Tom Hulme

@tomhulme

Historian @ Queen’s Uni Belfast Author of “Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation” (Cornell, 2026) & “After the Shock City: Urban Culture & the Making of Modern Citizenship” (Boydell, 2019) 🏳️‍🌈

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Tom Hulme@tomhulme· 18d

love this review of Belfastmen! Happy Pride (tomorrow!) 🏳️‍🌈

A book review that reads:

Sapphos wrote:

Someone will remember us

I say

even in another time

This book does just that. The lives of gay men in Belfast were just as full of love, joy and tragedy as our own.

It was a privilege to spend a few hours with them and learn about their incredible lives.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Jul 9

It’s Pride in Belfast this month - celebrating its 25th anniversary! 🏳️‍🌈 I recently did a wee interview with GNI to talk a bit more about my book and queer life before liberation - out now, pp. 49-51 issuu.com/lambpromotio...

The cover of GNI Magazine, showing various LGBT figures from Northern Ireland and further afield

A photograph of Tom Hulme, sat at a desk, and his book Belfastmen.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Jul 7

Please feel free to nick any of it! ;) Here is another example from my third year module (on the culture of cities in modern era)

Create your own specific essay topic/question that draws on both the thematic and methodological approaches of the module. Word count: 3000.

Potential themes you could consider are: gender; sex and sexuality; race and ethnicity; religion; health. Potential methodologies you could base your analysis on could include: space; performance; visual culture; discourse; sociological investigation. Try to think of one narrow aspect of one of these topics and approaches that allows you to look in depth, rather than trying to cover every possible bit of the topic and ending up with a 'thin' analysis. For example: rather than investigating every aspect of religion and the city, you could think about the performance of religious identity in urban space.

You must:

* Historiographical books/articles from at least three of the weekly thematic topics (it is OK for the majority of your analysis to focus on the themes of one week, but you must think about how your chosen weekly theme intersects with other weeks)

* At least three primary sources (cartoons, film, novels, social surveys, etc), and comprehensively used (i.e. analysis that goes beyond a simple quotation or example), whether from tutorials, 1 of the suggested databases, or elsewhere.

* Base your essay around at least 3 different cities, and from at least three different countries (unless that is not possible - say, for example, if you are focusing on African American culture).

* Reflect on how urban cultures have both their own geographic context but also share similarities with cities in other countries - i.e. think comparatively.

Above all, I am looking for inventive and interesting essays that demonstrate how we can understand the every day life of the modern city in the western world. We can start thinking about the assignment in our tutorials in week 10 and 11 (which is a good reason to attend to the end of the module!), and I would encourage you to then meet with me one-on-one so I can help you hone your topic.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Jul 7

for e.g. a module on queer history

Both of the assignments for this class share the same three goals: to encourage you to use primary sources, both those that are listed on the Canvas pages and more that are housed in online databases; to learn how to integrate your own sources and thinking with the ideas of other historians; and to think about the practice of what it means to be a historian. Our focus is thus on close reading, originality, and personal reflection.

You are living in difficult times to be a student. I am aware that the cost of living is making it necessary for many of you to work long hours, that the general state of the world is anxiety- and depression-inducing, and that so-called Artificial Intelligence is a tempting influence when you are pushed for time to write assignments. My method in designing these assignments (and the module too) has been two-fold: firstly, to focus on quality rather than quantity, which means more time given to fewer pieces of reading; and to structure the task in such a way that makes it difficult, even impossible, to use AI in a way that will help rather than hinder your assignment. I can give you a promise: your assignment will be far better - even if it contains errors, typos, or unclear thinking - if you follow the advice below instead of trying to use "language learning machines" (AI) that are not yet smart enough to be *you*. That said, I will still be on the lookout for students using AI to cheat.

Assignment 1 - Reflective Essay, 30% - 1,500 words - due Friday 13th February 2026 at midday

Compare and contrast two or three of the primary sources that were set for weeks 2 to 3, with at least one from each historical period, and reflect on what these sources can (and cannot) tell us about pre-modern sexuality.

