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‘Casement’s War’ and ‘Casement Wars’

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‘Casement’s War’ and ‘Casement Wars’ – responses to Angus Mitchell on the 1st World War and the Black Diaries

Casement's War' and 'Casement Wars

Jeff {Dudgeon MBE] has written a response to Angus Mitchell which is comprehensive and extremely articulate…

 

This edition of the Field Day Review (published by the University of Notre Dame, Indiana) is beautifully presented and exceptionally well produced. On the cover and flyleaf are evocative photographs of Banna Strand where Casement landed in April 1916 and Murlough Bay in the 1890s and 1953 during Eamon
de Valera‘s visit. Murlough Bay was to be Casement‘s final resting place, a mile from his adopted home near Ballycastle but, short of partition ending, cannot be. Despite his efforts, the division of Ireland is nearly a century old, Northern Ireland‘s frontier being one of the longest standing in Europe. The memorial cross to Casement (and others) at Murlough‘s ―green hill was torn down in 1957 during the IRA border campaign which was quite eventful in the area. Little of it remains. The four items under review are two transcriptions from Casement‘s German diaries, introduced and annotated by Angus Mitchell, and two substantive articles by him on the German episode and the diary authenticity debate and its history. Together they run to 125 pages…
 
I have provided the link to the uploaded copy of the response in full at academia.edu/
 
 Casement's War' and 'Casement Wars
 

‘Casement’s War’ and ‘Casement Wars’ – responses to Angus Mitchell on the 1st World War and the Black Diaries

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The Carpenter Club

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In the beginning

 

The Carpenter Club, named after Edward Carpenter a hugely influential socialist, critic, writer, poet, thinker, vegetarian, and mystic, was born in premises located in Long Lane, Belfast; an area which has now disappeared after the redevelopment of Cathedral Quarter, which meant Long Lane disappeared under Writers Square.

On 10 April 1981 Jeff Dudgeon and Richard Hodgson purchased the vacant warehouse property at 8/10 Long Lane. At some stage in its past, it had been two separate premises which had then been converted into a single building and used as a plumber’s warehouse. The building had been vacant for some time and parts needed repair.  Once possession was obtained, Richard and Jeff set about converting and renovating the premises into a social and recreation centre. they engaged architects and contractors and had the benefit of much voluntary help from members of the gay community. The ground floor was converted to provide a coffee bar and lounge, large disco, toilets, and storage. Extensive fire prevention regulations were complied with. It had been their original intention to renovate the whole building, but due to higher costs than anticipated, work was restricted to the ground floor.

Carpenter-Club-Album-3-001

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The Club then opened for business on 3 July 1981, and ran until 31 January 1988. The initial proprietors being Richard Hodgson, Jeff Dudgeon, and NIGRA in a limited partnership.

However, that partnership was ended at a meeting held on 8th January 1984 when a member’s club was formed. The club members became the owners of club profits from that date and later owned the building itself and the replacement premises in Hill Street (more to follow on this site later in the year). NIGRA transferred its investment to the members club under the same terms as with the partnership. 

The first floor was developed and opened in 1984 with a second disco and coffee bar.

[Long Lane was an entry running from North Street to Church Street. When this photo was taken all the buildings had been demolished, for the construction of the new Tourist Board offices, and the lane existed in name only. 110 years earlier it contained “One House, remainder stores”. The Art College (before reconstruction) J3374 : The Art College, Belfast is at middle left while St Anne’s Cathedral J3374 : New spire, St Anne’s, Belfast had still to acquire its “knitting needle”.  –  https://www.geograph.ie/photo/1000880]

 

Writers square July, 2010 -

Writers square July, 2010

 

Arrow shows Long Lane 1887 highlighted in purple

Insurance Plan of Belfast approx 1887 showing Long Lane

Insurance Plan of Belfast approx 1887 showing Long Lane

 

Long Lane, Belfast

Long Lane highlighted from OS Map 1920

More About Who Was Involved

The Carpenter Club, whose proprietors where Richard Hodson, Jeff Dudgeon and NIGRA in a limited partnership, was an extensive, unlicensed disco and coffee bar on two floors operating from the early to mid-1980s.  Cara Friend had offices upstairs, and there was also a large meeting room which was used by various groups for their meetings, including NIGRA.  There was also a small room which had been turned into a library and repository of items of interest e.g. such as banners, placards, leaflets, badges etc.

