Belfastmen : An Intimate History of Life Before Gay Liberation

Tom Hulme

ISBN 10: 1501786458 / ISBN 13: 9781501786457

Published by Cornell University Press Apr 2026, 2026

About this Item

Neuware - Belfastmen reconstructs the everyday experiences of queer men in a region infamous for its recent history of intolerance, violence, and religious homophobia to show how queer lives before the gay rights movement were not only possible but also rich, exciting, and fulfilling. Irish churches and governmental authorities found the topic of sex between men unmentionable and imagined such vice as a problem only found in decadent and degenerate societies abroad. Belfastmen shows how this tacit ignorance and public silence paradoxically enabled male queerness to flourish with only rare exposure, condemnation, or regulation.

Seller Inventory # 9781501786457

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Belfastmen : An Intimate History of Life Before Gay Liberation
• Publisher: Cornell University Press Apr 2026
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1501786458
• ISBN 13: 9781501786457
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 228W x 152H x 21D millimeters 228 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 21 millimeters depth
• Weight: 466 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Belfastmen reconstructs the everyday experiences of queer men in a region infamous for its recent history of intolerance, violence, and religious homophobia to show how queer lives before the gay rights movement were not only possible but also rich, exciting, and fulfilling. Irish churches and governmental authorities found the topic of sex between men unmentionable and imagined such vice as a problem only found in decadent and degenerate societies abroad. Belfastmen shows how this tacit ignorance and public silence paradoxically enabled male queerness to flourish with only rare exposure, condemnation, or regulation.

Tom Hulme traces the intimate lives of men across time, space, and self-understanding: their meeting places, their sexual and romantic relationships, the scientific and social models of desire they used to define themselves, and the responses to them from families, neighborhoods, and the law. From Belfast's industrial boom in the late nineteenth century to the social transformations accompanying WWII, Belfastmen reveals how homosexuality finally emerged as a recognized social problem in the 1950s. Only then did Northern Ireland start to transform into the expressively homophobic society of the more recent past.

About the Author

Tom Hulme is a cultural historian of modern Britain and Ireland, Reader in Modern British History at Queen's University Belfast, and Principal Investigator of the Arts and Humanities Research Council project Queer Northern Ireland: Sexuality Before Liberation. He is the author of After the Shock City.