Queering in the Years: Gay Visibility in the Irish Media, 1974-2008

This dissertation examines the queer visibility and discourses surrounding that visibility as they have unfolded on Irish television, film and alternative activist media between 1974 and 2008. The thesis argues that LGBT activists originally deployed media visibility for the liberatory potential of advancing LGBT rights. However, mainstream media institutions exploited queer identities for economic purposes; that, coupled with the eruption of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, disrupted the mainstreaming goals of queer visibility. This resulted in queer visibility becoming caught up in a shifting power dynamic, or as this thesis terms it, a tug-of-war, between Ireland’s LGBT community and media institutions. As this thesis will argue, the development of queer Irish media visibility was informed by local activism, legal changes, viral epidemics, international media influences along with the development of Ireland’s media landscape. The thesis traverses time periods, media forms and Queer and Media Studies theoretical frameworks to provide an overview of the dynamic of queer Irish visibility, pursuing connections across current affairs programming, documentary, chat shows, soap opera, television drama, film, magazines and broader print media. The methodology of this thesis is predominantly archival research, textual analysis and semi-structured interviews, a mixed-methods approach that uncovers the relationship between the proliferation of queer visibility and alternative queer media and the processes by which such media are produced. Using these forms and practices, the thesis will explore how varying Irish gay civil rights groups influenced the types of queer media images that manifested on screen and within their alternative media economies; how the changing social, cultural, economic and legal context of the historical period saw the transition of queer visibility from current affairs to narrativised, fictionalised representations and illuminate how queer Irish visibility transformed from localised activism to aspirational attempts of participating in a global media economy

New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium for the Humanities - Reflections, Volume 1

This volume features articles written by the postgraduate presenters at Maynooth University's first annual New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium on the Humanities (NPPSH), which took place in October 2016. This conference, which coincided with the annual Dean’s Lecture, strove to highlight scholarship conducted by postgraduates in the Arts & Humanities in Ireland. From explorations of 20th century literature, to contributions in Irish music, to the intersection of STEM and the Humanities, the articles in this volume showcase a breadth of scholarship and a diversity of approaches which highlights the multifaceted nature of an Arts & Humanities education

New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium for the Humanities - Reflections, Volume 1

This volume features articles written by the postgraduate presenters at Maynooth University's first annual New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium on the Humanities (NPPSH), which took place in October 2016. This conference, which coincided with the annual Dean’s Lecture, strove to highlight scholarship conducted by postgraduates in the Arts & Humanities in Ireland. From explorations of 20th century literature, to contributions in Irish music, to the intersection of STEM and the Humanities, the articles in this volume showcase a breadth of scholarship and a diversity of approaches which highlights the multifaceted nature of an Arts & Humanities education

Queering in the Years: Gay Visibility in the Irish Media, 1974-2008

This dissertation examines the queer visibility and discourses surrounding that visibility as they have unfolded on Irish television, film and alternative activist media between 1974 and 2008. The thesis argues that LGBT activists originally deployed media visibility for the liberatory potential of advancing LGBT rights. However, mainstream media institutions exploited queer identities for economic purposes; that, coupled with the eruption of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, disrupted the mainstreaming goals of queer visibility. This resulted in queer visibility becoming caught up in a shifting power dynamic, or as this thesis terms it, a tug-of-war, between Ireland’s LGBT community and media institutions. As this thesis will argue, the development of queer Irish media visibility was informed by local activism, legal changes, viral epidemics, international media influences along with the development of Ireland’s media landscape. The thesis traverses time periods, media forms and Queer and Media Studies theoretical frameworks to provide an overview of the dynamic of queer Irish visibility, pursuing connections across current affairs programming, documentary, chat shows, soap opera, television drama, film, magazines and broader print media. The methodology of this thesis is predominantly archival research, textual analysis and semi-structured interviews, a mixed-methods approach that uncovers the relationship between the proliferation of queer visibility and alternative queer media and the processes by which such media are produced. Using these forms and practices, the thesis will explore how varying Irish gay civil rights groups influenced the types of queer media images that manifested on screen and within their alternative media economies; how the changing social, cultural, economic and legal context of the historical period saw the transition of queer visibility from current affairs to narrativised, fictionalised representations and illuminate how queer Irish visibility transformed from localised activism to aspirational attempts of participating in a global media economy

