OTP 2021 Programme - Museum of Free Derry
Outing the Past, Derry
Museum of Free Derry, Saturday 13 March 2021
For Outing the Past 2021 the Museum of Free Derry will host a series of pre-recorded online presentations, followed by a live discussion with all presenters.
All pre-recorded events will be available on the Museum of Free Derry YouTube channel, and through Museum Facebook (mofd.derry) and Twitter page (@MuseumFreeDerry).
12.00pm Introduction, followed by:
Dr Jeff Evans on The Queer Ceili at the Martin Forsythe
This presentation, based on newspaper articles and personal testimony, provides a rare insight into an event in the early 1980s when the first UK Student LGBT Conference (NUS LGBT) was held at Queens University Belfast. The conference was picketed by Rev. Ian Paisley’s Save Ulster from Sodomy Campaign, and simultaneously hosted by the nationalist people of Whiterock, West Belfast.
1.00pm Brian Lacey Ireland’s Queer History
Despite Ireland’s reputation until recently as being sexually conservative, in fact this country has a long-documented history of what might be described now as ‘queer’ behaviour. Sexually repressed Ireland lasted for little more than a century: from roughly the end of the Great Famine in the 1850s down to the end of the 1950s when change began to come about. The causes of that relatively short-lived repressive interval owed as much to economic conditions as to contemporary religious and socially approved morality. Before the Famine things had been a lot more relaxed and, in their own way, liberal. Since the completion of the English conquest of Ireland in the early 17th century evidence for queer behaviour occurs largely in accounts of scandals and court proceedings. But for the thousand years or so before that (although little known) records of various kinds from Gaelic Ireland – law tracts and penitentials, saints Lives and sagas, medieval prose and poetry – provide us with an insight into the more varied intimate and emotional lives of the people of those times. This talk will tease out and reflect on that evidence.
1.45pm:
Women's News: Belfast Lesbian Involvement in Women's Movement of the 80's and 90's
“Our understanding of LGBT History in Belfast is currently quite male dominated. Our presentation will
look at the involvement of lesbian women in the wider women's movement through specific examples
from Women's News publications.
“We will also look at the origins of Women's News and how it progressed, the intersectionality of lesbians and feminists in Belfast throughout the 80's and 90's and how grassroots organisations such as Lesbian Line and Queer Space were involved.
“The presentation will also explore how this operated during the Peace Process, how ideas of lesbian motherhood were portrayed within the magazine, how other familial services for lesbian youths were discussed, and at lesbian activism and involvement in the burgeoning Pride movement of Belfast.”
2.30pm:
Brendan Nelis on Tarlach’s Legacy
Tarlach MacNiallais was an activist promoting the LGBT agenda through the early days of the NI
conflict. This presentation will outline and highlight some significant events he was involved in, including the infamous protest against LGBT Trade Union activists presenting at Queen’s University Belfast. It will also outline the birth and progress of ILGO (Irish Lesbian and Gay Organisation) in New York which resulted in eventual acceptance and welcome onto the New York City St Patrick's Day parade in 2016.
From Brendan: “Tarlach MacNaillais was my brother. He died on 1st April 2020 from Covid 19. He had been very proactively involved in promoting and ensuring that LGBT issues be firmly ingrained into the
Nationalist/Republican agenda throughout Ireland but in particular in the North. He also was a central in New York re: the right on Irish LGBT people to march in the annual St Patrick's Day parade. After a
25year fight this aim was achieved on 17th March 2016. Tarlach left a lot of personal archive material and oral testimonies {via radio/TV recordings} which, as his brother and advocate, I would be proud to share on this platform. He is also remembered by sets of photos and the stories behind them. I think, together, these documents would form an amazing legacy to a great man.
“Tarlach leaves behind his husband, Juan, and a large Irish family. We are all so proud of the immense man and I hope his memory can, in some little way, help others to accept and understand the concept of Equality for all. His actions spoke much louder than words and, as his brother, I would relish the opportunity to share some significant events in his life with you.”
Tarlach played a central role in the curation of the Queering the North exhibition, which has now been dedicated to his memory.
3.30pm: Live Zoom discussion with all presenters. Please contact seminars@bloodysundaytrust.org for invite. This event will be recorded and released on our Youtube channel afterwards.