Decriminalisation eventually took place after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Ireland’s anti-gay laws contravened the European Convention on Human Rights of 1988. Finally, on June 24, 1993, Dáil Éireann passed a Bill decriminalising homosexuality. David Norris, now a senator in the Seanad, wrote in The Irish Times on June 25th that “when, next week, this Bill is passed by Seanad Éireann and sent to the President for signature I will, for the first time in my life, feel that I am at last a full and equal citizen in my own country.”

The ruling paved the way for decriminalisation of homosexuality as it proved the Victorian law was in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Norris, along with future presidents of Ireland Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, had set up their Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform in the late 1970s - a move that finally led to full decriminalisation almost two decades later.

In 2018, on the 25th anniversary of the law's removal, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar issued a public apology to those who had been discriminated against or isolated as a result of the legislation.