The front of The Carpenter Club

The front of The Carpenter Club

 

Carpenter Club

view of the ground floor coffee bar looking towards the door leading to the entrance foyer.

But what was important for those frequenting the Carpenter Club, was that it was a safe area from police entrapment, or indeed sometimes homophobia. Thomas Ward, a researcher at Queens University in ‘queer history’, said

 

… “Prosecutions for cottaging, such as gross indecency and lewd behaviour, rose substantially following the 1967 Act. The police became better at entrapment, leading to the ‘pretty policeman’ phenomenon whereby the police would attempt to solicit men they believed to be cottaging or anyone who presented outside masculine norms, and arrest them for gross indecency. This itself led to a number of moral panics around gay sex in public toilets throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.” These anxieties led to the closing down of public toilets and other council spaces, often in the face of public expenditure cuts…

What people also have to remember is that during this time the Carpenter Club was located in the middle of Belfast during the ‘troubles’. 

Security Barriers - Donegall Place, Belfast. 1980s – Northern Ireland Historical Photographical Society

Security Barriers – Donegall Place, Belfast. 1980s – Northern Ireland Historical Photographical Society

 

This meant that you had to go through security checkpoints/gates to get to the club, and basically as little else was open in that area, all the security personnel knew where you were heading. Most of the squaddies (British Soldiers) just laughed and made jokes with us, but unfortunately some of the UDR and some of the police were not that kind.

Caroline-and-two-guys-names-not-known

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Extended History for the Area

 

The Albert Clock, Belfast, was not far from the Carpenter Club and North Street, and in its past was once infamous for being frequented by prostitutes plying their trade with visiting sailor[s]

The Albert Clock

The Albert Clock

However, the history of Long Lane began long before the Carpenter Club.  According to the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society it had two previous names Bigart’s Lane or Back Rampart’s Lane (from the nearby town ramparts) and running from North Street to Great Patrick Street with Long Lane being bisected when Donegall Street was laid out in the mid-18c.

During this time there was the wonderfully named bar ‘The Monkey Shaving the Goat’ doings its trade in Long Lane

The Monkey Shaving the Goat’ doings its trade in Long Lane

The Monkey Shaving the Goat’ doings its trade in Long Lane

 

In November 1981, the A Centre was established as an alternative cultural space in Belfast city centre.  It ran on Saturday afternoons and was organised by the Belfast Anarchist Collective.  It used the Carpenter premises [on loan] was soon became ‘a den of delight and subversion by the exhibition of numerous agitprop posters of the day; and was always under observation by the RUC [Special Branch] of the day.  Please see the video from Northern Visions on the A Centre

Punk scene Belfast – Photo taken at the A Centre (Carpenter Club), Long Lane, Lower North Street Belfast 1981

Punk scene Belfast – Photo taken at the A Centre, Long Lane, Lower North Street Belfast 1981

Part of the ongoing history of the Carpenter Club was the number of events that originated in the meeting room, e.g.

  • NI Aids Helpline was set up after a conference in the club
  • 3rd All Ireland Lesbian & Gay man’s Conference (Belfast)
  • Developed an outline module for LGBTQ+ Studies to Ulster University

Tom Hulme, Queen’s University Belfast,  wrote in his article ‘Out of the Shadows: 100 Years of LGBT Life in Northern Ireland’.

…’ Belfast has been home to a male cruising culture since at least the 1880s.  Busy streets, dark alleyways, public toilets, and sprawling parks; all provided opportunities for men seeking other men, from the dockworker to the diplomat (as Roger Casement’s diaries confirm)!..

 

Also, Tom wrote in his article, ‘Queer Belfast during the First World War; masculinity and same-sex desire in the Irish city’…

‘the extraordinary cases of two ordinary men. Edgar John Milligen, twenty-nine years old and from just outside Lisburn, County Antrim, was arrested in November 1916 for committing ‘acts of gross indecency with another male person’. The son of a wealthy Scottish-born Ulster industrialist, Milligen had allegedly been meeting adolescent newsboys on the streets of Belfast and paying them for sex in ice cream parlours, hotels and his country house in the village of Lambeg,  About a year later, Vincent Cassidy, a twenty-five-year-old from Armagh, was arrested for a similar crime. Not long back in Ulster after a two-year stay in the United States, he had been living in a hotel in the centre of Belfast and holding all-male parties in his rooms; soldiers and civilians alike danced, drank cocktails and shared the one bed.

