Scandal: How Homosexuality Became a Crime

by David Boyle

The strange story of how homosexuality came to be criminalised in 1885, a story that takes us from the notorious Dublin Scandal to the unique moment of fear - now largely forgotten - after Oscar Wilde's arrest ten years later.

The events involved the author's ancestor, who he traces from prominence in Dublin to a secret life in Camberwell in London in the 1890s, and explains how the events of those years led to the persecution of tens of thousands over the next eight decades.

This book looks at the strange story behind that decision, and the furore that tore apart Irish society in 1884, and how the roots of the whole business lie in the furious world of Irish politics after the Phoenix Park murders. The author's ancestor escaped from Dublin in disguise in 1884. But even in London, he wasn’t safe, escaping a second time ten years later in a moment of fear that was unprecedented in modern British history, that swept though the gay community.

This is a ground-breaking book, part history part detective story, that looks back at the moment society turned on homosexuality with such venom, and why it happened.

This is a new edition to this successful book, with new material and a new epilogue...

Genres: History, LGBT

132 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 14, 2015

About the author

David Courtney Boyle was a British author and journalist who wrote mainly about history and new ideas in economics, money, business, and culture. He lived in Steyning in West Sussex.
He conducted an independent review for the Treasury and the Cabinet Office on public demand for choice in public services which reported in 2013. Boyle was a co-founder and policy director of Radix, which he characterized in 2017 as a radical centrist think tank. He was also co-director of the mutual think tank New Weather Institute.

Reviews

[Iain King · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an historical detective story of the best sort. 'Scandal' starts in 1895, describing the mood and events of London society, and why certain individuals fled to Paris. It then takes in a century of developments, explaining why and how homophobia was entrenched into English law, unearthing several curious events in the process. Some of the anecdotes are both wonderful and remarkable, such as how the manager of a Dublin bank was siphoning off funds in the 1880s until he was chased out by police, and how the author's own great-great grandfather escaped a cholera epidemic in Spain (also in the 1880s).

What really strikes a reader is the deep and thoughtful research which has gone into this book. The author has obviously spent a huge amount of work putting this together, selecting the best material, and presenting it in an intriguing format. The result is very impressive. It's very readable, fascinating and well informed real life story - historical detective work at its best.

With LGBT rights now taken for granted thoughout most of Europe and America, this book offers a valuable perspective on a less enlightened time, not so long ago.

[Tanwen Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea behind this book - the story of the UK laws against homosexual behaviour told using the example of the authors own ancestor - was a good one, but it didn't quite work. The historic information regarding the laws and scandals was well put forward, and clearly written, but historical figures will always feel quite distant so I liked the fact that there was a 'regular person' affected by the laws included in the narrative. The problem was it was presented from a very personal view point by the author, who constantly talked about 'family legend' and it came across more self-indulgent than as the emotional counterpoint I think was intended.

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about a subject I knew very little about - the addition of a clause to the Act of 1885 which increased the age of consent for sex to 16 to protect children. This was the Labouchere Amendment which criminalised homosexuality in the UK and was heavily influenced by the so-called Dublin Scandals of 1884. The book also covers the scare of 1895 after the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde and the exodus to parts of Europe of many upper class gay men. Threading through this book is a biographical element of the author’s ancestor Richard Boyle who left Dublin in 1884 and his partner Thomas Durman, both now buried in Camberwell Cemetery.

[Stuart Curry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read

This was far more interesting than I expected. I knew nothing of these events in Dublin, so a fascinating insight into the late Victorian attitude s towards homosexuality.
I only have one criticism, it needed to be proof read more carefully before publishing. It starts to become annoying after a while.

[Mr. A Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this short read, which draws together family history (the ancestor no one mentioned!) and the evolution of the moral panic which resulted in the Labouchère Amendment of dreadful memory, almost by oversight, and how to some extent good intentions ended with bad laws.

[Jonathan Fryer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short but intriguing account of the author's attempts to discover why his great-great-grandfather Richard Boyle left his family and fled from Dublin for the Continent in the 1880s and what happened to him then. The circumstantial evidence suggests that he was in danger of being caught up in a homosexual scandal that convulsed the Irish city and was a precursor to the Wilde affair a decade later. Did Richard subsequently find domestic bliss with a younger working man in Camberwell? One could never know for sure, but the two are buried together (like Wilde and Robbie Ross). Though some of the coverage of the Wilde tragedy is a bit sketchy this book is an interesting reflection on the scandal of a love that dared not speak its name and how homosexuality became a crime in the United Kingdom.

[Kathleen Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know a fair amount at the Cleveland Street Scandal and I found this short account of the tragedy in Mr Boyle's family in Ireland pertinent to that. Very interesting and a well told account especially how it informs of the personal tragedies that befell some of those whispered about and accused.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-researched and well-written book that is not only informative about a dark period of Britain's history, but it is also shocking and heartbreaking.

[Jackie Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scandal, by David Boyle, looks back at the time when Victorian society decided that homosexual behaviour should be criminalised and investigates why. The research was inspired by the author’s great-great-grandfather, a respected banker and Justice of the Peace living with his wife and children in Dublin, who fled beyond British jurisdiction in 1884 when several of his known associates where put on trial in what became known as the Dublin Scandals. At that time sodomy was a crime but proving such a private act had occured was difficult. The Dublin Scandals were significant because they reported the facts of homosexual behaviour in newspapers and thereby whipped up public indignation.

The time frame was also a factor. Feminists were campaigning against child abuse, citing examples of pre-teen girls being sold by their poverty stricken families to brothels. Sexual behaviour was being discussed as never before and a prurient readership was agog. The perceived decadence of the arts, personified by those who circled Oscar Wilde, engendered moral outrage in their detractors. With public feeling behind the influentials who wished to drag down a bohemian elite, the stage was set to amend the law in regard to sexual behaviour, and to make gay sex a crime.

The details of the history are fascinating. These are wrapped around the author’s analysis of the life of his great-great-grandfather, Richard Boyle. Within the Boyle family archives, Richard had been erased and the author did not know why. What emerged when he went looking were links to the Dublin gay scene and a subsequent warrant issued for Richard’s arrest.

The known facts of Richard’s life are presented with gaps filled in by suppositions based on his contemporaries and their reported behaviours. I found some of these sections a touch too whimsical. Nevertheless, what emerges is an idea of the impact the change in the law had at the time.

“Society in the 1890s was caught in the tension between the drive, not perhaps so much for purity, but for the possibility of innocence – and the drive for some kind of self-determination, self-definition. We are too: they are the two sides of any kind of gender or sexual politics – part demanding to take part, part demanding the right to refuse. These are not contradictory causes, but they tend to attract different kinds of people to the campaign.”

The desire to protect children from adult sexual proclivities was taken advantage of by those who hated homosexuals. Examples are cited of the unintended consequences, personal and political.

The writing style is patchy in places as it jumps between the investigative reporting and family history. This is still though an interesting read.

[Felicity Gorham · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Interesting Look At History

With homosexuality being more accepted today (2018) than it ever was in the 20th century, I find reading about history's treatment of this subject. My hope for the future is this lifestyle becomes legal in more places around the globe.