An Easter Miracle

Happy Easter.

For practising Christians, the biggest miracle of all was the Resurrection of Christ. Miracles and miraculous events have become part of human culture and feature in every community, whether real or imagined. Here’s an Easter miracle you might like.

Christians have long celebrated Easter with a big feast, long before they celebrated Christmas. It was to mark the end of the period of fasting called Lent. For one medieval Irish abbot the Easter feast led to a truly life-changing miracle.

We only know about this abbot from one source, the “Book of Fermoy”, or “Leabhar Fhear Mai” in Irish Gaelic. This is a collection of poems, genealogies, histories and fables written in Ireland during the mid-15th century. The book gets its name from the home of the Roche family who feature many times throughout the book.

The story of the abbot appears about halfway through the book, sandwiched between an account of the Roman Emperors and a retelling of the Old Testament story of Enoch and Elias. It’s a short story, but will need a bit of explaining to comprehend its relevance.

The story goes like this (and I’ll keep referring to the character as abbot and not abbess, which I’ll explain later):

The protagonist of the tale is a young man who was the Abbot of Drimnagh near Dublin. One day, as preparations were being made for the Easter celebrations, he wanders out to a nearby hill to rest. He puts his sword down beside him and falls asleep. When he wakes the abbot is startled to find that she has become a beautiful woman. Even her sword has changed. It is now a distaff, a spindle for spinning, the occupation traditionally associated with unmarried women (hence an unmarried woman is often called a spinster).

Before she has fully come to terms with her change, and ugly old crone approaches her. The crone listens to the abbot’s story, and she says it is not safe for a young woman like her to be out on the hill as night approaches. Wild animals will attack her. The abbot decides she cannot return to her abbey and seeks shelter in the neighbouring monastery at Crumlin.

On entering the grounds she meets a handsome young man, the monastery’s chief administrator, who immediately falls in love with the abbot. The abbot offers no objection, and very soon the couple are married. Yes, abbots could get married in those days. In fact, this transgender abbot is already married, which will be revealed later.

This unusual couple are married for seven years and they have seven children. Then, as their eighth Easter together approaches, the young monastery administrator is invited to the celebrations in Drimnagh Abbey. The man gathers his entourage together and, with his wife, travels over the hill to Drimnagh.

On top of the hill the abbot feels very sleepy and persuades her husband and the entourage to continue, and she’ll follow them later. She then falls asleep.

A short while later the abbot awakes. Another shock awaits, as he realises he has turned back into a man. Instead of being relieved he is quite distressed. How can he explain himself to his husband and their children? How is he going to explain his seven year absence from his abbey?

Fortunately, the monks at the abbey accept his explanation and he steps back into his role as abbot without question. But what about his husband? Also, what about his own wife? When the abbot explains his long absence to her, his wife can’t understand what he means, because as far as she is concerned he’s only been away for one hour!

The abbot tries to explain to his husband what has happened. His husband seems to accept the situation. He remembers all of their seven years together, and that the abbot is the mother of their children. Again, fortunately, an amicable resolution is achieved, and they agree to let the abbot raise three of their children.

And that’s the end of the story. Firstly, the reason why I chose not to refer to the abbot as an abbess during her transition is to do with monastic governance. Some male monastic institutions could be headed by a woman, usually if there it also includes a separate community of nuns. This would be set out in the institution’s foundation charter. The fact that this character changed into a woman does not negate the terms of his abbey’s foundation charter. Only the head of the monastic order could stop her from being called an abbot, which didn’t happen in this story.

It is clear that this story was not historical but apocryphal. It’s what medieval literature termed a “fool story”. “Fool” in this context means “humble” and refers to what we would call a fable. Some historians think it may be based on real events. The abbot’s children may refer to seven pieces of land a real abbot owned, and that it deals with the division of that land into three and four parts between two monasteries. But, we’ll never know.

However, there are other elements which illustrate early medieval monastic practice. Medieval abbots didn’t have to be celibate. They could marry. There were hereditary abbots in Celtic Christianity who were usually lay members of the religious institution, quite often local aristocracy (perhaps descended from the original founder). One famous hereditary abbot is King Duncan I of the Scots (murdered by Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play) who was the hereditary Abbot of Dunkeld.

The story also contains several examples of medieval fairy lore. Hills have often been regarded as magical locations, particularly in Celtic mythology where they are often said to be the homes of fairies. The ugly old crone is the tale is also a common disguise for a fairy, as is indicated by her meeting the abbot on the fairy hill.

