Dublin by Lamplight

Away From Home: Irish Living in England

The social unrest and unstable economy of early twentieth century Ireland resulted in a rising trend among young people to look for work in England. Initially, this demographic was largely represented by young, unmarried men (O Tuathaigh, 152). Many of the men leaving Ireland were seeking to establish themselves in jobs that were growing due to the growth of factory jobs due to the Industrial Revolution. By 1861, one quarter of those living in the mainly industrial city of Yorksire were Irish Born. (Ibid, 153) However, in the early 1900s there was a shift, and the majority of the immigrants became women, mainly seeking work in laundry, textile factories or as domestics (Ibid, 155) . When Maggie finds herself on the boat , alone and headed to England, she would not be the only woman in her position. Maggie’s past work as a maid would most likely dictate her economic future in England. Judging from the examples of the general immigration routes and areas, it is not unlikely that she would arrive in a largely industrial city such as Liverpool or Yorksire to begin her life within England.

However, the anti-Irish sentiment found in England would represent a major stumbling block for her and her child.

These immigrants were greatly marginalized in British society, and there was a strong anti-Irish sentiment in popular culture. This can partially be blamed on the rise of interest in the scientific community, which claimed that the Irish were less evolved, making them more prone to violence and crime (Wohl). This believed lack of evolution in the Irish lead some scientist to conclude the Irish being physically very different than the Anglo-Saxon. Although these theories were never greatly accepted in the scientific realm, the Irish as a privative, apelike figure was a greatly accepted image in popular press. (Ibid) If not being seen as primitive and prone to less evolved behaviours. Another common image associated with the Irish was a sort of Frankenstein figure, usually shown to be encroaching on a British citizen.

Irish people could also be seen as highly emotional people, poetic and imaginative, however these were not positive qualities in Victorian Britain, instead was perceived as a race prone to childish whims. “Even seemingly complimentary generalizations about the Irish national character could, in the Victorian context, be damaging…” (Ibid) There was a common belief as well that the Irish were “rather amusing and charming…” (MacBride, 259) This notion is also commonly linked with seeing the Irish as unreasonable, childish and entertaining mainly due to the British sense of superiority over the Irish. (Ibid, 260)Anti-Irish sentiment was complicated by the “self-segregation” of these immigrants (O Tuathaigh, 159). The clannish attitudes, resulted in the immigrants being more concentrated in specific areas, which lead to some of the popular attitudes against them. Political, religious and historical tension also caused British popular thought to see the Irish as inferior and as a problem making integration a vast challenge (Ibid, p. 160) A remarkably low literacy rate among the Irish as compared to their British social equals did little to improve this notion of Irish inferiority.-Anna Diemert

Other Visualizations of the British Stereotype of the Irish, from Punch

– Caitlin Carr

Images: See Works Cited page.

Irish Citizens in the British Army and Police

No matter which side of the argument one is examining, the issue of Irish citizens serving in the British military raises several social and political questions. Military service was viewed in various ways. Naturally, it was a way out of some economic distress, as it would provide food, shelter and wages (Karsten, 47). Depending on the political climate, military service could be a positive or negative thing.

The Boer War provided a vehicle for those Irish soldiers wishing to show their loyalty. It was a controversial war, and was greatly protested in Ireland by the Nationalists, sparking riot. The later WWI would also provide a chance for Irish soldiers to volunteer before the eventual introduction of conscription.

For Unionists, military service could provide an example of loyalty to the British crown, which could lead to job placements when one was through with the army. Commonplace jobs that former soldiers could stand to be appointed to were areas that required proven loyalty. Between 1904-06, there were 84 appointments of veterans to the Dublin Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary (Ibid, 52) There were also services in place designed to assist veterans find employment in areas such as the railways and postal service. By 1904, 51% of those employed in areas such as policing were former soldiers. (Ibid, 52)

Many saw these appointments as entirely serving a British imperialistic agenda. With the Dublin Metropolitan Police so strongly modeled after the London Metropolitan Police that the two organizations wore identical uniforms, (Ibid, 60). The DMP would later have it’s ties to the crown damaged, for their failing to side with Britain during the 1919-21 War of Independence. The Royal Irish Constabulary also proved valuable to the Unionist cause, after successfully ending uprisings and riots (Feeney, 76)

