Abstract

This article analyzes the representation of gay men in contemporary Irish culture through readings of novels published since 1993 by gay-identified authors Tom Lennon, Keith Ridgway, Colm Tóibín, and Jamie O'Neill. It explores how representstions of gay men have been used to preserve a liberal political conscenus in the face of the widening gap between rich and poor created by the forces of a globalized free market. Before engaging in textual analysis of these novels, therefore, the article situates them within the political and cultural currents of contemporary southern Ireland. This context includes the history and achievements of the lesbian and gay political movement, but more widely, the prevailing liberal consensus as it responds to social and economic change, to the dominant global order in the current phase of captalism, and to the history of Irish nationalism.