Your essay must contain the following:

At least two or three primary sources, whether visual, literary, legal, etc.
At least one or two secondary sources (i.e. works by historians) from the corresponding weeks of the module to support your analysis of each source.
Reflection on the debate about "essentialism" and "social constructionism", using at least one or two of the theoretical/overview works listed for Week 1.
My top tips for assignment 1:

When it comes to the number of primary sources you compare, use common sense: if you are comparing very short or limited sources you need more, and if you are comparing long sources it is fine to use fewer.
A bibliography of four or five secondary sources that have been carefully used is far better than depending heavily on two secondary sources OR trying to balance the use of ten.
Try to think reflectively: I want to hear what *you* think about these sources, even if that does not align with what the secondary reading says. Queer history is a contentious field, and I want you to be contentious too! This means that bland AI style writing will not get you a good mark.

Assignment 2 - Microhistorical Case Study (2,500 words plus 500 word reflective essay) - Monday 27th April 2026

Reconstruct a queer encounter between men from Northern Ireland, and reflect on what combining digital history with a microhistorical approach can tell us about sexuality, society, politics, and the law in the era before gay rights.

You should use:

The original criminal file material: a middle-aged elite man and a much younger man, arrested in Belfast city centre in 1904.Links to an external site.
Newspapers:
Irish News - 23 September 1904.pdf Truth 29 September 1904.pdf Reynold's Newspaper - Sunday 02 October 1904.pdf Donegal Independent - Friday 07 October 1904.pdf Reynolds's Newspaper - Sunday 09 October 1904.pdf
There is also the online British Newspaper Archive, but you'll have to take out a short term subscription OR log into the WIFI in any Cafe Nero! OR there is the slightly harder to use Irish Newspaper Archive (through QUB databases). Useful if you want to find out more information about Richard Lutton later in life, but to make your life easier the main articles from 1904 are above.
Census of Ireland 1901/1911Links to an external site.
Birth, marriage, and death certificates for IrelandLinks to an external site.
The following article to help you think about microhistory and your method: Julia Laite, “The Emmet’s Inch: ‘small’ history in a digital age,” Journal of Social History, 53, no. 4 (2020).
And a selection from the following list:

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· May 19

I am so happy that these art deco Belfast street lamps - made for the Millfield Foundry in the 1930s and originally placed on the Boyne Bridge - have been repurposed for the new central rail station!

A black metal art deco style street lamp, shaped like an upturned anvil

The same street lamp in situ on the boyne bridge

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· May 13

Today’s launch of “Belfastmen” at the Linen Hall Library with the inimitable @elainefarrell.bsky.social! Kindly hosted by Patsy Horton, on the library’s 2038 birthday! What would the founders think of this gay history book, I wonder…

A room of people listening to a man and a woman talking on a stage in front of a screen displaying a book - Belfastmen: an intimate history of life before gay liberation

The author, Tom Hulme, pictured with patsy Horton and Elaine Farrell

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· May 11

This is cool: a Portuguese LGBTQ+ media platform has picked up on the article about my book in the Guardian, and reflected on some similarities between Northern Ireland's and Portugal's queer history.

The Parallel with Portugal During the Dictatorship

In Portugal, during the Estado Novo dictatorship, there were similar mechanisms of silent repression and moral control. As the exhibition “Farewell Homeland and Family” recalls, many LGBTQ+ people lived for decades in a kind of forced invisibility, tolerated only as long as they remained discreet and away from the public sphere.

Homosexuality was associated with “immorality,” “vagrancy,” and deviation from the family values defended by the regime. The political police and authorities resorted to surveillance, persecution, and detentions, while social pressure pushed many people into double lives, prolonged silences, and hidden relationships.

As in Northern Ireland described by Hulme, in Portugal there was also often a contradictory logic: society could suspect, perceive, or even discreetly comment on certain queer experiences, as long as these did not publicly challenge the dominant norm.