… however, that homosexual interactions could take place against the backdrop of ostensibly ‘heterosexual space’. Sheehan described how he and Cassidy made frequent visits to music halls and supper saloons where they consumed meat, fish, oysters and wine…

They also made use of local hotels in York Street, Donegall Place as examples, something that was almost impossible in the 1970s and 1980s.

Carpenter Club, Long Lane, Belfast C1940.

Long Lane, Belfast C1940.

In Jan 2022 Mark Thompson on Twitter (@MarkThompStuff) wrote

…Long Lane, Belfast C1940.  There had been a “Burns Tavern” there, where a Burns Supper, attended by Robert Burns jnr, was held in August 1844, following a major Burns Festival that had been held in Ayr…  (pic from the FB Group “Images and Memories of old Northern Ireland)

 

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A CENTURY AND MORE OF BELFAST GAY LIFE

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A CENTURY AND MORE OF BELFAST GAY LIFE – Northern Ireland’s gay geography, history and people: 1903-2021

According to Roger Casement’s diaries, of 1903 and 1910-11, the gay cruising areas in Belfast were at the Albert Clock probably around the Customs House toilet, Botanic Gardens, Ormeau Park, and the Giants Ring. Cottaging went on in Victoria Square in an elegant wrought iron edifice (which was still operating in the 1960s and is now in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum) and at the Gasworks. Only the Giants Ring remains popular, although policed.

From then until after the 2nd World War, the GNR station in Great Victoria Street and Dubarry’s bar at the docks were recognised haunts, the latter, as in other cities, being shared with prostitutes. According to one old-timer, a teenager in 1941, the cottages were particularly busy the morning after the big German air raid in Belfast city centre, only yards from the smouldering rubble of High Street and Bridge Street.

He also recalled, after the raids, special difficulty in the fields in East Belfast, where he used to go regularly with a soldier friend. They were filled instead with people who were sleeping out of doors to avoid the bombing. The blackout from 1939, and the arrival from 1943-4 of 100,000 American troops in Northern Ireland had a huge impact and a special place in gay memories.

The Royal Avenue (RA) Bar in Rosemary Street (the hotel’s public bar, opposite the Red Barn pub) as portrayed in Maurice Leitch’s fine 1965 novel The Liberty Lad, probably the earliest description of a gay bar in Irish literature, was the first in the city. It operated from some time in the 1950s being shared at times with deaf and dumb customers who often occupied the front of the bar.

The two (straight) staff in the RA ran a tight but tolerant ship. Two lesbians, Greta and Anne, were the only females in the 1960s who were regular customers. At that time and until the end of the 1970s, pubs closed sharply at 10 p.m. The café burger café in High Street then served as an after hours venue and later a café in Victoria Square run by the distinguished Indian hotelier and mogul, now Lord Rana of Malone.

 When the Royal Avenue Hotel was on its last legs due to the troubles, Ernie Thompson and Jim Kempson (both now deceased), from 1974, ran, in its elegant ballroom, Belfast’s first ever and highly memorable discos, also the first in Ireland.

 After the Royal Avenue closed, the Casanova Club (prop. Louis Wise) in Upper Arthur Street (presently part of the British Home Stores site) flowered briefly until bombed by the IRA in c. 1976 for reputedly serving police officers!

Meanwhile the Gay Liberation Society (GLS) was meeting at Queen’s University Students Union from 1972 with significant town as well as gown membership. Initiated by Andy Hinds and Martin McQuigg it was taken forward by Dick Sinclair, Maeve Malley, Joseph Leckey and Brian Gilmore.

Later from about 1975 until the early 1980s it ran highly successful Saturday night discos in the McMordie Hall, attended by up to 300 gays (and indeed many apparent straights). This was a time when there was no other night life in the city. Key helpers included Kevin Merrett, Billy Forsythe, John McConkey, and Michael McAlinden. The early and mid-70s were the most brutal years of the troubles, when there was next to no night life in the city and only gays ventured out for fear of murder.

Cara-Friend started its befriending and information operation as a letter service in 1974. After a brief telephone service at the QUB Students Union which ended in the switchboard collapsing, it moved on to a permanent telephone service in about 1976, operating first from Doug Sobey’s flat in Ulsterville Avenue (Doug from Prince Edward Island in Canada is still a Cara-Friend officer after 30 years). Lesbian Line and Foyle Friend developed later. Cara-Friend was grant aided by the Department of Health and Social Services, at Stormont, from as early as 1975 with £700 p.a.

