A NEW five-part BBC radio drama based on long-forgotten diaries sheds light on the lives of gay people living in Belfast in the 1930s.
Hidden Belfast, Forbidden Love is the latest offering from the BBC's Storytellers series and was released on BBC Sounds this weekend.
It is based on the diaries of linen merchant David Strain, which were painstakingly transcribed by historian Dr Tom Hulme over a period of three years as part of the Queer NI project.
Exceptionally rare material
Strain's diaries were discovered by Dr Hulme of Queen's University in Belfast and Professor Leanne McCormick from Ulster University.
When Strain died of a stroke in 1969, his diaries were deposited in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland along with his photo albums, newspaper scrapbooks and letters.
The diaries were catalogued briefly with barely a hint of the rich and exceptionally rare material they contained and so have remained virtually unknown to the world.
Dr Hulme learnt of the diaries' existence in a book about the abdication of King Edward in 1936.
Remarkably, only the 1936 volume of Strain's multiple diaries — which he began writing in 1920 — had ever been taken out.
✨Hidden Belfast, Forbidden Love!!!✨
A BBC radio drama series based on my research of an almost entirely unknown gay diary begins airing this Saturday! Read on below to learn more about David Strain: a chronicler of everyday gay life in the 1930s...https://t.co/QD2GEMeVqa
— Tom Hulme (@TomHulme87) September 6, 2024
Publicising the new drama on Twitter/X, Dr Hulme explained that Strain's early diaries were fairly mundane before he discovered a radical political bookshop in Belfast in the early 1930s.
This, says Dr Hulme, marked a turning point in Strain's life, as he began to meet other gay men in the city.
"All too often we assume that gay life in Belfast can only have been difficult, especially in the decades before gay liberation," Dr Hulme posted on Twitter/X.
"But right here, in black and white, was a culture that thrived in the city, and often with the knowledge and even acceptance of local communities."
Remarkable insight
With support from Queen's University and Ulster University, elements of the diaries have now been dramatised for the new series.
The cast includes Northern Irish actors Desmond Eastwood and Jonathan Harden, who both starred in the hit BBC television drama, Blue Lights.
"David Strain's secret diaries, compiled between 1920 and 1943, provide the background to a journey from isolation and ignorance to a vibrant world of sexual desire, love and community," reads a press release from the BBC.
"He was fastidious about recording not just his own feelings and thoughts about homosexuality, but also the many conversations he had with other gay men.
"The survival of these diaries thus gives a remarkable window into a world that would otherwise be almost entirely invisible."
Storytellers: Hidden Belfast, Forbidden Love began airing on BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle on Saturday, while all episodes are available on BBC Sounds.