When Silence Is No Longer Enough

This apparent “tolerance” was, however, dependent on invisibility. When LGBTQ+ people claim public space, rights, or collective recognition, the conservative reaction historically tends to intensify. The pattern repeats itself in different contexts: the problem has never been just queer existence, but the refusal to remain hidden.

The history of Northern Ireland, and also of Portugal, shows how repression and tolerance can coexist ambiguously. And how silence, often confused with acceptance, was in reality a condition imposed for survival.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· May 9

A man stood next to a wall bearing the painter message “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· May 7

🍺

Tom Hulme talking about his book in the No Alibis bookshop

Tom Hulme - smiling and holding a pint of Guinness and his book - next to Sophie cooper

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· May 7

🥹

A crowd in a bookshop listens to Tom Hulme talking about his book, Belfastmen

Tom Hulme with his partner, Cormac McAteer, who is holding a copy of Belfastmen

Tom Hulme and Sophie Cooper laughing in a pub.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 26

mind boggling response from a Labour MP. She either: does not have a clue how important universities are to the local economy; knows but doesn’t care because of some sort of ‘anti-elitist’ brainworm; or knows but is too worried to admit it lest it upset Reform voters. none reflect very well on her!

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 24

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 18

If you’re based in Northern Ireland, I have a piece about my new @cornellupress.bsky.social book in the @belfasttelegraph.co.uk today!

A newspaper article in the Belfast telegraph, titled ‘Before the 1960s, this idea of comingohtdid not really exist in Northern Ireland’.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 15

called it months ago 🥲

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 15

In the grounds of City Hall, there is a statue to Sir Daniel Dixon, the city's first Lord Mayor. In 1904, he was in court defending his private secretary, Richard Lutton, who was discovered having sex with a man in a doorway. When Lutton got off, it caused a public scandal about Unionist corruption.

A photograph of a statue of Sir Daniel Dixon, in front of Belfast City Hall.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 15

In 1917, Edgar Milligen was arrested for paying newsboys for sex in local ice cream parlours and his home in Lambeg. In the doorway of the (recently opened and very fancy) Bedford Hotel there is a mosaic of his wealthy industrialist father, who likely intervened to get him off the charge.

A mosaic bearing the name John Milligen and Co Ltd, in a doorway.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 15

The Albert Clock still stands in Queen's Square. From at least the time of Roger Casement, this dockside area - and its toilets, boarding houses, and pubs - was a key meeting zone. In 1910, Casement recorded cruising a man here who was “awfully keen” and packing a "huge and curved" penis... 🍆

A photograph of the Albert Clock in Belfast, with empty road in foreground.

A sailor lurks suggestively outside a bar. Image is Queen’s Square, Belfast, with Sailor in War Time Uniform, Horse and Cart, Air Raid Shelter (1943), HOYFM.BT.390, Belfast Telegraph.
Courtesy of National Museums NI, Ulster Folk Museum Collection

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 15

Nearby are the Belfast's Entries - a series of covered alleyways & urinals that were notorious for cruising from the late-Victorian era. In 1892, a visiting English soldier-cook got himself in trouble for propositioning a policeman down Crown Entry, asking him to "show me the size of yours"! 🤯

The author holds a copy of his book in front of the Belfast Entries.

A photograph of a dimly lit Crown Entry. Image from A. R. Hogg, Looking to Ann Street, Showing Cave Bar (1914), BELUM.Y1860. Courtesy of National Museums NI, Ulster Museum Collection.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 15

During WWII, David Strain met men there: "as I reached Woolworths I saw a chap standing... so got a light from him... We chatted... then an airforce youth came along who evidently knew him, so he chatted to him for a little, he then returned to me & asked if he could see me some day next week..."

A monochrome photograph of David Strain, in his garden, c. 1940s. Courtesy of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 15

The other end of Castle Place joins the High Street, with the corner being dominated by Dunnes Store. This building - put up in the early 1930s - used to be Woolworths. In the mid 20th century, it was pretty much Belfast's biggest gay hotspot!