NIGRA (a groups’ group originally) started in the summer of 1975 when USFI became corrupted. Early NIGRA Presidents have included Dr Graham Carter (who sadly died young), former life-President Richard Kennedy, and Tim Clarke, ably supported by Sappho sisters Geraldine Sergeant and Maureen Miskimmin.

A significant number of NIGRA officers married and had children which was baffling for some. The Strasbourg case taken by Jeff Dudgeon to the European Court of Human Rights, which in 1982 ultimately resulted in the ending of life imprisonment for gay men and was the first European recognition of gay rights, was started by NIGRA in 1975. P.A. MagLochlainn, NIGRA President, filled the post longer than any of his predecessors.

From about 1975 until the early 1980s, Gay Lib or the QUB Gay Liberation Society (GLS) met in No. 4 University Street, a large 3-storey Georgian terrace house loaned by the university, where Cara-Friend had a room with a telephone cubicle. It was in constant use for regular Thursday meetings and parties. From there was organised the successful case at Strasbourg against the British Government funded by the Queen’s discos and the later-married pop singer Tom Robinson (Glad to be Gay and Motorway).

1976 was also the year of the totally unexpected gay raids when all the NIGRA and Cara-Friend committee were arrested and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) decided to charge Jeff Dudgeon and Doug Sobey, and Richard Kennedy and another (for sex acts inter se). All of us were over 21 and thus could not be charged in England. Only a political intervention from London forced the DPP to drop the cases in 1977, just as the instruction to police to charge us was issued and literally retrieved from the post room at the last minute.

The Strasbourg case took seven years to go through the court and was won in 1981 when the UK was found guilty of a human rights violation of the European Convention. This was because it criminalised all gay male sexual activity with a possible sentence of life imprisonment for buggery, and two years jail for any other sexual act (“gross indecency”) thereby interfering with the right to a private life. A year later a reluctant British government pushed an Order in Council through Westminster legalising certain gay sexual activity with an age of consent of 21.

The Chariot Rooms in Lower North Street was the first gay-run bar in Belfast. It and its own disco were operated successfully, and with flair, by Ernie and Jim in the darkest years of the troubles. It was in the central gated area where no other night life existed for several years. We had to be processed by the civilian searchers to enter the central area leading to many camp and ribald remarks. The reasons for the Chariot Rooms closing are obscure although it was well frequented and much loved even by soldiers who duck patrolled through the dance floor, lingering in the warmth and safety. (Ernie and Jim were both processed through the courts in October 1967 and jailed or committed to a mental hospital along with a dozen others in the last big round-up of gays in Bangor.)

Off and on in the 1970s and 80s, the Europa’s Whip and Saddle bar in Great Victoria Street was the city’s only gay venue. Despite, at times being the only customers in such a bombed hotel, we were never entirely welcome and were ultimately driven out. At one point in the 1970s NIGRA mounted a picket because of a member being barred for a serious indiscretion – a kiss.

Due to the efforts of the late Kieran Hayes (d. 2011), a gay staffer’s, the Crow’s Nest in Skipper Street became a gay bar with a small disco from c. 1986. After several makeovers, it changed its name to the Customs House in 2002 and was re-invigorated as a gay bar hosting Men of the North events on alternate Fridays. It returned to the Crow’s Nest (or Raven’s Rectum) title later, after another makeover. (The Nest was demolished in 2008.)

The Carpenter Club in Long Lane (proprietors Richard Hodgson, Jeff Dudgeon, and NIGRA in a limited partnership) was an extensive, unlicensed disco and coffee bar on two floors operating from the early to the mid 1980s. Cara-Friend had offices upstairs. It was ultimately compulsorily purchased by the DOE to make way for the currently renamed Writers’ (formerly Skinhead) Square.

The Carpenter Club though gradually successful was vulnerable to any premises like a hotel on the skids (like the Midland Hotel) which had a drinks licence. Such licences were prohibitively expensive. Cara-Friend moved to new premises at Cathedral Buildings in Lower Donegall Street where Lesbian Line also had rooms and GLYNI and NIGRA met. Both C-F and Queer Space have run busy Saturday drop-ins at Cathedral Buildings, the latter having had previous rooms in Botanic Avenue and Eglantine Avenue.

After buying out his partners, Richard Hodgson, an accountant turned builder, was dubiously jailed for fraud after receiving compensation on the building’s compulsory purchase by the Department of the Environment. He developed other premises in Hill Street which never opened.