-Anna Diemert

King Edward’s 1904 Visit: A Controversial History

A published article in the New York Times, 1904 celebtrates the ‘happy political effect’ of King Edward’s visit to Ireland regarding the reconciliation of a number of unsettled Irish issues with its British Monarch. Many problems which affected the characters in Michael West’s “Dublin by Lamplight” which are touched upon by the Times article, apprear to have been cleared up, leaving no questions about the positive effect of this head of state visit. Interestingly enough many of the problems felt by the Irish, in a thorough study of the history of purposes for Head of State visits from the British Monarch, vary greatly from those articulated in West’s account of the 1904 visit. Discrepancies between the two sources may demonstrate the oppression of the working class Irish, in that Michael West reveals the true struggles of the artists and feminists of the time, whereas international sources (sich as the NY Times) smooth over these struggles in order to promote the ideal of successful colonization and strong leadership from the world’s most powerful British nation? The New York Times paints a picture of great cooperation on King Edward’s part in sympathizing and understanding issues of fundamental rights for the Irish working class -who were struggling wtih agricultureal, religious, and access to food issues. For example, agricultural problems such as the struggle of the Irish farmers who did not own the land they sowed upon, appeared to have been solved and King Edward granted ownership of the land to the Irish farmers. Amongst other issues, the Times article suggests that the agricultural struggles of the farmers were solved with, what appears to be the simple passing of a law, Kingg Edward aparenltly solves this problem on his visit in 1904. However other historical studies demonstrate that agricultural servanthood lasted in Ireland up until about 1940 (Breen 87). There was a large issue at this time regarding the selling of young Irish boys and girls of a low status to large farms where a family could not process the land with their own labor and resources. The work done by the servants was extensive and they were not treated fairly. This strongly contradicts much historical research that point to a relatively unstratified agricultural society depicting rural life as being made up in small family farms in relatively classless communities. In fact, Servanthood occured in young boys and girls under the age of fourteen, after finishing school and before emigrating or marrying. Evidence shows that servants were often treated badly; frequently poorly paid, poorly fed, and badly housed (Breen 92). This inconsistent depiction of historical events, to the way the Times depicted the British Monarch acting consistently with the needs of the Irish people, calls into question various reports of Irish British relations, and more specifically, the supposed sucessful effect of Head of State visits. Michael West’s account of the 1904, according to this perspective, was likely representative of a large number of Irish citizens who were not represented or protected by the British Monach, and furthermore the social uproar depicted in Dublin by Lamplight would be warranted. Therefore this calls into question the other fundamental Irish struggles addressed in the New York Times article and aparently solved by King Edward in 1904. For example, the article outlines that the visit facilitated the passing of the Maynoot Grant meaning that the Irish were finally able to be educated with Catholic values, which had previously been suppressed by British controlled protestant insitutions. A closer study of the reality of these social issues may bring light to Michael West’s depiction of the Irish rebellion against the King during his visit regarding issues such as the Irish soldier’s necessary participation in the African Boer war, woman’s rights, and the suppression of artistic theatrical expression that may have conflicted with the interest of the British Monarch. - Kate Ciborowski

Maud Gonne’s Political Attitude Towards England and Queen Victoria

In 1938, Maud Gonne, an English born turned Irish patriot, published her autobiography entitled A Servant of the Queen, however, the queen to which she is referring is not Victoria, but Cathleen ni Houlihan. Regardless of the fact that Queen Victoria had been dead nearly four decades when the work was published, it still aimed to disclose the immense rivalry between Queen Victoria and Gonne.During the last few years of Victoria’s reign, Gonne made an unbelievable effort to denounce British Imperialism and promote Irish nationalism. She was praised by her contemporaries, and was at times said to be more patriotic about Ireland than an actual Irish born. Her initiatives were greatly influenced by the character of Cathleen ni Houlihan, who Gonne portrayed on stage. She used the power that this character gave her to further spread her ideas and values about Irishness to those who would listen. She badmouthed her country of birth, stating that Ireland was her homeland. “Seeking to sever her ties dramatically with England in order to lay claim publicly to legitimate Irishness, Gonne conceptualized her revision of Mother Ireland in relation and in opposition to Queen Victoria’s own embodiment of maternal sovereignty (Bobotis, 64).”One of Gonne’s major initiatives was to depict Victoria as a symbol of mismanaged British rule in Ireland, an initiative that would greatly show Irelands need for independance. Similar to the character of Eva in Dublin by Lamplight, Maud Gonne demonstrated her own form of protest during Victoria’s visit to Ireland in 1900. This visit provided Gonne “with two opportunities to engage the Queen in representational battle, first through her composition of the political essay ‘The Famine Queen,’ and second, in a public demonstration she superintended known as the Patriotic Children’s Treat (Bobotis 65).Gonne’s devotion to Ireland at the turn of the century is a significant aspect of Irish-British relations. The fact that and English born had denounced her birth country and was now fighting for the independence of a nation of whom she was not born was encouraging and inspiring for those fighting for that independence. – Evangelia Kambites

