Colm Tóibín · Roamg the Greenwood: A History of Gay Lerature: The Male Tradn by Gregory Woods · LRB 21 January 1999

Contents:

• AT SWIM, TWO BOYS IS A GREAT IRISH NOVEL, AND A GROUNDBREAKG GAY LOVE STORY
• JOHN BOYNE'S THE HEART'S INVISIBLE FURI ABOUT A GAY MAN POST-WAR IRELAND
• IRISH GAY WRERS
• TRACKG A HISTORY OF IMAGARY QUEER OR GAY MEN MORN IRISH LERATURE
• “GAY GAELS” WHO HAVE ENRICHED IRELAND’S HISTORY AND CULTURE FOR THE WORLD
• QUEER LOVE: 'THERE AREN’T MANY BOOKS THAT FOC ON GAY PEOPLE'
• QUEER WHISPERS: GAY AND LBIAN VOIC IRISH FICTN BR: {WIDTH:TO;} RETURN TO YEAR REVIEW QUEER WHISPERS: GAY AND LBIAN VOIC IRISH FICTN

AT SWIM, TWO BOYS IS A GREAT IRISH NOVEL, AND A GROUNDBREAKG GAY LOVE STORY

Pl McVeigh, edor of Queer Love, troduc this new anthology of Irish gay fictn, and wr movgly about how librari were a safe space for him: “Let’s fill those bookshelv hom, librari, and shops wh more and more stori of . We didn’t crimalise homosexualy until 1993 – more than a quarter-century after siar laws had been enacted Great Bra – and yet by 2015 we’d bee the first untry the world to vote by plebisce for same-sex marriage.

There was still a sense of the clanste to what should have felt perfectly a young gay man behd a bookshop unter, I watched the people who bought At Swim, Two Boys – and there were a lot of them – and ed as a tool for flirtatn.

He grew up gay Catholic Ireland – his last book A History Of Lonels centred on child abe the Church – but he wanted his latt story, The Heart's Invisible Furi, about a gay man fdg his way post-war Ireland, to make people lgh through story begs 1945 when a baby is born out of wedlock to a teenage girl st out om her ral muny.

JOHN BOYNE'S THE HEART'S INVISIBLE FURI ABOUT A GAY MAN POST-WAR IRELAND

Tonie Walsh (born 25 December 1960) Dubl, Ireland, is an LGBT rights activist, journalist, disc jockey, foundg edor of Gay Communy News (Dubl) and founr of the Irish Queer Archive. Around the same time GCN published an op-ed headled: “Varadkar will be as helpful to the gays as Margaret Thatcher was to women” actual Leo Varadkar is a nventnal centre-right polician subscribg to a neoliberal worldview. Whatever threatens to unrme the social orr – ntrast wh any reformist polics to modify – will variably be ighteng and the new lennium the Irish lerary gay man had bee a lot more rpectable.

IRISH GAY WRERS

Precisely but passnately, The Blackwater Lightship, published 1999, picts Declan endurg the terrifyg physlogil and psychic bilatns, as well as the banal huiatns, of dyg om that the new Irish lbian and gay fictn was not jt pictg realy. ) The Church—which has had more than their share of their own gay problems—the Ancient Orr of Hibernians and other like-md anizatns band together, thought back fondly on their 19th-century prejudic, and shouted an thorarian “NYET! And you don’t have to look too hard eher for great exampl—two of the sixteen men executed by the Brish 1916 were most likely gay—Sir Roger Casement (fely) and Padraig Pearse (probably).

Dpe havg a voted wife and fatherg a child, Behan’s homosexualy, which first blossomed when he was servg time a Brish borstal for young boys, ightened and disturbed him until his premature ath 1964. In his book, “Samuel Beckett: The Last Mornist”, Anthony Cron wrote “It might be accurate to say that his [Beckett’s] relatnship wh MacGreevy had, though was not sexual, an element of the homo-erotic , as ed some of Beckett’s later relatnships were to have. In recent years other Irish wrers have e out and clared their homosexualy, most promently novelist Colm Tóibín and Nuala O’Faola, who wrote about her relatnship wh Nell McCafferty Are You Somebody?