There have been a lot of commentaries of this story in recent years which centre on the transgender element and gender identity. Although these may have some validity in the mind of the commentator, modern transgender and identity attitudes shouldn’t be applied to ones that didn’t exist when the story was written. The medieval audience would no more understand the concept of transgender than they would about chocolate or digital technology. There are many stories of magical gender transformation in legends around the world. I’ve written about some of them on this blog. Unlike modern transgender issues, not one of them is the result of a personal choice to change gender (or species) without any supernatural means.

Another common folk motif is time distortion. Even though the abbot’s wife and the monks only think he’s been away for an hour, he and his husband remember seven years together. This time distortion is a common feature of tales involving people falling asleep on a fairy hill.

So, did you like this fable of a medieval Easter miracle? There’s still a lot in it which is difficult for historians to explain, but perhaps they shouldn’t try too hard. Like modern literature and media, the story meant something to the people who wrote it and the people who first heard it. There are clues in there which historians have yet to find, but in the end it’s simply a story. It doesn’t need to be fully explained to be enjoyed.

Paddy Power

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. This is one those religious feast days that has become very a popular secular celebration. Most people don’t care who St. Patrick was as long as he gives them an excuse to get drunk.

Millions of us with Irish ancestry (my great-grandmother was Irish) will be celebrating all things connected to the Emerald Isle today, though sadly without the St. Patrick’s Day parades.

There’s quite a history behind the lgbt community and the various battles to be included in St. Patrick’s Day parades, especially in the USA. There’s isn’t enough space to go into the full history here, but if you’re interested here’s a brief timeline of the difficulties lgbt groups have had in trying to join New York City’s parade. Other US cities have been welcoming lgbt paraders for several years.

Anyway, this should be a day to celebrate. So are seven lgbt “Paddies” who have made their mark of the community and the world. The legacy of most of them has come at a high price, however.

1) Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) – I couldn’t really list any lgbt Irishman without including Oscar Wilde. However, his influence is gradually fading within the lgbt community because each new generation has newer role models and heroes to commemorate. I’m sure some famous gay men were forgotten after Oscar Wilde hit the headlines due to his involvement with Lord Alfred Douglas. That’s where historians have a vital role to play – to resurrect and raise awareness of forgotten or overlooked people and events that have all helped to build our community. Oscar still exerts his influence among the older generations. In December he was back in headlines when plans were revealed to turn Reading Gaol, where he was imprisoned for gross indecency, into luxury apartments. Many British “A” list actors are campaigning to prevent this from happening. If memory serves, the gay activist Peter Tatchell once suggested that Reading Gaol would be the perfect site for the UK’s first permanent lgbt museum – if only he’d put his money where his mouth was. I take consolation in knowing that the door to Oscar’s cell will be saved – it’s currently part of the collection at the National Museum of Justice here in Nottingham.

2) Arthur Gore, 7th Earl of Arran (1903-1958) – Although English by birth the Earl of Arran held an Irish title and came from a distinguished Irish dynasty. He inherited his title from his father in 1958 but didn’t take his seat in the House of Lords because he committed suicide 28 days later. It is generally believed that personal struggles over his homosexuality was the reason. He was succeeded by his brother, a Liberal Party peer, who introduced the Sexual Offences Bill into parliament in 1965. Despite the majority Labour House of Commons voting against it twice (the Labour Prime Minister didn’t support it) the earl’s bill made its third successful passage through parliament to become the Sexual Offences Act 1967 which partially decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales. This is seen as a landmark in gay rights and may never have made it through parliament without the 7th Earl’s brother pressing for a change in the law. Sadly, other people (i.e. the Labour Party, as usual) took the credit.

3) Declan Flynn (c.1952-1982) – Just as the murder of Harvey Milk gave impetus to the San Francisco lgbt community the murder of Declan Flynn gave impetus to the community in Ireland. Declan worked at Dublin Airport and was a volunteer at the city’s gay resource centre. On 9th September 1982 Declan was walking home after a night out with a friend. As he walked through Fairfield Park he was attacked by five teenagers who beat him to death with sticks. The murderers were quickly caught and put on trial. They all admitted to the killing but the judge, to everyone’s surprise, even the killers’, gave them all suspended sentences. A debate was held in parliament on the verdict. On 19th March 1983, eleven days after the sentencing, a protest march through Dublin was organised by the lgbt community and many supporters and allies. It was the largest gay rights demonstration seen in Ireland up until then. It inspired the relatively small Dublin Pride, which had been in existence since 1974, to form the first Dublin Pride march several months later. Declan Flynn is still remembered in the community, and the bridge in Fairfield Park which bears a memorial to him was decorated when Ireland passed their same-sex marriage act in 2015.

