Michael Lawrence

A book cover, showing the title 'Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation' by Tom Hulme. It is lavender coloured with yellow text, and shows two men sat on a bench, c. 1935.

*drum roll*

Here is the cover for my book, which will be published by @cornellupress.bsky.social on 15 April 2026!

I thought it would be nice to share a bit of info on who these men were and how their lives and interests inspired the design...

So happy to have our exhibition on home turf for me! @qubhistory.bsky.social

Cara-Friend were happy to join our sector partners, The Rainbow Project and HEReNI , and many other important organisations for the Cancer Champions'sLGBTQIA+ Cancer Information Café at @themacbelfast 🏳️‍🌈🎗️🏳️‍⚧️ #worldcancerday

Oh to be a taxidermy rat having a bath...

What a great way to end this semester’s @qubhistory.bsky.social seminar series tomorrow with @niamhcullen.bsky.social, chaired by @elainefarrell.bsky.social! Drinks and snacks provided as usual. For more information and to sign up to attend online see:
www.eventbrite.com/e/qub-histor...

Thank you so much, Tom! I quite literally couldn’t have done it without you!

Feeling incredibly proud of Dr @mpalawrence.bsky.social, who has passed his PhD viva with no corrections! An outstanding thesis on queer Irish culture and migration c. 1880 to 1960. Examined by Matt Cook and Fearghal McGarry!

A new history of multicultural Britain

I talked to the History Extra pod about the ideas behind MULTICULTURAL BRITAIN and how they relate to today’s grim politics

Listen on Spotify oR wHerEvEr yOu gEt yOur PoDcAsTs

open.spotify.com/episode/4Zey...

Huge Congratulations to Our Own Gemma Kelly! Cara-Friend is incredibly proud to congratulate Gemma Kelly on winning the Motivation Award at this year’s GNI Awards! Gemma’s passion, commitment, and unwavering dedication to our community are truly inspiring. Gemma, we’re all so proud of you!

NEW QUEER HISTORY ARTICLE from me & @charlielynch.bsky.social!

muse.jhu.edu/pub/15/artic...

Cara-Friend staff had a fantastic time tonight at the @rainbowrefugeesni Halloween meet up! 🎃

Looking forward to this week’s @qubhistory.bsky.social seminar this Friday from QUB’s @jamielukas.bsky.social. Do note the room change for this week only. Honoured to be asked to chair the seminar this week. More details & sign up to join online via link below:
www.eventbrite.com/e/qub-histor...

Thanks, Matt!

Nearly four years of work wrapped up with one e-mail! The thesis is officially off my desk 😌🎉

How I feel visiting my family in the rural West Midlands

Had a great week doing thesis edits in pubs and bars around London! And yes, I giggled at the last picture because I have the humour of a 12 year old.

reverse heist movie where a single snake has to chase all the priests back into ireland

A fun (yet very, very posh) read!

Had an absolutely fantastic time at Belfast Pride with the team at @cara-friend.bsky.social !

The hugely successful 'Founding Cara-Friend' exhibition will be hosted by the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland for the month of July! This exhibition features a selection of portraits and stories of some of the volunteers who worked to establish Cara-Friend in the 1970s and 1980s!

Home sought for massive knitted map of Ireland A huge wool map of Ireland, which took four years of knitting and crocheting to complete, is in search of a new home to go on public display.

A long time ago we used to have a lecture room with maps of Ireland on the wall, this would have been a great addition!
Well done to all involved and hope your map finds a good home: www.rte.ie/news/ireland...
PS: We would also have gladly helped 'empty' the Smarties tubes used for Giant's Causeway

A reminder that an annual salary on minimum wage is now £25,396.80

Intention to submit posted. Caffeine guzzled. Edits in progress.

Been working with these folks for a while now (although officially for the last few weeks) and it's a great environment!

This was a black and white slide but apparently my ambient homosexuality was enough to make the projector gay.

Had a great time presenting in the @ssnci.bsky.social conference! Aberdeen, as a city, is often taken for granite in my opinion.

Someone needs to stop me sending this to my friends every time I do something mischievous

Urnings, in Ireland and Illinois "It is only by searching far and wide, and stitching many queer fragments back together, that we can create new and often hopeful tapestries of local queer life."

“It is only by searching far and wide, and stitching many queer fragments back together, that we can create new and often hopeful tapestries of local queer life.”

Next up in our #Pride month series @tomhulme.bsky.social discusses unexpected archival paths for investigating queer history.

🏳️‍⚧️ TRANS ARCHIVES PSA 📣

Are you a historian of Christine Jorgensen? Did you know that she donated SIXTY boxes of personal records to the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen??

(I just learned this last week & suspect it is not well known. pls share! can also connect you with local Danish historians)

Today at 4pm