The Orpheus Bar/Disco in York Street had a successful three-year existence under the proprietorship of Ian Rosbotham in the mid-1980s, despite the rampant damp. It had a short afterlife once renovated.

The Dunbar Arms in Dunbar Link was firebombed by the INLA, with drag queen Aunty Mae (West aka Harry) the last out of the building being nearly singed to death, possibly due to a protection refusal. After rebuilding, it became the Parliament Bar, run by two straight guys, Martin Ramsay and Brendan, continuing as a gay venue with an upstairs disco from the 1990s until 2003 when it abandoned the gay market. It later returned to its roots as Mynt. Darren Bradshaw an off-duty gay policeman was murdered there by the INLA in 1997, having been picked out and shot down in front of dozens of customers.

Cruising areas too have been marred by murder – Anthony McCleave in Oxford Street, Belfast in the 1970s and Ian Flanagan in Barnett’s Park in 2002. There have been others.

One nighters have been operated since the mid-1980s in the Midland Hotel (Saturdays), Delaney’s, the Limelight (very successfully on Mondays for several years run by Patrick James), the Venue, White’s Tavern and Milk.

The Kremlin, an extensive, gay-owned bar and disco(s) in Upper Donegall Street, after opening in March 1999, became the dominant gay venue in the city, regularly enhancing its facilities. The owners were a New Zealander André Graham and Seamus Sweeney. A later development in the creation of a gay village in Belfast was the opening of their up-market Union Street pub with its many bars and dance rooms. The property they bought in nearby Union Street housed the Men’s Health Rainbow Project (formerly in Church Lane) and Belfast’s first ever gay sauna, the Garage. Another sauna opened across the street in time.

Sex in saunas, that is sex with more than two males present, was legalised in 2003 thanks to NIGRA’s successful campaign to have Northern Ireland included in the Sexual Offences Bill with its total abolition of the crimes of gross indecency and buggery and the equalising of penalties between gay and straight for sexual crimes.

Later rival venues were another Dubarry’s bar and disco which opened in Gresham Street and attracted the older clientele, being a bit less noisy (and having fewer straights). Despite success, it eventually reverted to a straight clientele. The advent of Maverick also in Union Street in the former McIlhattons Bar enabled both sides of the street to become LGBT dominated and in time pedestrian only.

The gay organisations – Rainbow, Cara-Friend and Here NI migrated for a decade to the former War Memorial Building in Waring Street taking over several floors. It was eventually sold for the purposes of a gay hotel venture which has yet to materialise, and new group premises were taken further down the street.

The only cloud on the commercial scene’s horizon has been cyber-sex through the likes of Grindr which have become ever more popular, night and day. Cruising and outdoor sex seem largely to be a thing of the past.

At the same time there has been an explosion in the growth of gay history studies at Queen’s University and through Gay History Month. PRONI and the Linen Hall Library now have considerable LGBT documentary collections. Cultural events, many organised by Outburst, have featured strongly in the new millennium as of course have the increasingly popular Belfast Pride parades which started in 1991, being first organised by Sean McGouran and P.A. MagLochlainn. They have now spread to other cities and localities.

 

 

Jeff Dudgeon

(Author of ‘Roger Casement: The Black Diaries – With a Study of his Background, Sexuality, and Irish Political Life’ (3rd edition 2019); and ‘H. Montgomery Hyde: Ulster Unionist MP, Gay Law Reform Campaigner and Prodigious Author’ (Belfast Press, 2018) – website https://jeffdudgeon.com/ )

 

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The Portsmouth Defence by Jeff Dudgeon

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Portsmouth DefenceThe Portsmouth Defence – every solicitor and barrister knows the traditional defence to utilize when defending a client accused of murdering a gay man when there is no other legitimate defence available.  Its name indicates that it originated in medieval times in seaports when mariners were caught on rolling/robbing their homosexual clients or victims.

Brief Heroes

It is simply this – the deceased made a pass in the form of a smile, a word or a touch, at my client.  being a man he beat the pervert to death/strangled him/repeatedly stabbed him.  Judges especially, juries less so, are susceptible to this defence.  Sometimes killers have been acquitted, even become brief heroes, as in the George Brinham case in the 1960s when a Labour and Trade Union politician was butchered in London.

Macho Sentiments

Obviously, if females, subjected to unwanted attentions, disembowelled wolf-whistlers, the male population would plummet.  But judges, being men, instantly warm to the macho sentiments aroused at the notion of innocent heterosexual manhood threatened by oily homosexuals.