4) Lyra McKee (1990-2019) – Mention the name Northern Ireland to people of my generation and a subconscious image comes to our minds of “the Troubles”, the conflict between Irish republican militants and the British authorities who between them caused the death of hundreds of people. Even though “the Troubles” were officially resolved peacefully several decades ago there are fringe militant groups who still occasionally bring terror to Northern Ireland. In April 2019 lesbian journalist Lyra McKee was covering a militant republican protest in Derry when she was hit by a bullet. She later died in hospital. One of the militants was charged with her murder. Condemnation came from all sides and many nations and Lyra’s death was made more tragic when it was revealed that she was going to propose to her partner that week. Lyra’s death served as a reminder that violence and militancy are around us all the time and more determined efforts were made to keep peace in Northern Ireland.

5) Michael Dillon (1915-1962) – Physician, writer and Buddhist monk Michael Dillon is one of the pioneers in the British transgender community. In his early 20s he began taking testosterone pills. While recovering from a hypoglycemic attack a sympathetic plastic surgeon performed a double mastectomy and gave him medical certification which enabled Michael to amend his birth certificate. The surgeon put him in touch with Harold Gillies who had performed reconstructive surgery on penises of injured soldiers and intersex patients. This led to Michael Dillon becoming the first transgender man to have phalloplasty between 1946 and 1949. When Michael’s story was revealed to the press in 1958 he fled to India where he became an ordained Buddhist monk.

6) Eva Gore-Booth (1870-1926) – A distant cousin of the 7th Earl of Arran (above) Eva’s privileged background gave her an awareness of the social and economic differences in society and became an activist for the less privileged. Her main focus was on women’s suffrage. After the Easter Rising of 1916, one of the major events of “the Troubles” I mentioned above Eva campaigned successfully for the release of her sister Constance who had been sentenced to death for her involvement. Constance later became the first woman elected to the British parliament, though she refused to take her seat because of the British involvement in Ireland. Eva was also a poet, and when her health declined in the 1920s and she was no longer able to take an active part in her campaigns writing poetry became her main occupation.

7) Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904) – Another leading figure in the women’s suffrage movement was Frances Cobbe who was also a pioneer in animal rights. In 1875, in response to increased awareness of experiments carried out on animals, Frances founded the Society for the Protection of Animals Liable to Vivisection. It was the world’s first anti-vivisection organisation. It was renamed the Victoria Street Society and in 1897 it acquired the name which it uses today – the National Anti-Vivisection Society. In 1898 Frances left the society to found the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection. This merged with the New England Anti-Vivisection Society in 2012 to create Cruelty Free International. Frances supported the work of the Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals in successfully lobbying for the introduction of animal welfare legislation.

Advent 4: Scrooge

One of the constant elements of a 21st century Christmas is the classic ghost story “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Ever since it was first published in 1843 it has become a feature of the British Christmas.

Many adaptations have been produced over the years, though the original version remains at the top of the list. Even in the 21st century public readings of the original story are popular, and no more so than those performed in the UK by the gay actor Simon Callow (b.1949). Because of the popularity of his readings of “A Christmas Carol” Simon even got to play Dickens in two episodes of “Doctor Who”. The first was in the 2005 episode “The Unquiet Dead” which, even though being set on Christmas Eve 1869, was actually broadcast in April. I often watch it again with all the other Doctor Who Christmas Specials. Simon’s second Doctor Who appearance was a cameo part in the episode “The Wedding of River Song” (2011).

Film versions of “A Christmas Carol” are many and varied. They range from the 1938 version with Reginald Owen as Scrooge to the contemporary setting of “Scrooged” starring Bill Murray (my favourite modern retelling of the story). Many more contemporary version abound, usually appallingly bad and made by the Hallmark channel. One of the best and most often screened version is the more traditional “Scrooge” (called “A Christmas Carol” in the US) made in 1951 with the wonderful Alistair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge.

The film was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst (1895-1986), an openly gay Irishman who is virtually forgotten today but who directed several other popular British films like “Dangerous Moonlight” and “Tom Brown’s Schooldays”.

Brian’s background reads like a typical Charles Dickens novel. He was born into Victorian poverty and baptised Hans Moore Hawthorn Hurst. He was the seventh child of a poor metalworker in the Belfast shipyards. Brian’s mother died in childbirth three years later and his father remarried. Brian’s new stepmother had a daughter from a previous marriage and she made no attempt to show favour to her daughter and the subsequent three children she had with Brian’s father.

