“Save Ulster from Sodomy!”: Northern Ireland and Homosexuality after 1967

Northern Ireland’s society and politics have been synonymous with deep and bitter religiously orientated sectarianism, violence, conflict, militarism, and seemingly intractable community divisions since the late 1960s. But the oppositions within Northern Ireland appeared to come together in remarkable unanimity on one particular issue – that of the reprehensibility of male homosexuality, and questions of sexual minorities in general. The Northern Ireland parliament stoutly resisted any attempt to impose the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, which had partially decriminalised male homosexuality in England and Wales, and even after the imposition of direct rule and the ending of devolved government in 1972, opposition to any attempt by the Northern Ireland Office to introduce this legislation was voluble and intense. This paper seeks to examine the evangelically inspired and popular ‘Save Ulster from Sodomy!’ campaign, headed by the Rev. Ian Paisley, Peter Robinson and the Democratic Unionist Party in the 1970s and the 1980s, and targeted at lesbians and gay men. It also examines the extent to which the Roman Catholic hierarchy gave its tacit support to this campaign, and the ways in which paramilitary organisations on both sides of the divide regarded LBGT people as ‘natural betrayers’ in their midst. Against this hostile backdrop, the activities of Cara Friend are examined. Cara Friend was set up in Belfast in the early 1970s, as a befriending service to bring LGBT people in Northern Ireland together. Through an exploration of Cara Friend’s remarkable – and hitherto unexamined – collection of client correspondence (redacted), this paper examines also the extent to which religion and sectarianism, more than any other phenomena, shaped the sexualities and lives of LGBT people in Northern Ireland until the peace process of the late 1990s.