Unnatural Offenses of English Import: The Political Association of Englishness and Same-Sex Desire in Nineteenth-Century Irish Nationalist Media

Abstract

I n D e c e m b e r 1919 m I c h a e l F o g a r t y , the Catholic bishop of Killaloe, in a letter to the editor, decried the fact that Lord Chief Justice Francis Molony, a “hireling of British tyranny,” had characterized the people of County Clare as “a race of moral degenerates.” His indignation is apparent: “One would think . . . that we were here ankle-deep in the filthy compound of burglary and murder, sodomy, bigamy and infidelity, child murder, divorce, and sexual promiscuity that covers the standing pool of Saxon life.” Fogarty thought that Molony exemplified the long history of English elites wrongfully characterizing Irishmen as violent children unfit for self-governance. To conclude his defense of his countrymen, Fogarty closed his letter with a sarcastic sign-off, asserting exactly what he thought was wrong with the people of County Clare: “It is that they have the manliness to stand up against tyranny, and to flourish the Flag of Irish Independence in the face of [Dublin] Castle hacks.” The fierce imagery Fogarty evoked, painting the English not only in their barbarian ancestry but also through five counts of sexual criminality and immorality, was not unique. Tying English rule to sexual immorality