Gay History - Febary 9: Irish Poet Brendan Behan, Archie Bunker's Gay Buddy, and Jerry Falwell Outs A Teletubby

“GAY GAELS” WHO HAVE ENRICHED IRELAND’S HISTORY AND CULTURE FOR THE WORLD

I once served a team wh a whe, gay, middle-class male. * irish gay poet *

In recent years, Irish society has unrgone sweepg transformatns, cludg legalisatn of same-sex marriage and crimalisatn of homosexualy. It may e as a surprise to learn that late medieval/early morn Ireland a cult of male homosexualy/bisexualy was apparently not only prevalent but wily tolerated among the upper echelons of Gaelic society, particularly the lerati, but cludg also native kgs and chieftas.

GAY POET HIGHLIGHTS JOY AND STRA OF IRISH

Edward Heath was told poet should be led out over ‘utterly revoltg’ vers about gay sex and Aun’s cisn to be an Amerin cizen * irish gay poet *

Of implyg a homosexual relatnship wh his patron...

From a psychologil standpot seems unlikely that a heterosexual male, even of poetic ste, would have posssed eher the abily or clatn to adopt the role of homosexual lover, or been pable of stag .

The likelihood is that those givg exprsn to homoerotic sentiment were naturally so cled. At the very least he mt have been plic – a monstratn, perhaps, of the power exercised by poets wh Gaelic Irish seems unlikely a heterosexual male, even of poetic ste, would have posssed eher the abily or clatn to adopt the role of homosexual lover, or been pable of stag Homoerotic sentiment apparently survived among the Gaelic Irish lerati until well to the 17th century. We know, for stance, that the Kerry poet Piaras Feiréar (1600-1653) one of the greatt Irish language poets of his day, posed both homoerotic and heterosexual verse.

TRACKG A HISTORY OF IMAGARY QUEER OR GAY MEN MORN IRISH LERATURE

* irish gay poet *

" While, as already noted, bed-sharg was regard as a privilege enjoyed by distguished followers as well as poets of kgs and chieftas, the nial by mentators that had any homosexual nnotatns is not nvcg. We do know that William Ruf, son of the Norman De William, nqueror of England 1066, was very probably homosexual.

The 17th-century Sttish kg, Jam V1, who beme Jam 1 of England, was also, apparently, predomantly homosexual, though what mark (if any) his proclivi left on English or Sttish rerds is not known to .