Fate Worse Than Death

Nowadays, acquittals would be rare, but the continued use of the Portsmouth Defence is designed to get the charge reduced from murder to manslaughter and the sentence reduced accordingly.  this still works even though in every other case a murder rap would hold unless it was self-evident that had the defendant not attacked the victim his own life would have been in jeopardy.  \but, to the conservative judiciary, being touched up or smiled at by a queer is a fate worse than death.  It is plain that in 99% of such cases the gay victim is offering no violence at all, just checking the other guy out or using a little verbal persuasion.

A Local Crop

In the recent Addis (Portadown) and Hagan (\belfast) murder cases the victims made a suggestion through porno pics and divesting himself of his clothes respectively.  \both were brutally done to death.  their killers received light sentences and the Portsmouth Defence was used.  this was in courts in Northern Ireland in the 1980s where the establishment continues to think of gays as less than human and their killers as less than criminals.  A test case will occur soon in a trial relating to a killing in Ballymena where the Portsmouth Defence has already been used in a bail application.

Casual Violence

It is important that the legal establishment is made aware of the new social and legal status that gays now enjoy.  And that we will no longer tolerate such frequent murders.  The Director of Public Prosecutions – who decides what charges to prefer – and whether to accept plea-bargaining to get a lesser charge preferred, has to take account of social change and modern literature*.  If for no other reason than that, anti-gay tugs (and their homosexual counterparts), will continue to use massive violence on gay victims in the sure knowledge that the courts will see their crimes as slight!

 

*Attacks on Gay People by Julian Meldrum (CHE) 1977 – A comprehensive and meticulously researched casebook (Currently out of Print)

 

 

Amazon Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Campaign for Homosexual Equality (1 Aug. 1981)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 48 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 095044295X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0950442952

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This article was first printed in Gay Star No 10, a copy of which is held in the archive of the Linenhall Library

 

Screening of ‘Against the Law’ in Downing Street

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UK Government
The Rt Hon Justine Greening MP
Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities
requests the pleasure of the company of
Cllr Jeffrey Dudgeon MBE
at a screening of Against the Law
at 10 Downing Street
on Tuesday 11th July 2017 at 6.30 pm for 7.00 pm
Against the Law tells the story of Peter Wildeblood and one of the most explosive court cases of the 1950s – the infamous Montagu trial.
Along with the Conservative peer Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and their friend Michael Pitt-Rivers, Wildeblood was imprisoned for homosexual offences after his lover gave evidence against him under pressure from the authorities.
With his career in tatters and his private life painfully exposed, Wildeblood began his sentence a broken man, but he emerged from Wormwood Scrubs a year later determined to do all he could to change the laws against homosexuality.
His high-profile trial led the way to the creation of the Wolfenden Committee on sexual law reform which eventually resulted in the passing of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 – changing the lives of thousands of gay men with its partial decriminalisation of homosexual acts.
This powerful new drama forms part of a season of BBC programmes marking the fiftieth anniversary of that landmark change in the law. Starring Daniel Mays and directed by Fergus O’Brien, it is interspersed with moving testimonies from a chorus of men whose love and lives were against the law.

 
Screening of 'Against the Law' in No 10 Downing Street
Against the Law

Tory peer in Lords attempt to secure Northern Ireland gay pardons – Belfast Newsletter

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Jeff-Dudgeon-MBE-gay pardons legislation

Jeff Dudgeon’s MBE comments re challenges to gay pardons legislation


A response from Jeff Dudgeon, in respect of the claim that Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 makes this problematic.
‘This, in my view, is an absolute  ridiculous argument. I wrote the amendments in such a way that they do not relate to the “sexual orientation” of a person convicted or cautioned. Both the pardons and the disregard scheme will be available to any “person” who has been convicted or cautioned. In respect of the main offences involved, that means: any person who has been convicted or cautioned for the offence of buggery (involving either opposite-sex or same-sex sexual acts); any person convicted or cautioned for the offence of gross indecency (this can only be same-sex acts because the offence only related to men). The term “gay pardons” is therefore misleading because the pardons will extend to any “person” (man or woman) falling within the ambit of the old law. There is no “discrimination” here!’
As you can see this proposed amendment is ‘fair to all’, and we believe that it should be passed…

The Lords and Gay Pardons LegisltionAn attempt to pardon men convicted in Northern Ireland before homosexuality was decriminalised has been launched in the House of Lords – but a QC has said that the proposal could be unlawful under equality law.

