Irish Studies

The Irish War for Independence had been a final victory for the Irish people, as they were finally independent under the name “The Irish Free State” on July 11th 1921, but this compromise was only a stopgap for the coming conflict over the terms of the compromise. The Irish Civil War started on June 28th, 1922 and would spell the end of Mitchelstown Castle and several other Anglo-Irish Big Houses. 

The Occupation of Big Houses by the I.R.A.

The signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty split Ireland into two sides, those who supported the treaty and those who did not, the signing also stranded the remaining Ascendency class that were loyal to Britain. The Anglo-Irish treaty had not been supported by the Irish people, as it seemed to be much more beneficial for Britain than Ireland. The remaining soldiers who were vehemently against the treaty found the burning of Big Houses as a useful method to display their disapproval and show that the longstanding symbols of English power would not last any longer.

The Burning and Destruction of Big Houses

Many of the I.R.A. soldiers had to resort to burning big houses as a way to make a statement against the treaty. Mitchelstown Castle was a sitting duck waiting to be capitalized upon by the I.R.A., as its rulers had gone through many troubles in recent years with the Irish Civil War and Irish War for Independence. The commandant of the Republican Army near Mitchelstown Castle, Pa Luddy, united his force under the hatred of what the castle had been a symbol of in Ireland. Pa Luddy, had had enough of Mitchelstown Castle, “In making the fateful decision Luddy believed that he was avenging centuries of Landlordism and English occupation, as well as erasing what little was left of the Kingston presence in Mitchelstown” (1)  The Irish Landscape would be purified from Mitchelstown Castle’s grasp, weakening the little hold that England had left on Ireland. The castle was burned on August 12th, 1922 and would later be destroyed due to the extent of the fire damage. In burning this castle down, they were burning along with it the culture and history that had been a part of the Irish landscape for so long. The Irish people were fed up with the Anglo-Irish and their centuries of torment towards them. 

 

The Bowen family heard of this destruction at the Castle and knew their home lay on the path of the IRA and would inevitably be laid siege upon. In the fictional Danielstown, the Naylors home was burned down in the end. The duality between the English and Irish had been going on for too long, and this burning, along with many others was one of the ways in which the people could reclaim their land and power. While Bowens Court was not burnt down (for reasons that were unknown to her), “where there had not been violence there has been abandonment” (Source). The burning of these Big Houses symbolized the end of a big part of history with physical destruction, yet the abandonment of these country homes and displacement of the Anglo-Irish landlords also served as a reminder of the end of the Ascendency.

 

Works Cited

(1) Power, Bill. White Knights, Dark Earls.Dublin: Collins Press, 2000

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Notorious for inhumane conditions, Dublin’s tenement districts were “deemed the worst slums in Europe.” Tenement houses, while having been considered to be a necessary evil in the city due to the growing number of poorer citizens, were not always a major component to the urban landscape. Starting in 1801 with the enactment of the Act of Union, causing the dissolution of the Irish Parliament and the exodus of the upper class, the empty Georgian homes were converted into multiple family tenement-style housing for Dublin’s poorest populations. Once it became clear that the upper classes were not returning, their “houses purchased for £8,000 in 1791 were sold for a paltry £500 in the 1840s.” Low-income housing became the “solution” for the growing issue of lower-class homelessness and over-inundation within the population. Therefore, multiple styles of low-income

housing, such as “the tenement house, third class houses, and cellar dwellings” were found dotting the city. While all of these were not adequate choices for raising healthy families, the cellar dwelling was deemed to be the worst out of the three. Being that they were constructed underground, the rooms would perpetually be damp and cold, causing not only respiratory diseases and disorders, but also lacked a healthy amount of sunlight, meaning that smoke from the fireplace, used for cooking and for warmth, as well as candles, would be poorly ventilated. As Mary Conner remembered, “The ones down in the basement were the worst of all, they were stinking. Old people who had no one belonging to them alive lived in them. The people in the house overhead of them looked after them. It was poor looking after the poor…the worst place in a house people could live in as they were dark, cold, and moldy” This could cause disease to sprout and fester, and since the environment was not warm to begin with, overcoming illness became extremely difficult for all tenants, but especially for those who lived in cellar rooms.

