Men, Misfits, and Martyrs

Homosexuality has historically been constructed as an issue within Ireland and the Irish diaspora for centuries. However, the academic investigation of homosexuality and, consequently, homophobia’s roles in Irish history have been sparsely studied. This essay seeks to examine homosexuality in the Irish diaspora. Specifically, it investigates how heterosexuality necessarily came to be closely associated with the growing Irish nationalist movement in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century England. Through the analysis of Oscar Wilde’s court cases as well as the impact of the publishing of Roger Casement’s personal diary entries, it is evident that homosexuality was constructed as a controversial issue in the Irish diaspora during times of instability in Ireland. Because homosexuality threatened the sanctity of Irish nationhood by existing outside of outlined social norms, instances of publicized homosexuality amid elite Irish men living within the Irish diaspora were largely looked down upon in order to preserve traditional notions of ‘Irishness’. This investigation concluded that familism’s rise in Ireland and throughout the Irish diaspora in response to Britain’s encroaching colonial intervention in the country determined that homosexuality served no purpose to the nationalistic cause, thus leading to its construction as an inherently anti-Irish characteristic among Irish men.