Dunnes Stores in Belfast - a large 1930s building - pictured today.

A monochrome photograph of Woolworths, the queer hotspot of the 1930s. Image is from A. R. Hogg, F. W. Woolworth and Co. Ltd. (1930), BELUM.Y2397. Courtesy of National Museums NI, Ulster Museum Collection

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 15

Castle Place is still one of Belfast's most bustling streets. When I walk towards the famous Bank Buildings, I remember the queer men in the 1920s and 1930s who knew that the shop windows were the perfect place to catch someone's glance before taking a tram somewhere more private...

Castle Place, in Belfast City Centre, looking towards the Bank buildings, with pedestrians in foreground.

A monochrome historical photo of High St. to Castle Place, Belfast (1928). Image is from HOYFM.BT.314, Belfast Telegraph. Courtesy of National Museums NI, Ulster Folk Museum Collection.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 15

One of the most surprising things about researching the book was discovering the surviving urban echoes of a long-disappeared queer scene. To mark the publication, I thought I'd share just a few of my favourites!

The author, pictured holding a copy of his book, in front of Belfast City Hall.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 15

"Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation" is published TODAY by @cornellupress.bsky.social! I tell the story of how queer men didn't just exist in Belfast but could be accepted by friends, family & colleagues... at least until a moral panic about homosexuality in the 1950s. 🧵

The book cover for Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation. It shows two men sat on a bench in the 1930s.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 4

I can’t claim to know much about the politics of Serbia, but it was a genuinely stirring moment!

A banner saying ‘vivat academia vivant professores’

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 4

Some moments from the speech:

As the police entered through one door, students came in through another. Thousands of them. Spontaneously. Without being summons by political parties , without prior organization, without organized bus rides. They came because they knew what was happening. They came because this is their university. They came because they are not afraid.
That is the real image of today. Not the police in the Rectorate, but the students in front of it.
To the authorities who ordered this, I say:
You can seize computers and servers. You cannot seize the truth.
You can search offices. You cannot search the conscience of the people.
You can send the police. But for every patrol you send, a thousand students will come in response.

To the citizens of Serbia, I say:
What happened today at the University of Belgrade is not an attack on me personally. This is an attack on the idea that there may be anything in Serbia that the government cannot control. The University is the last institution still standing upright. That is the reason why they came.
But the University does not stand upright just because it has walls. It stands upright because it has people. Professors who refuse to remain silent. Students who refuse to be afraid.

To the international community:
Today, the police have entered the University of Belgrade. This has been broadcast live as a political spectacle. This is not an investigation. This is a repression against the freedom of thought.
I appeal to universities across Europe, the European Commission, the European Parliament, and all who believe in academic freedom – please speak out. Today – it is Belgrade. Tomorrow – it may be any other university in Europe, which dares to stand by its students.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 4

The most striking moment was when Professor Vladan Đokić - the university rector - appeared on a balcony, clutching a megaphone while the police were apparently still occupying the building, to deliver a stirring speech about the importance of education, free speech and resisting authoritarianism.

The university rector delivers a speech from a balcony of the university of Belgrade

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 4

Thousands of students spontaneously gathered to challenge the action, which is being reported as a potential turning point in the agitation against a government widely seen as corrupt and authoritarian.

Thousands of protestors gathered outside the university of Belgrade

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Apr 4

I was on holiday in Belgrade last week and accidentally found myself at a huge student-led protest after the police - seemingly on government orders - entered the university (on flimsy pretenses) to search computers and offices. #thread

A student crowd gathered outside the university of Belgrade.

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Mar 29

If you’re Belfast-based, there are paperback copies of my book already on sale in the brilliant indie shop No Alibis!

A copy of Belfastmen: an intimate history of life before Gay liberation

Tom Hulme@tomhulme· Mar 19

look what just arrived 😍