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My @UKRI_News project, #ActsofUnion, explores mixed marriage & love 'across the divide' in Ireland. Starting tomorrow, every day in February (
month), I'll tweet about 'transgressive' lovers. Some 
, some forbidden, some from antagonistic communities... #UKRIFLF #IrishStudies
...many of these relationships might have been problematically imagined or depicted; many of these lovers might have met with significant hostility from audiences or communities. Love isn’t always rosy but it is always political 
#ActsofUnion
#ActsofUnion
1/Starting w. (arguably) the most important #MixedMarriage in history, Strongbow & Aoife (1170): the focus of Daniel Maclise's majestic painting (1854), displayed in @NGIreland. @BookerSparky (QUB) has done brilliant work on intermarriage in later medieval Ireland #ActsofUnion
history, Strongbow & Aoife (1170): the focus of Daniel Maclise's majestic painting (1854), displayed in @NGIreland. @BookerSparky (QUB) has done brilliant work on intermarriage in later medieval Ireland #ActsofUnion
2/ Capt. Kirk & Lt. Uhura's #StarTrek kiss was a pioneering moment of intimacy between a WoC & a white man on 
TV. 
@NASA's Dr. Aprille Ericsson & actor Nichelle Nichols discuss importance of TV representation for African American women #ActsofUnion
TV. @NASA's Dr. Aprille Ericsson & actor Nichelle Nichols discuss importance of TV representation for African American women #ActsofUnion
3/Naomi Alderman’s 
'Disobedience' (2006) explores the love between Esti, a devout Haredi woman, & Ronit, who left the community years before. Sebastián Lelio dir. a film version; @TobyLichtig gave this nuanced & sensitive review for @TheTLS https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/disobedience-sebastian-lelios-new-film/ #ActsofUnion
'Disobedience' (2006) explores the love between Esti, a devout Haredi woman, & Ronit, who left the community years before. Sebastián Lelio dir. a film version; @TobyLichtig gave this nuanced & sensitive review for @TheTLS https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/disobedience-sebastian-lelios-new-film/ #ActsofUnion
4/ Joan Lingard’s #AcrosstheBarricades series about the romance between Belfast teenagers, Catholic Kevin & Protestant Sadie, enthralled readers around the 
See my @BBCnireland programme https://tinyurl.com/y4h9kxdh &
@RTEBrainstorm article https://tinyurl.com/y583mqs8 #ActsofUnion
See my @BBCnireland programme https://tinyurl.com/y4h9kxdh & @RTEBrainstorm article https://tinyurl.com/y583mqs8 #ActsofUnion
5/ Vikram Seth's epic novel #ASuitableBoy (1993) explores the love between Hindu Lata & Muslim Kabir in the aftermath of the partition of the Indian subcontinent & independence from Britain. @MiraPagliNair directed it for
@BBCOne in 2020: #ActsofUnion
@BBCOne in 2020: #ActsofUnion
6/ Neil Jordan's 'The Crying Game' (1992) features a putatively transgressive romance, on various levels, & an infamous twist. Incendiary at the time; I don't think it's aged well? Critics have a lot to say on the film - @bellhooks is great https://www.routledge.com/Outlaw-Culture-Resisting-Representations/hooks/p/book/9780415389587
#ActsofUnion
#ActsofUnion
7/Jane Austen is synonymous with romance, esp. the marriage plot 
. Many of her lovers come from across the wealth/class divide, like 'Mansfield Park's' Fanny Price. My favourite Austen scholar, @comyn_scomyn has loads to say on Austen & 
#ActsofUnion
. Many of her lovers come from across the wealth/class divide, like 'Mansfield Park's' Fanny Price. My favourite Austen scholar, @comyn_scomyn has loads to say on Austen & #ActsofUnion
8/ @beingvarious's powerful novel of intergenerational trauma, 'Where They Were Missed', is narrated by Saoirse, daughter of a Belfast RUC man & a Donegal woman. @DrMagennis is 
on Caldwell: here she writes on Caldwell's work, pleasure & joy https://journals.openedition.org/etudesirlandaises/5183 #ActsofUnion
on Caldwell: here she writes on Caldwell's work, pleasure & joy https://journals.openedition.org/etudesirlandaises/5183 #ActsofUnion
9/Frederic William Burton's painting, 'Meeting on the Turret Stairs' (1864), is in @NGIreland collections. Based on a Danish myth, it depicts the final moment between Hildebrand & Hellelil, as Hildebrand descends to his death for the crime of being Hellelil's lover #ActsofUnion
10/ Malorie Blackman's YA series, #NoughtsandCrosses, imagines an alternative history of colonialism & segregation. Recently dramatised by @BBCOne, @MsEllenEJones ( @guardianfilm) argues its depiction of 'structural racism is revolutionary' https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/mar/05/noughts-crosses-review-a-stormzy-favourite-is-full-of-wake-up-calls #ActsofUnion
11/Brian Friel's #Translations (1980): Set in Donegal in 1833, an English soldier, Yolland, falls for Máire, an Irish woman. The first production from the Field Day Theatre company production, founded by Friel & Stephen Rea, it explores language, culture, history... #ActsofUnion
12/ Happy Chinese New Year! In the 
legend, the 'Butterfly lovers' Liang Shanbo & Zhu Yingtai meet as teens while Zhu Yingtai is disguised as a boy. They are not allowed to marry, so tragedy & some impressive metamorphosis ensues...
#ActsofUnion #YearOfTheOx 
legend, the 'Butterfly lovers' Liang Shanbo & Zhu Yingtai meet as teens while Zhu Yingtai is disguised as a boy. They are not allowed to marry, so tragedy & some impressive metamorphosis ensues... #ActsofUnion #YearOfTheOx
