testing and eliminating new transmissions in Northern Ireland”

In advance of the event, which takes place tomorrow (Saturday 30^th November) from 2 – 5pm in the MAC Belfast, the Rainbow Project has been able to reunite one of the quilts with its maker: the eldest daughter of Ruth Laffin, who died in 1991 at the age of 36.

Due to the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS at her time of death, the quilt was anonymously dedicated ‘To Mummy,’ and was made from her duvet cover, her dress and her children’s duvet cover. Ruth’s five children wrote their names and a message on the underside of red hearts, which were cut from her dress and stitched to the quilt.

Leo Lardie, the Rainbow Project’s Sexual Health Officer, said: “It was so poignant and unexpected that our exhibition has already reunited someone with their mother’s quilt more than three decades after it was made. Every one of these quilts meant something to both an individual and the community around them; we’re privileged to be able to share those memories with LGBTQIA+ people and their allies today.”

For media requests, please contact Alexa Moore, Policy, Campaigns and Communications Manager at the Rainbow Project, at:

+ 44 79 3354 5164

alexa@rainbow-project.org