Queering Security Studies in Northern Ireland

In many conflict and postconflict societies, victory often comes to those that remain vigilant, cautious, and attentive. When I arrived to Belfast in 2006, 8 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), Northern Ireland was still in the process of making sense of peace and struggling with its past. Some citizens engaged with outsiders to their communities very cautiously and used a sophisticated process of “telling,” or recording of subtle cues that might reveal the religious background or community affiliation of those they encountered. A street name, a song someone would hum, or the name of a pub visited with friends, was enough to confirm or deny suspicions. ¹ As a queer scholar, I too was trying to make sense of the social and political environment of the city. I wondered, could this aptitude, one that had become so engrained in the Northern Irish, enable the Loyalist ² community I was working with to “tell” my sexuality? Would the “telling” of my lesbian identity make me so much of an outsider that I would not be accepted? What would the community think? ³