Queering in the Years: Gay Visibility in the Irish Media, 1974-2008

This dissertation examines the queer visibility and discourses surrounding that visibility as they have unfolded on Irish television, film and alternative activist media between 1974 and 2008. The thesis argues that LGBT activists originally deployed media visibility for the liberatory potential of advancing LGBT rights. However, mainstream media institutions exploited queer identities for economic purposes; that, coupled with the eruption of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, disrupted the mainstreaming goals of queer visibility. This resulted in queer visibility becoming caught up in a shifting power dynamic, or as this thesis terms it, a tug-of-war, between Ireland’s LGBT community and media institutions. As this thesis will argue, the development of queer Irish media visibility was informed by local activism, legal changes, viral epidemics, international media influences along with the development of Ireland’s media landscape. The thesis traverses time periods, media forms and Queer and Media Studies theoretical frameworks to provide an overview of the dynamic of queer Irish visibility, pursuing connections across current affairs programming, documentary, chat shows, soap opera, television drama, film, magazines and broader print media. The methodology of this thesis is predominantly archival research, textual analysis and semi-structured interviews, a mixed-methods approach that uncovers the relationship between the proliferation of queer visibility and alternative queer media and the processes by which such media are produced. Using these forms and practices, the thesis will explore how varying Irish gay civil rights groups influenced the types of queer media images that manifested on screen and within their alternative media economies; how the changing social, cultural, economic and legal context of the historical period saw the transition of queer visibility from current affairs to narrativised, fictionalised representations and illuminate how queer Irish visibility transformed from localised activism to aspirational attempts of participating in a global media economy

Queering in the Years: Gay Visibility in the Irish Media, 1974-2008

This dissertation examines the queer visibility and discourses surrounding that visibility as they have unfolded on Irish television, film and alternative activist media between 1974 and 2008. The thesis argues that LGBT activists originally deployed media visibility for the liberatory potential of advancing LGBT rights. However, mainstream media institutions exploited queer identities for economic purposes; that, coupled with the eruption of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, disrupted the mainstreaming goals of queer visibility. This resulted in queer visibility becoming caught up in a shifting power dynamic, or as this thesis terms it, a tug-of-war, between Ireland’s LGBT community and media institutions. As this thesis will argue, the development of queer Irish media visibility was informed by local activism, legal changes, viral epidemics, international media influences along with the development of Ireland’s media landscape. The thesis traverses time periods, media forms and Queer and Media Studies theoretical frameworks to provide an overview of the dynamic of queer Irish visibility, pursuing connections across current affairs programming, documentary, chat shows, soap opera, television drama, film, magazines and broader print media. The methodology of this thesis is predominantly archival research, textual analysis and semi-structured interviews, a mixed-methods approach that uncovers the relationship between the proliferation of queer visibility and alternative queer media and the processes by which such media are produced. Using these forms and practices, the thesis will explore how varying Irish gay civil rights groups influenced the types of queer media images that manifested on screen and within their alternative media economies; how the changing social, cultural, economic and legal context of the historical period saw the transition of queer visibility from current affairs to narrativised, fictionalised representations and illuminate how queer Irish visibility transformed from localised activism to aspirational attempts of participating in a global media economy