Brian’s father was often unemployed and moved around the shipyards of Northern Ireland to find work. The strain of supporting his large family led to bouts of alcoholism. One of the last jobs Brian’s father was involved with was the construction of the Titanic.

Brian joined the 10th (Irish) Division of the 6th Royal Irish Rifles during World War I. During that war he changed his first name from Hans to Brian to sound less German and more Irish. Brian’s first major posting was to Gallipoli, where half of his battalion were killed in the battle.

After the war Brian lived in Canada, partly to escape the “Irish Troubles”, as the militant independence campaigns were called. In Toronto he studied journalism. There he dropped his middle names, Moore Hawthorn, in favour of Desmond, another traditional Irish name.

So, as Brian Desmond Hurst he went to the US and managed to work as a scenery designer for the great Hollywood film director John Ford (himself of Irish parentage). Through Ford Brian gained experience in the cinematic processes and the two remained life-long friends.

Back in the UK Brian began making short films. He tried to get backing to found an Irish film industry but was unsuccessful. During World War II Brian was recruited by the British government to make short propaganda films. One of several feature-length films he made during this period was “Dangerous Moonlight” (1941), one of the most popular British films of that period. Brian’s own favourite war-time film was “This is the Glory” (1946), a documentary-style reconstruction of the Battle of Arnhem. It was the highest grossing war film until the mid-1950s.

By now Brian was a highly sought after director and he continued to produce popular films, and in 1951 he directed “Scrooge”. This was just one of a series of film adaptations of Dickens’ novels that were being made by various British studios and directors.

Brian Hurst’s “Scrooge” wasn’t an exact adaptation of the story. Scrooge’s life story was expanded, and there is a feel of film noir about it. Perhaps the great success of the film, and the only thing that most British people remember, is the portrayal of Scrooge by one of the UK’s best loved character actors, Alistair Sim.

The success of “Scrooge” has overshadowed Brian Hurst’s other work, though I don’t think he had any problem with that. In the 1950s and 60s the British film industry was turning away from the type of film Brian made and he gradually turned somewhat reclusive. Towards the end of his life he enjoyed a resurgence of interest in himself and is films. The British Film Institute celebrated his 80th birthday in 1975 and several plaques were erected in his name in both England and Ireland. A sort-of biography was published after his death called “The Empress of Ireland”. He is gradually making his way back to the top tier of the best British and Irish film directors of all time.

Brian Hurst’s “Scrooge” is being broadcast on British television several times on different channels this Christmas, even several times on the same channel. If you see it advertised where you live have a look at it, if you haven’t seen it before.

All that’s left for me to say is Merry Christmas, but before I go I’ll let you know that my next article on New Year’s Eve will feature, at last, my list of lgbt Olympians, which now stands at 427 names.

Queer Achievement: Shamrocks Among the Daffodils

[Achievement – the name given in heraldry to the full pictorial representation of a coat of arms.]

I’m combining two themes today – heraldry and family history. I’m celebrating St. Patrick’s Day by looking at an Irish couple who have been given a Welsh name.

The Ladies of Llangollen is the name given to Lady Eleanor Butler (1739-1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755-1831), two Irish aristocrats who spent over 50 years living together near the Welsh village of that name.

Among the stories of same-sex relationships between women in pre-20th century times the lives of the Ladies of Llangollen have gone down as one of the most famous, genuine lesbian love affairs. But before we look at it in more detail here’s my representation of their coats of arms. Lady Eleanor’s is on the left and Sarah’s is on the right. They are placed this way round because 1) the left hand side is the most senior heraldic position and Lady Eleanor was the elder of the two, and 2) the Butler coat of arms is older than the Ponsonby’s and is also the most heraldically senior.

Rather than use lozenge shapes on which to place their coat of arms, as would have been customary in their lifetimes, I have chosen a modern presentation and placed them on shields. Once convention I have kept is the placing of a bow and garland around the arms. Women did not display the family crest on helmets so I have left those out.

So, what’s their family story? The Butler and Ponsonby families lived several miles from each other in County Kilkenny, Ireland. The Butlers held the title Earl of Ormonde and Eleanor’s father is regarded today as the 16th Earl. He didn’t use the title himself because a previous holder of the title was found guilty of high treason and had all his titles, Irish and English, taken from him (he was attainted, to use the proper word). It was Lady Eleanor’s brother who regained the title after parliament decided the attainder should only have applied to the family’s English titles, not the Irish ones.

Sarah Ponsonby’s great-grandfather William was the 1st Viscount Duncannon. Through another great-grandfather Sarah was 5th cousin to Lady Eleanor. Here’s the family relationship.

