A Social Biography of Same-Sex Desire in Postcolonial Ireland

FAIN: FT-291128-23

Averill Earls
St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN 55057-1574)

Research and writing leading to a monograph on the history of sexuality and state-building in Ireland from 1922 to 1973.  

A Social Biography of Same-Sex Desire in Postcolonial Ireland is a seven-chapter history of sexuality and state-building from 1922 to 1973. Historians have neglected queer history between Irish independence and the rise of the Irish gay rights movement, primarily because the sources are so few. Using social biography methods, I weave together evidence from courtroom testimonies, fiction, and genealogical sources with the larger historical contexts in which they were embedded, to piece together a narrative of individual experiences. While commemorating the lives ruined by state-enforced homophobia, I argue that the persecution of same-sex desiring men was central to Irish postcolonial state-building. Further, this book models social biography as a methodology that allows humanities scholars to find and tell the stories of ordinary people, even when those people left few traces of their lives.

Associated Products

Love and Sex Between Men in Dublin, 1884-1973 (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Love and Sex Between Men in Dublin, 1884-1973
Abstract: In an undated letter to his life partner, Michael Mac Liammoir wrote “I love you so much, I can’t express it”. Hilton Edwards, in turn, was so bereft after Michael's death in 1978 that he hardly left the house they'd shared for decades. And yet it is likely surprising to some to learn that two men so deeply in love as all that had a happy and fulfilled life together in Dublin, Ireland, from the time they settled here in 1928 until their deaths. Certainly Catholic social pressure and legal restrictions prevented many same-sex desiring men and women from pursuing relationships in independent Ireland. But as court records, newspapers, and even some love letters demonstrate, men loved and had sex with other men in Ireland despite (or in spite of) societal expectations and legal consequences. For this talk, Dr. Averill Earls of St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minnesota) will give a brief overview of the history of love and sex between men in Dublin, as well as the role of class, nationalism, and policing in shaping the sexual subculture of Dublin, from 1884 until 1973.
Author: Averill Earls
Date: 01/24/2024
Location: Mansion House, Dublin
Primary URL: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/love-and-sex-between-men-in-dublin-1884-1973-tickets-795327364557
Primary URL Description: Event Brite ticket website for the talk
Secondary URL: https://www.youtube.com/@DublinCityCouncil/videos
Secondary URL Description: Once edited and produced, recording of talk will be posted on the DCC youtube

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