It is sad that talented people who have gained renown are remembered as much for their sexuality as for their accomplishment. Here are some people who fit that description.
Kate O'Brien (1897-1974)
Educated at University College, Dublin, Kate O’Brien from Limerick worked on the Manchester Guardian and was briefly married to Dutch historian Gustaaf Johannes Remier. She increasingly became conscious of a lesbian identity. Her first novel, Without My Cloak (1931), won both the Hawthornden and James Tait Black prizes. O'Brien wrote of the struggle of Irish women for individual freedom and love against the constricting demands of family, bourgeois society and Catholic religion. Many of her books deal with female sexuality issues; both Mary Lavelle and The Land of Spices were banned in Ireland. Some of her books were made into movies
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Witty Irish writer Oscar Wilde authored one of English stage's finest comedies, The Importance of Being Ernest. His classic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray" won critical acclaim. At the height of Wilde's career the Marquess of Queensberry--provoked by Wilde's affair with his son, Lord Douglas--accused him of "posing as" a sodomite. Wilde sued Queensberry for libel and lost; the government prosecuted Wilde for indecent acts and won. He was sentenced to two years at hard labor, during which time he composed Ballad of Reading Gaol and the autobiographical essay De Profundis. His parents were surgeon Sir William Wilde and the former Jane Elgee, poet of the revolutionary movement and lifelong Irish nationalist.
Somerville (1858-1915) and Ross (1862-1915)
Members of poor but resourceful Anglo-Irish landlord families, cousins Edith Somerville and Violet Martin collaborated on numerous novels and short stories published under the names "Somerville and Ross." They include one of Ireland's greatest 19th century novel's, The Real Charlotte, and its finest series of comic stories, Some Experiences of an Irish R.M, now also a TV series. The women exchanged numerous letters portraying both Ireland from the 1870's to 1915 and their love for each other in a captivating, uplifting way.
Patrick Pearse (1879-1916)
An Irish nationalist leader, poet and educator, Patrick Pearse was first president of the Irish Republic’s provisional government proclaimed in Dublin Easter Monday, 1916, and commander of Irish forces in the anti-British uprising that began that day. The son of an English sculptor and his Irish wife, Pearse became a director of the Gaelic League (founded in 1893 for the preservation of the Irish language) and edited its weekly newspaper, An Claidheamh Soluis (The Sword of Light). To promote the Irish language as a weapon against British domination, he published tales from old Irish manuscripts and his own poems in the modern Irish idiom. He founded St. Enda's College near Dublin as a bilingual institution basing its teaching on Irish traditions and culture. He and brother Willie were among those executed as a result of the Easter Rising.
Sir Roger Casement (1864-1916)
Roger Casement, a British consular official, wrote reports exposing atrocities against Belgian Congo and Peruvian plantation workers. After joining the Irish nationalist movement, Casement went to Germany during World War I to secure aid for an Irish rebellion. His controversial treason trial was further exacerbated by disclosure of his homosexuality. Excerpts from his personal diaries detailed accounts of sexual affairs with men around the world. Roger Casement was hanged on August 3, 1916, an Irishman seeking independence and a gay man refusing shame. In 1965, Casement's body was repatriated to Ireland and, after a state funeral, buried with full military honours in Dublin after lying in state at Arbour Hill, where over half a million people filed past his coffin.
Ladies of Llangollen
Lady Eleanor Butler (1739-1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755-1831), fearful of being forced into marriage, left Ireland with their maid, Mary Carryll, to settle at Plas Newydd, Llangollen, Wales, where they lived in “romantic friendship” from 1778 to 1828. Known as “the ladies of Llangollen,” they immersed themselves in politics, the arts and horticulture. Shifting power in Europe brought famous visitors, many of them poets and science students, to Plas Newydd to discuss politics. Guests included Wordsworth, Shelley, Byron and the Duke of Wellington.
SOURCES: Boylan, Henry, Biographical Encyclopedia of Ireland; The Lavender and Green Alliance
Rosemary E. Bachelor - Rosemary Bachelor, a prize-winning journalist, has had a career as an editor, feature writer, magazine publisher and author. Her latest ...