Ireland’s Gendered Filial Relation to England

In nineteenth century journalism and political discourse, Celtic culture and sensibility was frequently linked to the feminine, resulting in the female allegorized Ireland. This characterization was adopted by both the Irish and the English, and was one in which family and gender relationships were metaphors for political and economic relationships to the male allegorized England (Innes 10).

In England, the allegory of female Ireland worked to justify England’s patriarchal rule over Ireland. By portraying Ireland as the helpless and passive Hibernia with “no capacity for self-government” (Innes 9), such allegories made it necessary for the male-gendered England to take Ireland under its protection, much like a father or a husband. Unlike allegoric depictions of other English colonies (such as India), which highlighted exotic differences, Hibernia’s image stressed racial similarities, which indicated her domestic and filial relationship to England (Innes 14). These views were vividly displayed in political cartoons and journals, such as Punch, and most often portrayed Ireland as Hibernia, who embodied the “extreme angelic femininity dreamed of by Victorian Englishmen – beautiful, graceful, spiritualized and passive” (Innes 14).

However, there was a disparity between representations of the nation in abstract and the individual Irish people. Hibernians stood in exact opposition to Hibernia; they were “bestial, dirty, loutishly masculine, aggressive and ugly: the extreme of masculine bestiality feared by Victorian Englishmen” (Innes 14). This imagery enhanced British control by implying that it was the Irish from whom Ireland needed to be rescued – Hibernia’s salvation seemed to lie in “her rescue and ‘marriage’ to her English father/husband, whose benevolent and patriarchal government will allow her to fulfill her essential self and remain feminine and Celtic” (Innes 15).

While Irish nationalists also portrayed Ireland as a lady in distress, the allegory differed in that the enemy was England, and the saviours were the Irish people. The English image of a happy marriage between the two countries was instead portrayed as a “sexual debasement, violation and rape” of Ireland (Innes 20). In contrast to the angelic Hibernia, Irish portrayals of Ireland often came in the form of Erin, or Mother Ireland, who was “dark-haired (while Hibernia was often fair), stately and slightly more mature than the limper, girlish Hibernia” (Innes 17). She often wore robes embroidered with shamrocks and appeared with an Irish wolfhound in the foreground (Innes 17). Symbolizing all that was feminine, courageous, and chaste about Irish womanhood, Erin was not merely the helpless victim that England’s Hibernia was. Frequently portrayed with her children about her, Erin’s aids were her Irish sons (Innes 16).
- Laura Langlois