Bgraphers have ntually bated Whman’s sexual orientatn; his poetry, particularly Leav of Grass, which faced ser censorship after s publitn, ntas several homoerotic imag, however others argue that this was untentnal. Osr Wil (who also appears on this list), after meetg Whman 1882, was adamant that Whman was gay, and even told the activist Gee Cecil Iv, “I have the kiss of Walt Whman still on my lips. Dorian Gray was origally published Lipptt’s Monthly Magaze, and drew such harsh cricism for s pictn of “immoraly, ” (one character the novel exprs a potentially romantic fatuatn for another male character) that when was later re-published as a book, Wil toned down the novel’s homoerotic subtext.

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

In 1956, Baldw published Gvanni’s Room, a novel that drew tense attentn and cricism for s portrayal of homosexualy and bisexualy and is often ced as one of the most important queer novels ever wrten. Capote was openly gay, and while he was never much of an active participant the gay rights movement, the openns wh which he exprsed his inty njunctn wh his level of celebry was an important tone queer history. Known for his grim and often btal sense of humor, Sullivan once wrote, “I took a certa pleasure rmg the genr clic that even though their program told me I uld not live as a Gay man, looks like I’m gog to die like one.

Ennis ntued, “This bi-lgual anthology of 25 young LGBTQ+ poets livg Ireland disprov the notn of the stereotypil ‘gay’ still the mds of many people, not least the ‘objectively disorred’ person of relig tholic fundamentalism. In their own motley ways, the poets are ‘proud to be gay’, spe the fight some have to fight daily to fend their right to be gay, as dividuals, human begs and fully mted members of society wh equal rights due all areas of life. We very rarely see them bed wh their lover, ” says thor says the lack of reprentatn of gay liv and perspectiv was also recently brought home to him when he watched It’s A S, the acclaimed drama om Rsell T Davi centred on the liv of gay people 1980s London durg the AIDS crisis.

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

“I don’t pick up a book and go, ‘oh my God, that’s a straight book, don’t talk to me about my life, I’m not gog to read straight books’, but I thk a lot of people do that about gay books.

Queer Whispers: Gay and Lbian Voic Irish Fictn – Estuds Irlans Saltar al ntenido Queer Whispers: Gay and Lbian Voic Irish Fictn Queer Whispers: Gay and Lbian Voic Irish Fictn Eibhear Walshe Universy College Cork, Ireland by. The weight of rearch ss lightly on the prose, fluent and readable and always sightful terms of the close readgs and the nclns drawn om the time span is wi, om the early 1980s to Celtic Tiger Ireland and beyond and, the thor’s own words, “Queer Whispers Gay and Lbian Voic Irish Fictn explor the works of fictn unn wh their ntexts of productn and their teractn wh current bat and social reali” (10).

Dorcey draws on her own experienc and her own athetic to set the ntext for the book and pays genero tribute both to the wrers examed and to the excg spe of the study: “I am more than proud to realise that Irish wrers have produced sce the 1980s, a body of work scribg gay life as we know , that is nfidant, distctive and illumatg” (xiv) stcture of the book allows the analysis to span several s of social change Ireland and marks the progrs towards acceptance and legal validatn. The analysis of stori like Ridgeway’s’ “Graffi” and “Natai Bocht” by Eamon Somers leads to the perceptive ment that:Although cisg is often a unter-reactn to the opprsn and regulatn of same-sex sire, still remas a space of vulnerabily and limed possibili, as this sexual behavur (ually vert and anonymo) seldom emerg as polilly transgrsive, even though may lead to homosocialy and rebelln is some stanc. 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.

QUEER LOVE: 'THERE AREN’T MANY BOOKS THAT FOC ON GAY PEOPLE'

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 .

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. " 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.

QUEER WHISPERS: GAY AND LBIAN VOIC IRISH FICTN BR: {WIDTH:TO;} RETURN TO YEAR REVIEW QUEER WHISPERS: GAY AND LBIAN VOIC IRISH FICTN

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.

The elements qutn rive om the Irish of Ó Conaill's origal Ireland, homoerotic sentiment survived among the Gaelic lerati until well to the 17th centuryIn Ireland, as already monstrated, homoerotic sentiment survived among the Gaelic lerati until well to the 17th century. It has remaed so until close to the prent day, which has seen not only the troductn of social and legal reforms already referred to, but the electn of a youthful, openly homosexual taoiseach of sterlg urage and enlightened visn. Among others who may be noted the same ntext is Jerry Buttimer, the first openly homosexual Fe Gael TD; the Cork hurler, Donal Óg Cack; and particular David Norrris – dntls battler for "gay" rights at a time when prejudice, often vic, still reigned supreme.