Why This Blog?

Voices Amidst Conflict: Gay Males During the Troubles is a primary research project that is exploring how sexual minorities respond to sectarian conflict and peace. Storytelling has a rich tradition in Irish culture, and it is through the vehicle of ethnographic oral histories that the experiences of gay men in Belfast are being gathered and maintained keeping intact the constructs of their own recollections. The project has two goals, to compile and preserve both the individual and collective experiences of Gay Northern Ireland , and to use these interviews to understand the place of the gay male community in the context of “the troubles” (1968-1998) and modern era (1998-present) in Northern Irish society. To achieve these goals, the project has three phases: immersion, gathering and analysis. To achieve immersion, I am traveling to Belfast to immerse myself in Northern Irish society for four months. Through this and through a part-time internship with the Rainbow Project (a local resource organization whose goal is to educate the greater population on LGBTI issues and give support to the gay community), I hope to understand the historical and societal context, identify the nuances unique to Northern Irish culture, and determine the ‘right questions to ask.’ The second phase will be the actual interviews. After taking a month to observe and network with the Rainbow Project, I will begin the interviewing process. Finally, the last month will be set aside for a review of the interviews collected and coming to conclusions about the status of the gay community, current and historically.

The field of Peace Studies is relatively young, and research has been mostly constrained to the protagonists in sectarian conflict (the Celtic-Irish, Scot-Presbyterian and Anglo-Irish in the Northern Ireland case). While the roles of members of these groups are fairly well understood, the roles of sexual minorities who are members of these torn communities have been mostly ignored. Very little literature exists on their experiences and only conjecture gives indication of how these groups fare and change through the cycles of war and peace. The Voices Amidst Conflict project will provide one of the first in depth looks at the lives of ordinary gay men, and their experiences of growing up, identifying as gay, coming out, and navigating society amidst the turbulence that is Northern Irish history. My hope is that the publishing of the resultant research will stimulate interest and further research in issues of how sexual minorities are affected by sectarian conflict. Three areas of emphasis will be used in this project, history, political science and social work. I believe that this interdisciplinary ‘trinity’ is the best approach to understanding sexual minorities in Northern Ireland, taking the person-in-environment approach of social work to understand both the person and the environment that has been shaped by historical and political context.

This blog will chronicle my research in Northern Ireland, and hopefully be of interest to my many friends and family members who wish to follow my adventures. Beginning December 23rd this blog will be updated once a week, so either subscribe to keep appraised of posts or check back frequently.