How Irish-British Relationships Affected Monarchical Visits

Tensions had been high between England and Ireland ever since 1801, when the Act of Union dissolved Ireland’s parliament and officially merged England and Ireland. Adding to the tensions were the religious superiority the English Protestants forced upon the Irish Catholics, with severe Penal Laws placed on Catholics banning them from public service and owning a firearm, among others. Ireland also had a reputation among the English as being backward people, rooted in superstition and folklore, and not believing in progress and modernization. Irish-speaking parts of Ireland, as well as the West of Ireland, were thought to be particularly backward and superstitious. The Irish Famine, which lasted from 1845-49, furthered the stereotype of the Irishman being poor and starved, living in his falling-apart hut and eating whatever he could scrape together. This image of the sympathetic Irishman was assisted when Queen Victoria personally donated £5000 to the relief efforts. Despite this effort, the Irish resented the English and blamed them for not doing enough to help end the Famine.As a result of the Famine, Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, cancelled a scheduled trip to Ireland in 1846. Another visit was discussed in 1847, with ideas of making it impromptu, to cut down on costs to Ireland. When another visit was decided on in 1849, the queen and prince decided not to make it an official state visit, but to promote it as a yachting trip, in order to save money.It was difficult for Victoria to patch relations with Ireland after the Famine, and it led to the Dublin Corporation, the municipal government of Dublin, to not recognize the Prince of Wales’ marriage and the birth of his son. This offended Victoria personally, and it was thought she would not visit again. She did, however, visit Ireland again in 1900, to help garner support for the Boer War and to recognize those already serving. Victoria had a fondness for Ireland, though Murphy commented that the she found Ireland to be a “different world” during her 1849 visit, with poverty and ragged clothing everywhere (Murphy, 88). During the Boer war, she sent gifts and toys to the children of Irish soldiers at Christmas, and sent boxes of chocolate to the soldiers, remarking the “Men are only boys grown tall”. (The Baldwin Project, 344). As a result, many Irish felt a fondness for the Queen, and this fondness appeared to carry through to most rulers who came to visit. However, there were many Irish who did not share this fondness, and these were by and large nationalists, who opposed on principle England’s rule over Ireland, and the ties still held between the two countries. It is these anti-royalty groups we see in Dublin By Lamplight, at the protest Eva and Martyn go to, which lands Eva in jail.
-Laura Moniz

Preparations Made for Royal Visits

Preparations Made for Royal Visits Royal visits were always painstakingly choreographed, from the itinerary of the visiting monarch, to who was invited to which activities, to who was invited to be in the parade. James Murphy even makes mention of one part of one of Queen Victoria’s visit when “The only unsuccessful part of the day was the failure of the pack of hounds belonging to Maurice James O’Connell, son of James O’Connell to drive a stag along the shore as the royal boats passed along” (Murphy, 131). The days were so meticulously planned; they even had the exact schedule of when a stag was supposed to be chased for the entertainment of the Royals as they passed in their yacht. The parades down the main streets were also large spectacles, involving the military and police dressed in their finest, thousands of people, and plenty of security.Police presence was also heightened whenever a monarch came to visit, in an attempt to ward off the presence of any anti-English protests, and to prevent any attacks on the Queen. The two policemen who rough up the Hayes brothers in Dublin by Lamplight are examples of this heightened security, as they tell Willy Hayes that his brother could hang for attempting to kill the King through an explosion (West, 64). A concern amongst anti-Imperialist nationalists was the amount of funds being allocated to the royal visits while many in Ireland, including the fictional Frank and Willy Hayes in Dublin, continued to starve.

 - Newspaper image of Queen Victoria visiting Ireland

-Laura Moniz

I will call you Paddy – How the Irish were played on the English Stage

Poor Irish-English relations in the late 19th century and the early 20th century were not just limited to the political arena they was also present in the literature and theatre of time. Ireland began producing playwrights that would subvert the image of the “Stage Irishman” that had been seen on British Stages for centuries.The Irish began to emerge as a character type in English drama in the Elizabethan era when The Reformation was imposed on Ireland inciting religious conflict. The “Stage Irishman” started out as a rough and but charming peasant in coarse clothing. He was a Catholic and if he was not characterised as a beggar or chimney sweep he was a loyal soldier or footman to his English lord. The Irish character spoke in a broad brogue and filled his speech with clichés and blunders and he either called Teague or Paddy. This characterisation evolved over the next few centuries and by the end of the 19th century the type had become a loyal serving man who had been brought home to England with his master or he was a tradesman. With this evolution came new traits and the Stage Irishman became superstitious and prone to telling tales. He was also charming and amorous, often getting into comical situations with women. It is in the later half of the century that the Stage Irishman got a female counterpart. She is also characterised as a fearless and devoted serving women who had often raised the household children and protected them as if they were her own. The superstitious tendencies and connection to folklore are emphasised in this female characterisation and she too comes with a name – a constant Colleen.Many of these characterisations begin to shift again during the Irish Literary Revival when playwrights like Roy O’More, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and Dion Boucicault begin to write plays. The types that had been created shift again. The stereotypical traits that were associated with Irish characterisation are modified. Instead of characters telling folktales for comic effect and as an affection of “Irishness” their worlds became rooted in folklore to create sense of history and to embellish their realities. The superstitious nature of the characters was reframed as a use of native customs, connecting them to their history and culture. Finally the Irish writer’s made their plays about characters and language and lessened the importance on clothes, food and religion.
- Ashley Williamson