Lady Eleanor and Sarah met in 1768. There was an instant connection of spirits between the two and they began to make plans to avoid the customary fate of aristocratic young ladies of being married off to a man they hardly knew and may never even love. Their families tried to keep them apart after an aborted attempt to “elope” together.

During a trip to Wales Eleanor and Sarah put their foot down and began to live in a cottage they christened Plas Newydd just outside Llangollen. There they could no longer rely on allowances from their wealthy families and lived in reduced circumstances.

It wasn’t long before Eleanor and Sarah earned the local name of “the Ladies” and the cottage became a place where many famous and influential people visited – Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, Wellington, Wedgwood – all eager to meet the couple who were rapidly becoming society celebrities because of their lifestyle. Even Queen Charlotte wanted to visit them because they were so famous and she persuaded her husband George III to give them a pension.

The Ladies of Llangollen both lived into old age. Eleanor was almost 90 years old. They are buried together in St. Collen’s Church, Llangollen. Their cottage, Plas Newydd, is now a museum.

Let’s look briefly at the Butler and Ponsonby coats of arms. They both have a connection in that they represent the occupations of their ancestors.

The Butler arms are quartered. The yellow quarters with the blue zigzag top are those of the male-line ancestors of the Butlers. They lived in the Middle Ages before surnames became consistently hereditary. This quarter shows the arms of the Walter, or FitzWalter, family. Hervey Walter was appointed Chief Butler of Ireland in 1177 by King Henry II of England. Hervey’s son Theobald was the first in the family to adopt the surname le Botiler, which has come down to us as Butler. A butler wasn’t like those we see in stately homes and whodunnits today. A royal butler was in charge of the food and drink of the court and given to someone highly trusted. Well, would you want to give the job to someone who is likely to poison you? The other quarters in the Butler arms are called an augmentation of honour because they indicate the family’s royal appointment of Chief Butler.

The Ponsonby arms show a less obvious way of commemorating a family’s royal appointment. A family legend recounts that one of the Ponsonbys was created royal hair-cutter by Henry II in the same year as Hervey Walter was created Chief Butler. Hence the family adopted three hair combs as their coat of arms. It’s an interesting legend but there’s no real evidence of it being fact.

To end with let’s have another look at that family tree above. You’ll see that Lady Eleanor Butler is descended from the 2nd Earl of Castlehaven. This is the same sexually perverted Earl of Castlehaven featured in my article “No Haven at the Castle”.

Around the World in Another 80 Gays : Part 10) No Molly-coddling

Previously: 14) Gayle Rubin (b.1949) co-founded the International Ms Leather contest whose first winner was 15) Judy Tallwing McCarthy (b.1945), the partner of 16) Sashie Hyatt (d.1989), whose presence at the Stonewall Riots was commemorated in a comic book written by 17) Andy Mangels (b.1966).

Novelist, science fiction author, comic book writer, fantasy/superhero historian and founder of the Broadway Bears singing group, 17) Andy Mangels has become a prominent figure in the world of fantasy in popular culture. He has compiled guides and encyclopaedias on “Star Wars” and “The X-Files” and written tv tie-in novels for “Star Trek”. It is this last aspect of his work which brings us to 16) Sashie Hyatt and the 1969 Stonewall Riots.

The television series “Quantum Leap” centres round the time and space-hopping character Sam correcting historical “wrong turns”. In a 1990 episode called "Good Night Dear Heart" Sam was solved a murder and revealed the killer. The American lgbt community were highly offended, for reasons which have not been fully explained, when the murderer was revealed to be a lesbian. I can just about remember this episode from Its UK broadcast and don’t recall anything that could be offensive (certainly no more offensive than the stereotypes in “Will and Grace”).

Several years later Andy Mangels thought that a way to follow Sam’s example and right a wrong (as perceived in the US) by writing a sequel to “Good Night Dear Heart” in the “Quantum Leap” comic book series. The magazine editors agreed to include an editorial by Andy explaining the reason for the sequel.

Sashie Hyatt (centre) as she is represented
in "Up Against a Stonewall".

The story was called “Up Against a Stonewall” and was featured in issue 9 of the “Quantum Leap” comic book in February 1993. The title gave a hint to the historic event into which Sam had leapt. The story was based in the days leading up to the Stonewall Riots. Andy Mangels was a friend of Sashie Hyatt, who had been at the Riots. Sashie died of cancer in 1989 and Andy dedicated his sequel to her. He also included her in the storyline.

