‘Somewhere between Ireland and England’: navigating gay politics in the 1980s through the housing experiences of Irish men in London

Focussing on the period from 1970 to 1990, this article examines how gay men, many of whom moved from Ireland to London, adapted their activism in the face of evolving housing pressures. It pays particular attention to how housing reforms, the AIDS crisis and notions of national identity shaped gay politics during this period and how the social crises of the 1980s transformed gay radicalism as conflict over identities and AIDS redefined gay activism and interactions with the state. I bring together two traditions in a way that has not been extensively done by historians. The historiography of the Irish in Britain has done little to look at homosexuality, while the historiography of gay Britain rarely considers the issue of post-war immigration, still less Irish migration. I put into conversation these historiographies which have hitherto often passed as ships in the night. The article locates the responses of Irish gay activists to the turmoil of the long 1980s within broader histories of radical politics in this period and national transformations of housing provision. In doing so, the article suggests that gay men’s housing activism was itself indicative of wider coalitional transformations in gay politics.