How Irish gays beme ‘normal’ – and why the Church was unable to do much about – The Irish Tim

Contents:

• “GAY GAELS” WHO HAVE ENRICHED IRELAND’S HISTORY AND CULTURE FOR THE WORLD
• TRACKG A HISTORY OF IMAGARY QUEER OR GAY MEN MORN IRISH LERATURE
• HOW IRISH GAYS BEME ‘NORMAL’ – AND WHY THE CHURCH WAS UNABLE TO DO MUCH ABOUT
• 10 TON IRISH GAY RIGHTS

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

It wasn’t always that way, but there has been a massive shift general attus sce the crimalisatn of homosexualy 1993. BarsDubl’s olst and biggt gay bar is The Gee, which has been servg the cy’s LGBTQ+ muny for over thirty years. Also worth checkg out is the Internatnal Gay Theatre Ftival, which ually tak place May and featur LGBTQ+-themed productns staged theatr and smaller venu across the cy.

Out2Tennis, meanwhile, is Ireland’s gay tennis work, anisg events and tournaments around the cy.

Media ptnPractice your serve wh Out2Tennis, Ireland's gay tennis work.

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

His work perdilly vered homosexual referenc and his personal life dit his attractn for men. Rory O’Neill is famoly regnized as the drag queen Panti Bliss and is also a gay rights activist. Origally om Ballrobe, County Mayo, O’Neill grew up a small town and me out as gay his 20s.

” Norton is openly gay, workg as a prenter for TV and rad.

He me out as gay to the general public 2009 but to his clost fay and iends at the age of 16. Polil lear Leo Varadkar publicly me out as gay 2015 and was an avid advote for the same-sex referendum.

HOW IRISH GAYS BEME ‘NORMAL’ – AND WHY THE CHURCH WAS UNABLE TO DO MUCH ABOUT

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.

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 .

10 TON IRISH GAY RIGHTS

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. " 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 . Elements of what may be homoerotic sentiment occurrg an early English translatn of this were apparently tected by the 19th-century English historian, Jam Anthony Frou and later, 1969, by the Oxford don and man of letters, AL Rowse, himself homosexual.