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Identity is contingent and dynamic, constituting and reconstituting subjects with political effects. This book explores the implications of Protestant and 'British' incursions for the development of Irish Catholic identity as preserved in Irish language texts from the early modern period until the end of Stuart pretensions. Questions of citizenship, belonging, migration, conflict, security, peace and subjectivity are examined through social construction, post-colonialism, and gendered lenses from an interdisciplinary perspective. The book explains the issue of cultural Catholicism in the later middle ages, by way of devotional cults and practices. It examines Catholic unionism vis-a-vis Victorian politics, military and imperial service, the crown, and the position of the Catholic Church with relation to the structures of the state in Ireland. In particular the North American experience and especially the importance of the USA for consolidating a particular interpretation of Irish Catholic nationalist identity, is explored. Children studied in English Catholic public schools like Stonyhurst and Downside where the establishment Irish Catholics and rising mercantile classes sought to have the characteristics of the Catholic gentleman instilled in their progeny. The book sets out to detect the voices of those Catholic women who managed to make themselves heard by a wider audience than family and friends in Ireland in the years between the Act of Union of 1800 and independence/partition. It considers what devotional interests both Gaelic Irish and Anglo-Norman actually shared in common as part of a wider late medieval Catholic culture.
, post-1815 the Jews of Portsmouth and Southampton only merit a mention because of their pathbreaking role in being elected to municipal office and the progress in the treatment of Jews thereby revealed. 15 This chapter will explore, through the experiences of and responses to the two Emanuel families and the Abraham family, the nature of liberal tolerance towards the Jews within Victorian politics. Were these leading Jews accepted locally, and if so, on what terms? Emanuel Emanuel: the making of an elder statesman
midVictorian era left virtually no memoirs: in an age when politicians did not routinely publish their autobiographies, only some unusual situation would be likely to force their hands; even had they the desire, few senior politicians were likely to have much incentive to publish, as the publication of one’s private papers was considered somewhat unseemly.8 Money from book sales had little attraction for most wealthy aristocrats. In any case, the longevity of Victorian political careers often meant there was little opportunity for reflection: many died in office or soon
clearly opposed to home rule and made their loyalty to the Union all too clear. This is a theme taken up by Richard Keogh and James McConnel. Their aim here is to look at the phenomenon of Catholic unionism via the Esmonde family of Co. Waterford. Chapter 16 examines Catholic unionism vis-àvis Victorian politics, military and imperial service, the crown, and the 14 Irish Catholic identities position of the Catholic Church with relation to the structures of the state in Ireland. From a study of the Esmondes the authors extrapolate some general conclusions about the
patriotism in pantomimes, melodrama and music ballet attests to a dominant conservative impulse at work within some popular performances. Yet, although there is one public, that public is made up of many individuals and collectivities. To ‘speak’ for public opinion was a political ambition, and to acknowledge and to frame ‘public opinion’ was a matter for both persuasion and representation: culture, itself, was a site of multiple meanings negotiated in myriad ways. Victorian politics was performative in so much as it was grounded in the visual and the spectacular but it
for new sweeping police powers to clampdown on protest. 13 This also suggests the need to reinterpret legislation and the law from the perspective of the history of emotions. Today’s protesters find themselves excluded from an emotional regime that is just as sensitive to what it views as inappropriate displays of emotion as the late Georgian and early Victorian political
English radicalism has been a deep-rooted but minority tradition in the political culture since at least the seventeenth century. The central aim of this book is to examine, in historical and political context, a range of key events and individuals that exemplify English radicalism in the twentieth century. This analysis is preceded by defining precisely what has constituted this tradition; and by the main outline of the development of the tradition from the Civil War to the end of the nineteenth century. Three of the main currents of English radicalism in the twentieth century have been the labour movement, the women’s movement and the peace movement. These are discussed in some detail, as a framework for the detailed consideration of ten key representative figures of the tradition in the twentieth century: Bertrand Russell, Sylvia Pankhurst, Ellen Wilkinson, George Orwell, E.P. Thompson, Michael Foot, Joan Maynard, Stuart Hall, Tony Benn and Nicolas Walter. The question of ‘agency’ – of how to bring about radical change in a predominantly conservative society and culture – has been a fundamental issue for English radicals. It is argued that, in the twentieth century, many of the important achievements in progressive politics have taken place in and through extra-parliamentary movements, as well as through formal political parties and organisations – the Labour Party and other socialist organisations – and on occasion, through libertarian and anarchist politics. The final chapter considers the continuing relevance of this political tradition in the early twenty-first century, and reviews its challenges and prospects.
), pp. 60–1, 78–9. 11 Hilton, Mad, Bad, pp. 31–8; Angus Hawkins, ‘“Parliamentary Government” and Victorian Political Parties, c.1830–1880’, English Historical Review, 104 (1989), pp. 638–69; Angus Hawkins, Victorian Political Culture: ‘Habits of Heart and Mind’ (forthcoming). 12 David Worrall, Theatric Revolution: Drama, Censorship, and Romantic Period Subcultures, 1773–1832 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). 13 Richard A Gaunt (ed.), Unrepentant Tory: Political Selections from the Diaries of the Fourth Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, 1827–1838 (Woodbridge
Conclusion The period from 1830 to 1880 was characterised by a vibrant visual culture in which political likenesses were central, and without understanding this it is impossible to understand the broader evolution of political culture in this period. This book has addressed the narrowness of a number of assumptions to be widely found in the historiography of Victorian politics. Existing accounts have paid little attention to political portraiture. Since the 1990s historians influenced by the ‘new political history’ or the ‘linguistic turn’ have increasingly
questions that this chapter will concentrate, although in so doing we inevitably touch, if mostly implicitly, on the former set as well. In particular, in service to this volume’s broad historical mission, this chapter will take up an important strand of Victorian political