Quare Fellows Abroad: Homosexuality and the Irish Diaspora, c. 1880s-1960s

Irish queer history remains largely underdeveloped. Most works published on Irish homosexuality focus only on the late-twentieth century through a primarily political lens, focusing on activism and repression from the 1960s onwards. There has been little success in 'queering' other narratives of Irish history, most noticeably the history of the Irish diaspora. Still, what little work has been published on the relationship between Irish homosexuality and migration also focuses on the mid- to late-twentieth century, with the queer narratives of the Irish diaspora before the Second World War being obscured. Currently, the movement of queer Irish men into the American and English metropolises between 1880 and 1940 has only been briefly mentioned in English and American queer urban histories.

For my project, funded by the Northern Bridge Consortium, I propose to examine the movement of queer Irish men between Ireland and the cities of London and New York between the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. This period saw large rates of Irish emigration to the United States and England, which coincided with the development of visible queer urban subcultures in both London and New York. It is the aim of this project to examine how these men moved between Ireland and these cities and engaged in queer urban practices or perhaps even led semi-public queer lifestyles. Rather than focusing excessively on their arrest, which would simply recreate an outdated approach to the history of sexuality by portraying homosexuality before gay liberation as overly repressed and secretive, I will show how these men lived their lives and travelled before and after their moment of discovery. By understanding how queer experiences were connected to the movement of men through the urban space as part of the Irish diaspora, this project will introduce an element of 'queerness' into the study of the Irish diaspora before the birth of Irish queer activism.

My project is guided by several research questions:

In what ways did queer men move back and forth to London and New York from Ireland?

How did they impact upon 'queer scenes' in these cities?

What was the spatial organization of queer culture in Irish neighbourhoods?

How did their return to Ireland alter domestic 'queer scenes'?

To what extent did their Irish understandings of masculinity, nationhood, and religiosity affect queer identities?

What effect(s) did the public debate about homosexuality in the 1950s and 1960s have on the Irish diaspora?



To answer these questions, I utilise archival research alongside analysis of discourses around masculinity, urban culture, and migration in Ireland and abroad. Like many queer historians, I will use arrest reports and convictions to show that Irish men were engaging in homosexual sex in Ireland and abroad. These reports can be found in The National Archives in Dublin and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast. Similar records can be found in the Public Records Office in the National Archives in London and the New York Municipal Archives in Manhattan. I also aim to use newspaper reports relating to public sex and homosexual scandals to demonstrate public views towards homosexuality, particular in areas with high Irish diasporic populations. However, to escape from the outdated narratives of the study of homosexuality prior to gay liberation, I also aim to use genealogy data and census reports to show that these men continued to live their lives and move between England, America, and their homeland before and after their moment of persecution.