When “Up Against a Stonewall” was published Andy Mangels was editor of an independent US comic book anthology called “Gay Comix”. This was a series of comic books written and illustrated by a member of the lgbt community. If had begun publication in 1980 and from issue 14 in December 1991 Andy Mangels was its editor.

One artist who contribute to several issues of “Gay Comix” during Andy Mangels’ editorship was 18) Jon Macy. He has continued to use lgbt and erotic themes in his work which includes “Teleny and Camille”, a graphic novel adaptation of one of the first gay pornographic novels.

“Teleny and Camille” is based on a novel called “Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal” which was published in 1893. No-one knows who wrote it but Oscar Wilde’s name has often been attributed. This is partly because the published of the novel, Leonard Smithers, knew Oscar Wilde. Smithers was a publisher of various erotic and pornographic Victorian novels, including the one which is said to be the world’s first English-language pornographic gay novel, “The Sins of the Cities of the Plain”.

Like “Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal”, the author of “The Sins of the Cities of the Plain” is unknown. It has been suggested that it was a novelised memoir by an Irishman called 19) John Saul (1857-1904).

John Saul, also known as Dublin Jack, was a male prostitute who was involved in two famous sex scandals. First was the Dublin Castle scandal, a precursor to the scandal that surrounded the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels. The second scandal was the more well-known Cleveland Street Scandal in which Queen Victoria’s own grandson the Duke of Clarence was implicated.

The full title of “The Sins of the Cities of the Plain”, if it wasn’t long enough already, was “The Sins of the Cities of the Plain, or Recollections of a Mary-Ann with Short Essays on Sodomy and Tribadism”. With a title like that there’s be no room for the author’s name on the spine even if it was known!

The term “Mary-Ann” in the full title is a slang term for an effeminate man, often a male prostitute who dressed as a woman to procure clients. John “Dublin Jack” Saul called himself a “professional Mary-Ann” at the Cleveland Street trials in 1887.

Earlier variants of “Mary-Ann” were “molly” or “moll”, and in England in the 18th and 19th centuries there were several known “Molly Houses”. These were places, usually taverns and coffee houses where men could meet for homosexual activity or to socialise.

The word “molly” survives in England in the term “molly-coddling” which is used to describe a kind of behaviour that suggests a person are being unnecessarily being over-protected. The implication is that the person being molly-coddled is weak and feeble. In earlier times is specifically meant being treated like an effeminate man.

An 18th century representation of a
Molly (left) and his client.

For centuries the term “molly” was used as a derogatory name for effeminate men. In its shorter form of “moll” it was also used in America for female prostitutes before being more famously used to refer to the girlfriends and sexual partners of gangsters.

In the early 20th century the growth of women’s sport gave rise to a new application of the word “moll”. Men generally considered sport to be a manly pursuit and not something that women should take part in. As more women took up sports men began to describe them as “muscle molls”. Male critics wrote derogatory articles in the press about these women with too many muscles, as they thought, and who were looking unmanly. Interestingly, the term “muscle mary”, applied to a male bodybuilder who devotes a lot of time on his appearance, derives from the derogatory “Mary-Ann”.

The more successful a female athlete became the more sexist the remarks against her femininity. The “Muscle moll” athlete who was to receive quite a lot of criticism was the same athlete who would later be voted as the best American female athlete of the 20th century. She was Olympian 20) Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1911-1956).

Next time : Questions of Gender – in a couple of weeks we run from the Olympics to a cemetery in Roman London.

Out Of His Tree: Wilde About Oscar's Ancestry

Perhaps the most famous person imprisoned for a gay crime is Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). In 1895 he was given a prison sentence after bring found guilty of gross indecency. I don’t think there’s been a proper look in his many biographies at his ancestry, apart from his immediate family tree, so that’s what we’ll do today.

A lot is known about Oscar’s immediate ancestry. Both of his parents were well-known in their lifetimes. His father was Sir William Wilde (1815-1876), a prominent surgeon, having the position of Surgeon Occulist to the Queen in Ireland created specially for him by Queen Victoria. He was also a noted antiquarian and writer.

The Wilde family originate in County Durham, England. Ralph Wilde moved over to Ireland after he became the agent for Lord Mount Sandford at Castlerea in County Roscommon. He was Sir William’s grandfather.

Sir William’s wife, Oscar’s mother, was Jane Francisca Elgee (1826-1896) and her ancestry can be traced back in Ireland a bit further. Jane was also a writer. She wrote poetry and prose and established a reputation that rivalled her English female counterparts. She adopted the name Speranza, an Italianate-sounding name which she thought emphasised the Italian origin of the Elgee family. She was wrong about that.