Source: Tory peer in Lords attempt to secure Northern Ireland gay pardons – Belfast Newsletter

Recruitment Drive

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NIGRA is on a recruitment drive for you!
The law in Northern Ireland on gay relationships was changed through the actions of NIGRA and Jeff Dudgeon’s legal case which went through the legal system in the United Kingdom and then to the Europen Courts of Human Rights. NIGRA and Jeff did not do this on their own, it was through the efforts of many fundraiser throughout the UK and Ireland that this was managed. The case was won, but the fight still needs to go on to achieve full equality. If you have time and want to help then contact us through our website (http://nigra.org.uk/) – we have room for everyone!
So this is a recruitment plea asking you to give  us some time and help us develop the various projects which we have in mind:

  • An ‘Online’ LGBT Archive so that we can record our history, both the past and the current as it unfolds.  Recruitment - LGBT ArchiveWe need to interview the players in out history before they leave us, we also need to develop photographic evidence of artifacts before we arrange for them to be deposited in the Ulster Museum with whom we have now agreed a facility for depositing items like placards, photographs, home videos of historical moments, paintings etc.  Documentation can be deposited with the PRONI (Public Records Office Northern Ireland), and we have already done this for items from Jeff’s case and also from PA’s archives
  • Monitoring of Stormont and Westminster, particularly now we are through the Brexit vote.  We need to ensure that we know what is said and what is planned, and where necessary activate the community as required when we need to pressure our politicians.

These are only two of our projects, there are others, and off course we would welcome suggestions from you.
Please contact us and volunteer.
 
 

Peter Robinson hits out at cost of Ashers Bakery court case

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As with all reporting, a balance must be sought between both sides of a dispute.  When a legal case was not sought or indeed envisaged by the person who placed the ordr for the cake, nor I am certain were Asher’s wishing to be in the limelight for an equality case, the fact is that they both are now tangent to what is happening.  The Equality Commission, established in 1998, has duties which derive from a number of statutes which have been enacted over the last decades, providing protection against discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, race, religion and political opinion, sex and sexual orientation. They also have responsibilities arising from the Northern Ireland Act 1998 in respect of the statutory equality and good relations duties which apply to public authorities. However, importantly, they are sponsoring Department is the Office of the First and deputy First Minister which carries responsibilities for equality policy and legislation in the Northern Ireland Executive.
With these facts in mind, it is obvious that the Equality Commission is fulfilling its mission within the statues.  What is not so obvious is why the Office of the First Minister in the person of Rt Hon Peter D Robinson MLA would seem to be at odds with the body that it provides funding for.  However, politics does make strange bedfellows, as can be seen in the Belfast Telegraph report below.
But before you make your mind up on this case, please remember that all legal cases have an impact on our future; and that if we allow politicians to ram down our throats that we are second class citizens for any reason, what next in our rights will be eroded away?
I will also note that most of the newspapers have carefully put a photograph of the Asher family to the front, with the inference being that here is the ‘perfect, normal’ family which the DUP and its supporters rave about!
Pacemaker Press 6/11/2014<br /><br /><br /><br /> Daniel and Amy McArthur with their Baby Girl Elia, Daniel from Ashers Baking Company refused to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan. The Equality Commission are now going to take civil action against a Christian-owned bakery firm.<br /><br /><br /><br /> Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 6/11/2014 Daniel and Amy McArthur with their Baby Girl Elia, Daniel from Ashers Baking Company refused to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan. The Equality Commission are now going to take civil action against a Christian-owned bakery firm. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

BY JOANNE SWEENEY – 24 MARCH 2015

First Minister Peter Robinson has accused the Equality Commission of spending up to £33,000 to seek court damages worth £500 from a Christian-owned bakery.

The commission has brought a civil case against Ashers Baking Company after it refused to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan. The two-day hearing is due in the High Court later this week.
The DUP leader said: “When you consider that they have set aside the potential of spending £33,000 on this court case where they are seeking damages of £500 against Ashers, there is a better use that could be put to that money, particularly in the tight fiscal situation the Executive faces.” Ashers is facing the action after it refused to supply a pro-gay marriage cake on grounds of the owners’ religious views.
A new poll released yesterday found that more than 70% of people believe it is wrong for a Christian bakery to be taken to court over its refusal to make a cake supporting gay marriage. As the case approaches, the debate has intensifed between Christian-based groups, including church leaders, and pro-gay groups.

