LGBTQIA+ records in The Archive of Irish in Britain

Máire Hussey, Archives and Library Assistant (Graduate Trainee)

An advertisement for the Irish Gay Helpline, published in 1991, begins: ‘For a variety of reasons lesbians and gay men are thought to leave Ireland in disproportionate numbers to their representation in the population’. A LGBTQIA+ history of Ireland must therefore acknowledge the transnational nature of the Irish LGBTQIA+ community, and the impact of migration on both individuals and queer liberation.  

AGIY-Info. Issue 25, Dec 1991 - AIB/AGIY/02/017

When the Irish Free State was established in 1922, large amounts of British legislation was retained. This included the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act, which had outlawed sexual acts between men. The possibility of homosexual acts between women had never been legislated for. Homosexuality was not legalised in the Republic of Ireland until 1992, following a case at the European Court for Human Rights. In Northern Ireland, the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality occurred in 1982, fifteen years after the same legislation was passed in England and Wales.  

London Irish Women's Centre newsletter, Jun 1986 - AIB/LIWC/15/007

In England and Wales, the 1882 Act had been overturned in 1967. Despite this, Britain was not the liberal utopia imagined by many young Irish LGBTQ+ people. Legislation such as Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act, which banned ‘promoting homosexuality by teaching or by publishing material’, contributed to a feeling of surveillance. For men, asking a man to have sex remained illegal, as did sex in a public place. LGBTQIA+ communities also reported facing hostility from state institutions, such as the police. An article in the London Irish Women’s Centre Newsletter written by the Lesbians and Policing Project features the murder of a young lesbian in Hampstead, and offers support and legal advice for those who may be unfairly treated by police, stating that ‘in the past when Lesbians or Gay men have been murdered or raped or assaulted, the police have used crimes like these to justify their information – gathering exercises [sic] into the Lesbian and Gay communities – even though they know that the perpetrator of the crime is not likely to be Lesbian or Gay...’.  

'A guide to London for young Irish people'. Flyer, 1989 - AIB/AGIY/03/001

Moreover, many migrants avoided Irish organisations for fear of the reaction to their sexuality, disconnecting themselves from the wider Irish community. Some argued that Irish organisations in Britain replicated the negative attitudes towards homosexuality commonly found in Ireland. On the other hand, many Irish organisations made efforts to include LGBTQIA+ communities within their groups and service provision. This was particularly true of organisations involved in radical politics. The London Irish Women’s Centre prioritised the inclusion of lesbians by organising panels at the women’s conference on lesbianism. The Action Group for Irish Youth included a section for ‘Gays and Lesbians’ in its Guide for young Irish people, which provided information on queer organisations, sexual health and the law, as well as collaborating with Positively Irish Action on AIDS. They also included articles about Irish lesbians and Irish gay men in their newsletter. Green Ink Irish Bookshop, which was based in Archway and specialised in literature about Irish history and politics, organised a night of readings from London Irish gay and lesbian writers. This was so successful that the event was re-run the following year. Even an action as simple as allowing a gay or lesbian organisation to advertise in a newsletter increased the visibility of the community. As was typical of queer spaces at the time, the emphasis is on terms such as gay and lesbian, and there are few explicit mentions of transness.  

As demonstrated above, material relating to Irish queer migrants in London can be found across the archive’s collections. There are also several collections which deal specifically with queer issues, such as records from Amach Linn, housed in the community collection, and the Positively Irish Action on Aids collection.

Amach Linn was founded in 1995 as an organisation primarily for Irish gay men and lesbians living in London. According to the group’s launch document, its purpose was ‘to advance the social and cultural welfare of Irish lesbians and gay men in London and to provide a visibility and awareness of the distinct experience of being Irish and lesbian or gay in London’. Amach Linn, which translates from Irish as ‘Out with us’, identified the need for a space which was specifically both Irish and queer. They argued that Irish lesbians and gay men often experienced homophobia in the wider London Irish community, while the London queer community couldn’t empathise with the struggles of being Irish in London. The organisation also holds records from the Irish lesbian and gay conference in London in 1995, which provided a forum to discuss issues such as repressive attitudes within Ireland and the obstacles faced by the Irish LGBTQIA+ community within the U.K. It identified the need for support for Irish lesbians and gay men in a diverse range of areas, including HIV/AIDS, mental health, parenting, substance abuse and coming out.

Positively Irish Action on Aids (PIAA) was formed in 1989 in response to the AIDS crisis. It consisted of Irish gay men and lesbians, alongside Irish HIV and Drug workers, who came together due to shared concerns about the lack of awareness among the Irish community in Britain about HIV transmission and service provision. PIAA aimed to provide support, referrals and resources to Irish people seeking information about HIV/AIDS, as well as undertake research in order to better understand how HIV/AIDS affected the Irish community in Britain.

 

PIAA REFERRAL SERVICE LEAFLET

This research demonstrated that the Irish population had a very different experience of AIDS compared to other demographics. Ireland, and therefore the Irish community in London, had a higher rate of transmission attributed to substance abuse. Some potential reasons for this included the heroin epidemic in Ireland, which during the 1980s was particularly concentrated in inner-city Dublin, as well as the possibility that some may have lied about how they contracted the virus because of the stigma surrounding homosexuality. PIAA’s research also acknowledged the existence of a substantial group of HIV+ men and women who were both homosexual and dealing with substance abuse. More broadly, PIAA discovered that women made up a larger proportion of those living with HIV in the Irish community, due to the increased rate of transmission from substance abuse.

PIAA embraced the diversity of its service users, offering support for those still struggling with substance abuse, childcare for service users who were parents, a support group specifically for gay men, and social events where service users could meet to share experiences. They managed a referral service, which connected those in need to specific support around housing, health and managing their illness. PIAA emphasised the need for culturally sensitive staff who understood the stigma surrounding homosexuality and substance abuse within the London Irish community and Ireland more broadly.  

 

PIAA CEILIDH LEAFLET

PIAA was defunded by the Inner London HIV Health Commissioners Group in 1996. The reasons given included that Irish people were not a group particularly at risk from HIV/AIDS, and that the needs of the Irish community could be met by mainstream provision. The fact that many Irish people had been referred to these services from their initial contact with PIAA was ignored, as was the statistic that over fifty percent of those making their first contact with PIAA were not in contact with any other services. Moreover, the specific needs of those from the Irish community living with HIV were not addressed. Instead, letters complaining about the defunding of the service were met with replies about the lack of language barrier and the greater need of other communities coming from locations where HIV was more widespread.  

The above organisations should not be considered separate and distinct. Several people had roles on both the Amach Linn committee and in PIAA, as well as participating in events in the London Irish Women’s Centre or collaborating with Action Group for Irish Youth. Instead, these records demonstrate the community spirit present within Irish LGBTQIA+ organisations, who managed to carve out space for themselves within the wider London Irish community in spite of opposition.

 

If you are interested in learning more about the Archive of the Irish in Britain, and specifically about the Irish LGBTQIA+ community in Britain, you can contact us by email at specialcollections@londonmet.ac.uk .

We are always interested in adding to our archive, so if you think that you or someone you know may have material on being Irish and LGBTQIA+ in Britain, please get in contact through our email above.