The Elgee family actually came, like the Wilde’s, from County Durham. Several Elgee brothers went to Ireland as jobbing stonemasons and bricklayers in the construction boom in the 1730s. They flourished and became quite wealthy farmers. Rev. John Elgee (1753-1823), one of the children of these brothers entered the Protestant Church of Ireland and became Rector of Wexford and Archdeacon of Leighlin. He was Jane “Speranza” Wilde’s grandfather.

Jane’s other grandfather was also a clergyman, Rev. Thomas Kingsbury, Vicar of Kildare. The Kingsburys were also an immigrant English family, originally from Dorset. Rev. Thomas’s father was an influential Dublin physician, also called Thomas, who was President of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland. He was also a close friend of the famous writer Jonathan Swift.

Rev. John Elgee, mentioned above, married Jane Waddy (1751-1804), from yet another family who migrated from England. The Waddys originate in Yorkshire and went to Ireland in the 1600s during Oliver Cromwell’s vicious Irish campaigns and were granted Clougheast Castle, County Wexford, in recognition of their services.

Jane Waddy’s parents were Cadwallader Waddy, an Irish MP, and Ellinor Tench. The Tench family were one of County Wexford’s most important landed families. In genealogical terms Ellinor is referred to as a gateway ancestor because her ancestry takes us into more noble and royal families. The Tench’s of Bryanstown to which Ellinor belonged claim Norman ancestry. Again, they migrated to Ireland from England, though much earlier than the previously-named families. They were among the first wave of Anglo-Norman invaders in the 12th century. The Bryanstown estates were inherited by them in the 1500s through marriage to the heiress of the Bryan family after whom the estates were named.

One set of Oscar Wilde’s 4-times greatgrandparents were John Tench and his wife Elizabeth Cliffe. The Cliffe’s arrived in Ireland, yet again from England, at about the same time as the Waddys. Elizabeth’s father John was Secretary of War to Oliver Cromwell and came to Ireland in that tyrant’s merciless attack on Ireland. John settled in Ireland and married a well-connected girl called Eleanor Loftus (1641-1700), another gateway ancestor.

The Loftus family were more well-connected than the Tench’s. They were deeply involved in Irish politics with many members of the family serving in the Irish parliament. Eleanor Loftus’s father was an MP, her grandfather was Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and her great-grandfather was Most Rev. Adam Loftus (c.1533-1605), also Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who was Archbishop of Armagh. Before establishing themselves in the Irish Establishment the Loftus family were, yes, you guessed, English. Adam Loftus’s first connection with Ireland came in 1560 when he became chaplain in Ireland to the Earl of Sussex. He then became chaplain to the Bishop of Kildare and, before he was 29, was consecrated Archbishop of Armagh, less than 3 years after arriving in Ireland. What a meteoric rise! Among the Archbishop’s descendants are not only Oscar Wilde but Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Wellington, “Lord Voldemort” Ralph Fiennes (and his real-life nephew Hero Triffin, who played Tom Riddle in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”), Sir Arthur Vicars and Eleanor Acheson.

It is the Archbishop’s son Sir Dudley Loftus, Oscar Wilde’s direct ancestor, who provides the link to royalty. He married Anne, the daughter of the Marshal of the Army in Ireland to Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Nicholas Bagenal (1509-1591). He was a very colourful character. After fleeing to Ireland to escape a murder charge he befriended an Irish prince, the Earl of Tyrone, who obtained a royal pardon for him. Later in life Sir Nicholas was involved in a drunken punch-up with a rival for the post of Marshal. He was about 80 years old at the time. It is his wife, Eleanor Griffith, who provides Oscar Wilde with his royal blood. She is descended from King Edward III of England and his gay father King Edward II.

I’ll end with a ghost story (it’s not that long since Hallowe’en). Young Anne Tottenham, one of Oscar’s ancestral cousins, related through the Loftus, Cliffe and Tench families several times over, was living at Loftus Hall, County Wexford, in the 1770s. One stormy night a young man sought refuge at the hall and stayed a few days, becoming friendly with Anne. One evening while they were playing cards Anne reached down to pick up a card she had dropped. It was then that she saw the man had cloven hooves instead of feet. She screamed in horror and the young man shot straight up through the ceiling. Anne was in deep shock and refused to eat or drink and died a few days later. Legend had it that the hole in the ceiling could never be repaired and it reappeared again every time it was sealed.

I wonder if Oscar Wilde heard about this family legend and used parts of it to inspire his own ghost story “The Canterville Ghost”. After all, that story also has a supernatural stain that keeps returning.