Queering in the Years: Gay Visibility in the Irish Media, 1974-2008

This dissertation examines the queer visibility and discourses surrounding that visibility as they have unfolded on Irish television, film and alternative activist media between 1974 and 2008. The thesis argues that LGBT activists originally deployed media visibility for the liberatory potential of advancing LGBT rights. However, mainstream media institutions exploited queer identities for economic purposes; that, coupled with the eruption of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, disrupted the mainstreaming goals of queer visibility. This resulted in queer visibility becoming caught up in a shifting power dynamic, or as this thesis terms it, a tug-of-war, between Ireland’s LGBT community and media institutions. As this thesis will argue, the development of queer Irish media visibility was informed by local activism, legal changes, viral epidemics, international media influences along with the development of Ireland’s media landscape. The thesis traverses time periods, media forms and Queer and Media Studies theoretical frameworks to provide an overview of the dynamic of queer Irish visibility, pursuing connections across current affairs programming, documentary, chat shows, soap opera, television drama, film, magazines and broader print media. The methodology of this thesis is predominantly archival research, textual analysis and semi-structured interviews, a mixed-methods approach that uncovers the relationship between the proliferation of queer visibility and alternative queer media and the processes by which such media are produced. Using these forms and practices, the thesis will explore how varying Irish gay civil rights groups influenced the types of queer media images that manifested on screen and within their alternative media economies; how the changing social, cultural, economic and legal context of the historical period saw the transition of queer visibility from current affairs to narrativised, fictionalised representations and illuminate how queer Irish visibility transformed from localised activism to aspirational attempts of participating in a global media economy

Queering the pulpit: catholic clergy and media celebrity in the Republic of Ireland

This article examines the unlikely ways that media celebrity enabled priests and nuns in Ireland to make gay and lesbian identities visible. Despite the fact that sex among men was criminalised in Ireland until 1993, Catholic priests and nuns during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s used their mass media celebrity to make same-sex desire and LGBTQIA+ identities visible in popular media, especially through the public service broadcaster RTÉ. The article examines three case studies in which priests and nuns ‘queered the pulpit,’ harnessing their public personas to affirm LGBTQIA+ identities across various Irish media platforms in ways that were surprisingly tolerant, given Catholic orthodoxy. The article speaks to the paucity of research regarding religious personalities as celebrities. The omission of religious figures from the celebrity studies literature is noteworthy, particularly in the Irish context, where broadcast media has been a potent site for cultivating clergy celebrity. The article’s focus on religious celebrities who gave voice to LGBTQIA+ lives and concerns in the Irish context also reframes the traditional narrative of the relationship between media and Catholic clergy, which has often been characterised solely in terms of scanda

Brand Royal: Meghan Markle, feuding families, and disruptive duchessing in Brexit era Britain

Focusing on mainstream and tabloid news reporting and ancillary texts, this article analyses the media presentation of Meghan Markle’s intersectional identities through a rhetoric of the feuding famous family. We argue that the media discourse centred on family conflict and domestic drama used to characterise Markle’s position as a royal during the Brexit era both surfaces and suppresses the significance of her existential challenge to the normative racial, class, national and gendered attributes associated with British royalty. That discourse also obfuscates and trivializes the power struggle over the significant economic capital and political “soft power” associated with the British Royal Family bran

Public service broadcasting and the emergence of LGBT+ visibility : a comparative perspective on Ireland and Flanders

Public Service Broadcasting in Europe and its centrality to cultural diversity has been established in relation to race, multiculturalism and gender, but LGBT+ sexual identity remains relatively absent from research. This article aims to address this gap by fostering a historical approach to examine the ways in which LGBT+ identities emerged on Public Service Broadcasting within Western Europe, specifically in Ireland and Flanders during the 1950s–1990s. Through a small-scale comparative case study analysis between these two regions, this article contends that the emergence of LGBT+ visibility is intrinsically linked to Public Service Broadcasting in both landscapes. Specifically, the article argues that this emergence shares two distinct structural qualities in the emergence of this LGBT+ visibility. First, the comparison points to the ways in which Public Service Broadcasting production cultures incorporated external expertise regarding LGBT+ diversity, presenting itself as a practical operationalisation of the social responsibility of publicly funded media in both regions. Second, later parallels in the introduction of LGBT+ characters to television fiction series illustrate how Public Service Broadcasting responded to various forms of competition from international and commercial broadcasters, engendering particular implications for the visibility of same-sex desire. While contributing to historical treatments of LGBT+ visibility familiar within Queer Media Studies, this article goes against the Anglo-American dominance of the field by examining more local contexts outside the US/UK centric paradigm, diversifying the contexts in which Queer Media Studies research takes place