Queer Irish lives in the 18th and 19th centuries: An arsy-versy history of Lady Butler, Ms Ponsonby, Dr Barry, and Mr and Mrs De Lacy Evans.

To celebrate Pride Month, OPW-Kilkenny Castle is delighted to host a talk by Dr Anthony Delaney on Saturday 10th June at 3pm in the Parade Tower.
This talk explores ideas of gender and sexuality in the Georgian and Victorian Ireland, initially by centering Kilkenny Castle’s inherent queerness, before zooming out to consider Kilkenny, and then the country more boradly. It asks how queer Irish people at this time understood and expressed their gender non-conforming identity, particularly in the context of Ireland and Irishness. It also examines how we might best explore and communicate these histories to reflect the context of the times in which each protagonist lived, and how this informs questions around gender and sexuality today.
This event is free, seats will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
As an actor, Anthony has worked across stage and screen since he graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama, London in 2010. Last year, Anthony completed his PhD at the University of Exeter investigating Cotqueans: Queer Domesticity in eighteenth-century England.
📷Lithograph by J.H. Lynch, 183-, after Mary Parker (later Lady Leighton), 1828. Sarah Ponsonby (left) and Lady Eleanor Butler, known as the Ladies of Llangollen, outside with a dog. Wellcome Library no. 2444i Photo number: V0007359
📷Portrait of James Barry, artist and date unknown. Wikimedia Commons/Museum Africa, Johannesburg
📷: Nicholas White, photographer. De Lacy Evans in September 1879 ‘standing beside herself’. A trick photograph with her face ‘cut-in’ to the over-dressed female figure. H96. 160/147. Copyright Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection.
#PrideMonth #QueerHistory #OPW #HeritageIreland