Chain Males : Part 4 - Europe

We turn to continental Europe for the latest in mini-series on lgbt mayors. I have identified 28 male gay or bisexual mayors so far. Below is the list and below that is a map their distribution.

There have also been 3 female mayors which I listed in the first of these mayoral articles. Also not included are 7 gay male mayors who have served as Deputy Mayor. Mayors in the UK will be dealt with in December.

Once again the methods by which the mayors were appointed varies. Some are directly elected, some are appointed, but all are voted on to their respective authorities by public vote.

BELGIUM

Elio de Rupo – Mayor of Mons since 2001.

 

DENMARK

Klaus Bondam – Mayor of Technical and Environment, 2006-9, and Employment since 2010, Copenhagen.

Søren Pepe Poulsen – Mayor of Viborg 2010-14.

 

FRANCE

Luc Carvounas – Mayor of Alfortville since 2012.

Bertrand Delanoë – Mayor of Paris 2001-14.

André Labarrére – Mayor of Pau 1971-2006.

 

GERMANY

Michael Adam – Mayor of Bodenmais 2008-11.

Michael Ebling – Mayor of Mainz since 2012.

Sven Gerich – Mayor of Wiesbaden since 2013.

Thomas Kufen – Lord Mayor of Essen since 2015.

Ole von Beust – First Mayor of Hamburg 2001-10.

Klaus Wowereit – Governing Mayor of Berlin 2001-14.

 

IRELAND

Cian O’Callaghan – Mayor of Fingal County 2012-14.

Fintan Warfield – Mayor of South Dublin County 2014-5.

 

ITALY

Rosario Crocetta – Mayor of Gela 2003-9.

 

LUXEMBOURG

Xavier Bettel – Mayor of Luxembourg City 2011-13.

 

MALTA

Karl Gouder – Mayor of St. Julian’s since 2015.

 

NETHERLANDS

Jan Franssen – Mayor of Zwolle 1994-2000.

Onno Hoes – Mayor of Maastricht 2010-15.

Ger Koopmans – Acting Mayor of Stein 2013.

Sjoerd Potters – Mayor of De Bilt since April 2017.

Roland van Benthem – Mayor of Eemnes since 2005.

 

NORWAY

Erling Lae – Governing Mayor of Oslo 2000-9.

 

POLAND

Robert Biedron – Mayor of Słupsk since 2014.

 

SPAIN

Francisco Maroto – Mayor of Campillo de Ranas since 2003.

Javier Maroto – Mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz 2011-15.

Jerónimo Saavedra – Mayor of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, 2007-11.

Santi Vila – Mayor of Figueres 2007-11.

Several of these male mayors have gone on to hold higher office, occasionally the highest elected office in their nation. Two have become Prime Ministers (Elio di Rupo and Xavier Betel). In addition two have become president of their provincial governments (Rosario Crocetta and Jerónimo Saavedra). Virtually all of them have become members of their national parliaments at some time.

The municipalities and councils to which these gay mayors belong range from national capitals to rural villages. We can go from one extreme to the other. The largest is Berlin with a population of almost 3.5 million. The smallest is a municipality which has made the most significant contribution to lgbt rights by its entire population.

The small municipality of Campillo de Ranas, 78 miles north of Madrid, consists of 8 tiny villages with a total population of less than 300. In 2003 Francisco Maroto was elected mayor. In one of those quirks of history it is because Francisco was the right man in the right place at the right time that he is still in office today.

In 2005 Spain legalised same-sex marriage. There hadn’t been a marriage of any kind in Campillo de Rana for 35 years. Francisco was aware that there were many Spanish mayors, all of whom can conduct marriages, were not enthusiastic about conducting same-sex weddings. Mayor Francisco took the deliberate decision to promote his village as a venue for gay weddings.

Heterosexual weddings were also welcomed, and themed ceremonies became very popular. Within 3 years Mayor Francisco had conducted over 100 weddings of which 32 were same-sex couples. In 2008 he even celebrated his wedding to Quique Fernandez in the village.

Once the reputation of Campillo de Ranas spread across Spain more visitors and tourists arrive and the local economy boomed, based on the income from weddings. The village church roof was repaired, and the old village school was reopened after 30 years. More importantly, for the younger generations, mobile phone coverage arrived in the village.

The wider community recognises the achievements made in his community by Francisco Maroto. At this year’s World Pride in Madrid he was lauded as a national pioneer of same-sex weddings. Because of his success in Campillo de Ranas other Spanish villages and towns welcomed more same-sex couples.

In my final Chain Males article in December we’ll look at male gay mayors in the UK, including the two gay men who were the only mayors in the entire history of their town council.