 A human rights academic has claimed that businesses owned by Christians have a legal way of providing services while not approving of gay relationships.

Professor Steven Greer has suggested that busin esses can print a disclaimer on invoices, websites, and other business documents, to say that compliance with statutory requirements does not constitute approval of the activities in question. In a commentary piece, the Bristol University professor argues that the courts need to strike a balance between competing rights and interests.
Mr Greer believes that a ‘conscience clause’ bill proposed to the Assembly by the DUP’s Paul Givan has little chance of ever being introduced as it would be repealed by Westminster and legally challenged in Strasbourg.
He suggests: “Those providing goods and services in Northern Ireland who do not approve of gay relationships, could and should simply issue a disclaimer on their invoices, websites, and other business documents to the effect that compliance with relevant statutory requirements does not necessarily constitute approval of the activities in question.”

Churches across Northern Ireland have been encouraged by the Christian Institute to highlight a support meeting to their members tonight at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall while pro-gay rights rallies have been held in various towns.

‘How simple disclaimer could be solution to the rights versus conscience deadlock’

There could be a way round the difficulties thrown up by the Ashers case, writes Prof Steven Greer:

This Thursday, the District Judges Court in Belfast will begin hearing a case, brought by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland on behalf of gay activist Mr Gareth Lee, against Ashers Baking Company for alleged breach of statutory duty not to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods or services.

On the basis of strongly held Christian beliefs, the bakery declined an order from Mr Lee for a cake decorated with Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie in a friendly but not intimate embrace, the logo of the campaign group ‘QueerSpace’, and the slogan ‘Support Gay Marriage’.

There seems little doubt that Ashers will lose the litigation, and that Mr Lee will be modestly compensated, because the legislation in question, the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, does not provide an exemption on any ground, including religious faith.

Possibly anticipating this outcome, DUP Assembly member, Paul Givan, is seeking to provide one by way of a Private Members Bill supported by his party and the Catholic Church amongst others. Mr Givan’s amendment would not legalise all refusals to supply goods and services to gays in Northern Ireland.

It would, instead, provide a ‘conscience clause’ permitting those with strongly held religious views to avoid ‘endorsing, promoting or facilitating behaviour or beliefs’ which conflict with these convictions. Some have claimed that the current position in Northern Ireland is ‘Christianophobic’ — intolerant of and discriminatory towards Christians. And, according to First Minister Peter Robinson, the Equality Commission’s case amounts simply to ‘bullying’.

For these and others, the proposed amendment would, merely provide an appropriate, measured solution to a genuine conflict between the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, on the one hand, and the right not to be discriminated against due to sexual preference on the other. By contrast, others regard it as an attempt to legalise homophobia.

The right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sexual preference is clear in international human rights law with, for example, the decriminalization of private, consensual, adult, gay sex mandatory throughout the 47-member Council of Europe, no matter how strong national or regional opposition. And for good reason.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have long suffered, not just discrimination, but often savage mistreatment merely for claiming identities or engaging in private, consensual, adult sexual activities, of which others disapprove. The scope of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion is, however, less clear.

Since it unquestionably includes the right not to be compelled to believe against conscience, religious conservatives are well within their rights to regard gay sex as inherently wrong because God forbids it.

But the permissibility of the expression of religious belief, in commercial and other spheres, hinges fundamentally upon its consequences, including and especially how others are affected.

Were Mr Givan’s amendment to be passed, same-sex couples in Northern Ireland could, for example, be lawfully denied a table at a restaurant, a room in a hotel, or a mortgage, on the grounds that this would otherwise endorse or facilitate same-sex unions.

But, apart from a sense of discomfort, distaste or outrage, it is not at all clear what loss or damage is suffered by those who feel that being required to provide gays with customised goods and services compels them to act contrary to their core religious beliefs.

Such a ‘loss’, if a loss it is at all, pales into insignificance compared with the tangible and potentially substantial damage which could be sustained by gay couples in such circumstances.

There is, in any case, a simpler solution to these difficulties. Instead of an exemption from the 2006 regulations, those providing goods and services in Northern Ireland who do not approve of gay relationships, could and should simply issue a disclaimer on their invoices, websites, and other business documents to the effect that compliance with relevant statutory requirements does not necessarily constitute approval of the activities in question.

Steven Greer was born and raised in Belfast and is currently Professor of Human Rights at the University of Bristol Law School