Tom Hulme
@tomhulme.bsky.social
Reader in History (Queen's University, Belfast).
"Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation" (coming Apr 2026, Cornell University Press).
PI of AHRC-funded “Queer Northern Ireland: Sexuality before Liberation”.
Sec. of UCU branch.
🏳️🌈
"Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation" (coming Apr 2026, Cornell University Press).
PI of AHRC-funded “Queer Northern Ireland: Sexuality before Liberation”.
Sec. of UCU branch.
🏳️🌈
the only legitimate pre-December Christmas activity is ‘stir up Sunday’, and I cannot be convinced otherwise
November 23, 2025 at 8:45 PM
the only legitimate pre-December Christmas activity is ‘stir up Sunday’, and I cannot be convinced otherwise
Feeling very pleased with mine baked today, but going to have to ‘feed’ more regularly if you’ve been going two weeks already!
November 23, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Feeling very pleased with mine baked today, but going to have to ‘feed’ more regularly if you’ve been going two weeks already!
fuck, music reviews used to be brutal
October 26, 2025 at 9:39 PM
fuck, music reviews used to be brutal
Monday morning view… @tricksterprince.bsky.social
October 20, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Monday morning view… @tricksterprince.bsky.social
...including Thomas Gibney, a young working-class man from the docks who got caught up in the 'Belfast Scandal' (1890), when a male brothel was discovered in the city... to Howard Aicken (pictured), a camp & enthusiastic cruiser who was notorious on the queer scene even before his 18th birthday!
October 13, 2025 at 8:55 AM
...including Thomas Gibney, a young working-class man from the docks who got caught up in the 'Belfast Scandal' (1890), when a male brothel was discovered in the city... to Howard Aicken (pictured), a camp & enthusiastic cruiser who was notorious on the queer scene even before his 18th birthday!
…and a few more from Birmingham (Hockley) earlier this year!
September 28, 2025 at 10:06 AM
…and a few more from Birmingham (Hockley) earlier this year!
A few shots from Coventry a couple of years ago…
September 28, 2025 at 10:05 AM
A few shots from Coventry a couple of years ago…
Bizarre, xenophobic, fear-mongering post from Michael Deane… head of a small empire of restaurants that Belfast folk might wish to avoid from now on
September 11, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Bizarre, xenophobic, fear-mongering post from Michael Deane… head of a small empire of restaurants that Belfast folk might wish to avoid from now on
my favourite part of Belfast Pride this year was the history-teaching float 😍🤓
July 26, 2025 at 5:03 PM
my favourite part of Belfast Pride this year was the history-teaching float 😍🤓
“would you like the soup or the terrine?”
July 23, 2025 at 3:06 PM
“would you like the soup or the terrine?”
about 70 folks - and not a single protestor! - came to my Belfast Pride lecture at the Linen Hall Library. I began with Rihanna in a Co. Down field and wore my “works as a waiter on a cruise ship” outfit
July 23, 2025 at 3:04 PM
about 70 folks - and not a single protestor! - came to my Belfast Pride lecture at the Linen Hall Library. I began with Rihanna in a Co. Down field and wore my “works as a waiter on a cruise ship” outfit
copy-edits for “Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation” have landed…
July 15, 2025 at 8:55 AM
copy-edits for “Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation” have landed…
the good news is there’s a beautiful and pretty quiet beach about 20 mins away, where I can relax with @aearls.bsky.social brilliant new book about queer men in mid 20th century Dublin!
July 12, 2025 at 1:26 PM
the good news is there’s a beautiful and pretty quiet beach about 20 mins away, where I can relax with @aearls.bsky.social brilliant new book about queer men in mid 20th century Dublin!
the first complaint. The exhibition was literally a hut with no obviously sexual representations; just touching diary entries about love and romance (even those could only be heard through a phone installation). These people find any mention of LGBT lives intolerable, and are best ignored/ridiculed.
July 9, 2025 at 7:02 AM
the first complaint. The exhibition was literally a hut with no obviously sexual representations; just touching diary entries about love and romance (even those could only be heard through a phone installation). These people find any mention of LGBT lives intolerable, and are best ignored/ridiculed.
I’m afraid I have bad news for the author about the current state of UK Higher Education.
June 28, 2025 at 7:33 AM
I’m afraid I have bad news for the author about the current state of UK Higher Education.
after a MANIC semester of teaching, monograph revisions, and Union secretary work, I’m back on a more leisurely writing horse (🤷🏼♂️), and just finished drafting a chapter for our Co-authored “queer Northern Ireland” book. It begins with this tasty vignette from the glens of Antrim in the 1950s…
June 24, 2025 at 5:43 PM
after a MANIC semester of teaching, monograph revisions, and Union secretary work, I’m back on a more leisurely writing horse (🤷🏼♂️), and just finished drafting a chapter for our Co-authored “queer Northern Ireland” book. It begins with this tasty vignette from the glens of Antrim in the 1950s…
An unexpected benefit of examining an art history PhD: the gift of a lovely watercolour. Congratulations to Patrick Hickey for his terrific practice-based thesis on queering the art of Irish painter Gerard Dillon!
June 11, 2025 at 8:51 AM
An unexpected benefit of examining an art history PhD: the gift of a lovely watercolour. Congratulations to Patrick Hickey for his terrific practice-based thesis on queering the art of Irish painter Gerard Dillon!
This is going to be such an important book by @aearls.bsky.social - the first to grapple with the everyday lives of queer men in Ireland before the gay rights movement! Out 20th June but available for pre-order at a very reasonable price: tupress.temple.edu/books/love-i...
June 11, 2025 at 8:17 AM
This is going to be such an important book by @aearls.bsky.social - the first to grapple with the everyday lives of queer men in Ireland before the gay rights movement! Out 20th June but available for pre-order at a very reasonable price: tupress.temple.edu/books/love-i...
A proper teaching cover post in modern US history - no 9 months or 0.8 PT nonsense, one year and FT - based in Belfast. Genuinely lovely & harmonious School, and (relatively) stable institution.
hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...
hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...
June 2, 2025 at 4:57 PM
A proper teaching cover post in modern US history - no 9 months or 0.8 PT nonsense, one year and FT - based in Belfast. Genuinely lovely & harmonious School, and (relatively) stable institution.
hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...
hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...
Interesting. This bit… I also think the individualism of academic study does not easily translate to the job market; gay men thrive at uni because they’re only competing with themselves & it’s relatively meritocratic, but job market is again like school, with connections, performance, prejudice…
April 22, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Interesting. This bit… I also think the individualism of academic study does not easily translate to the job market; gay men thrive at uni because they’re only competing with themselves & it’s relatively meritocratic, but job market is again like school, with connections, performance, prejudice…
had to get this tee shirt when I came across it today - “fruit merchant” was the gay insult of choice in Belfast in the 1930s 😅
April 12, 2025 at 5:24 PM
had to get this tee shirt when I came across it today - “fruit merchant” was the gay insult of choice in Belfast in the 1930s 😅