What's Gay About the Irish?

Before you get all over my case, it's OK, I'm Irish. And pretty damn gay. Here is a short but pungent list of gay Irish stuff.

1. Oscar Wilde. Yup, you think he came by all that wit and facility with words on his own? No! It was heredity!

2. Green Carnations. The helpful folks at Oscar Wilde Tours tell us this: "In 1892, Wilde had one of the actors in Lady Windermere's Fan wear a green carnation on opening night, and told a dozen of his young followers to wear them too. Soon the carnation became an emblem of Wilde and his group." In fact, if you ask us, the whole color green is a little gay.

3. Panti Bliss. Miss Bliss is the ferocious Irish drag queen (nee Rory O'Neill) who is the proprietess of Panti Bar in Dublin. This past year, however, Panti's face has been beamed and streamed across the globe as she's taken the helm of Ireland's fight for marriage equality. Read a great profile on Out.com.

 

5. David Norris. The outspoken senator was quite nearly elected president, which is so Irish not because he's a gay activist and senator, but most importantly because Norris is a poetry scholar by trade. He's got a thing for James Joyce.

 

6. Actor Colin Farrell (right) and his brother Eamonn. Ireland is set to vote on marriage equality in May and Colin wants you to know his brother actually had to leave the country to get married. That's "INSANE," wrote Colin in ALL CAPS in an op-ed last year. 

7. Irish Spring Commercials. All those sweaty Irish guys drinking and wrestling and hitting the showers. They even have body wash now.

Irish Spring 1977 TV ad with Martin Kove

1978 Irish Spring Soap Commercial

Irish Spring 1979 TV commercial

Irish Spring Commercial (undated)

Irish Spring Soap Commercial (1980) It's about the turtleneck.

Irish Spring body wash. The body wash obviously had a depilatory effect.