Queering the pulpit: catholic clergy and media celebrity in the Republic of Ireland

ABSTRACT

This article examines the unlikely ways that media celebrity enabled priests and nuns in Ireland to make gay and lesbian identities visible. Despite the fact that sex among men was criminalised in Ireland until 1993, Catholic priests and nuns during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s used their mass media celebrity to make same-sex desire and LGBTQIA+ identities visible in popular media, especially through the public service broadcaster RTÉ. The article examines three case studies in which priests and nuns ‘queered the pulpit,’ harnessing their public personas to affirm LGBTQIA+ identities across various Irish media platforms in ways that were surprisingly tolerant, given Catholic orthodoxy. The article speaks to the paucity of research regarding religious personalities as celebrities. The omission of religious figures from the celebrity studies literature is noteworthy, particularly in the Irish context, where broadcast media has been a potent site for cultivating clergy celebrity. The article’s focus on religious celebrities who gave voice to LGBTQIA+ lives and concerns in the Irish context also reframes the traditional narrative of the relationship between media and Catholic clergy, which has often been characterised solely in terms of scandal.

KEYWORDS:

• Clergy celebrity
• catholic celebrity
• media celebrity
• Irish media
• Irish celebrity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The persistence of Casey’s notoriety is significant. In 2019, a niece of Casey’s lobbed child abuse accusations against him, and Annie Murphy returned to the headlines, in print and online outlets such as @IrishCentral as well as the Irish Mirror and the Irish Independent.

2. Smyth ultimately served time in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, dying in 1997 in prison of a heart attack at age 70, one month into his twelve-year sentence.

3. Joseph Roach, writing on the public image of Shakespeare rather than of religious leaders, contends that the process of celebrity was underway during the 18th century.

4. During his 1946 visit to Ireland, Flanagan publicly criticised the Irish system of residential institutions and industrial schools, calling them a national disgrace. See Gordon Lynch (2012).

5. ‘The popular influence of the Church was such that no politician would seriously entertain alienating the church; the 20^th century provides numerous examples of the way in which the church influenced successive Irish governments’ policies on issues of child welfare and personal morality’ (Lynch 68–9).

6. The Archbishop of Dublin, Kevin McNamara, called for the removal of the booklet from the shelves of the religious book distributor Veritas, without providing an explanation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Páraic Kerrigan

Páraic Kerrigan is a Teaching Fellow with the School of Information and Communcation Studies at University College Dublin. His research pertains to the dynamics of diversity in media industries, specifically centred around Ireland’s LGBTQ community. His first book, LGBTQ Visibility, Media and Sexuality in Ireland was published in 2021 by Routledge and his forthcoming book, Media Graduates at Work will be released by Palgrave later in 2021.

Maria Pramaggiore

Maria Pramaggiore is Professor of Media Studies and Dean of Graduate Studies at Maynooth University. She has published widely on gender and sexuality in cinema and media. She is the author of three monographs, a co-authored film studies textbook, and co-edited collections on voices in documentary and bisexual theory.