Death and disease was an ever-present reality for those living in tenements. As the physical deterioration of the houses themselves, it became a breeding-ground for fatal diseases such as tuberculosis and cholera. The area around the tenement houses helped to foster the breeding of such fatal illnesses. Most tenements had small outdoor areas behind the building, but some of these areas were contaminated with “ manholes with sewage flowing out of them in the backyards where children played.” Many children that grew up in the tenements remembered how “the environment was littered with slaughter houses and piggeries while horses, cattle, and sheep were always being driven down the street. Animal dung was splattered in cobblestone crevices and bugs, vermin and rats infested every tenement house”

The bleakness of the situation continued to grow and fester up until the time of the Lockout in 1913. With the high unemployment and tensions between employers and employees running high, workers joined various labor unions in an attempt to protect their rights and their jobs. The most common working class union in Dublin was the ITGWU, the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, led by James Larkin, a believer in using militant methods, such as the

sympathy strike, in order to secure the rights of unskilled workers, many of whom lived in the tenements. Larkin became a very popular figure for the working class, especially after the ITGWU had gained average wage increase of 25% earlier in 1913. On the other hand, William Martin Murphy, the primary employer for much of the working classes, owning not only the Irish Independent and the Evening Herald, but also was the head of the DUTC, or the Dublin United Trade Council, was adamantly anti-unionist. The Lockout thus began on August 15, 1913, when Murphy laid off 40 men and 20 boys from the Irish Independent’s delivery department when they refused to give up their membership to the ITGWU. On August 21, 100 tramway workers were faced with the same situation, leave the ITGWU or lose one’s job.

Essentially, Murphy was locking out working class men from their jobs due to their union membership. Conflicts ensued over the next few days, finally boiling over on August 30, when the police forces baton-charged on a riot that had formed, killing James Nolan and James Byrne. Then, on August 31, police charged on civilians walking home from Sunday Church, injuring over 600 people. Later that night, police stormed into working class tenements on Corporation Street, began to beat the tenants, going as far as beating “John MacDonagh, who was paralyzed…as he lay in his bed, and when his wife intervened, she too was beaten”, and destroy the few possessions the tenants owned, targeting religious items specifically.

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Authors: Emily Meyer and Robby Billings

For those living in tenement districts, life was especially harsh. Conditions were hazardous and individual families were crammed into one small room, with multiple families living in one modest tenement house, practically stacked on top of one another within the houses themselves. Buildings often fell into disrepair, often injuring or killing tenants as a result. The tenement community had been a constant component of the

Dublin landscape since the late eighteenth century, increasing in “popularity” after the Potato Famine in the 1840s. By 1913, over “one-third of the overall population of Dublin lived in tenement districts” Those who were born or forced to relocate to the tenements rarely were able to rise out of poverty, and thus, generations of families remained stuck within the same cycle of poverty. For those living in the most horrendous conditions, an overall sense of community and shared struggle became vital for survival.

The social landscape of the tenements was an important aspect to daily life.

These buildings were festering with disease and death lurked around every corner. The architectural layout of tenement house itself became the main mechanism through which the community flourished. The tenement community accepted and embraced all those who came through the doors, from “the old, the infirm, the blind, the insane, and the dispossessed”, everyone could find a sense of belonging. While there certainly was not an affluent commodity culture in the tenements, “it was a sort of unwritten moral code of the tenements that neighbors look after one another in times of need” The system relied on the interdependence families had on one another.
Women would habitually clean the communally used areas of the house such as the hallways and the stairways. Having a clean home was a sign of pride and respectability, even for those in poverty. As Mary Connor, remembers:
“The houses in the area were filthy, smelly, and full of rats. People did all they could to keep them clean. The women were always on their knees scrubbing out the hall doors but it was a hard thing to do as the hall doors to the front of the house were always opened…the smell of urine, shit in the hall was dreadful, and in the morning time, the people who lived on the ground floor would have to come out and clean out the hallway…the smell in the hallways never went away because for years upon years, they had been used as toilets and there was dirty black stains around the walls in the hall…”

This shows that while the tenants were not materially wealthy, they took pride

in what they were able to obtain. A clean house was not only a matter of pride, but also an attempt to feel as if they owned their tenement room. In reality, their claim to the room was only on a week-by-week basis, even if they had been living there for years. Eviction was a common facet to tenement life, and tenants could lose their room for any reason, ranging from late rent payments, rumors about a family’s immorality, or just simply because the landlord raises the rent to get the current tenants out knowing that they can’t pay it. Being that the tenants could be evicted with little to no notice, and since there was always a need for tenement houses, the community would band together to clean in an attempt to keep their homes. If one family was evicted, it was a fear that their neighbors might be next. Everything, including food and clothing, in the tenements was shared. When one family felt pain, such as eviction, unemployment, or death, the community felt it too. In many ways, the tenement communities themselves were representative of a larger family forged from the hardship of their living conditions.

The tenements were a place of bustling life, where children played on the streets and told ghost stories on the stairs, where wives and mothers talked with one another in the doorways while gently rocking their shawl-bundled babies, where men discussed the political news of the day, and where community was forged from even the most desperate of situations. At times, people would sing and dance in the streets near the tenements. The young were taught to help the old up and down the stairs from the basement rooms so they, too, could enjoy being social with neighbors. As Mary Connor, who lived on Parnell Street, remembers, “as children, we all played on the streets near the houses swinging on the lampposts…our mothers were always standing at the doors, talking, or looking out the windows as we played games of hide and seek and chasing…”

The community of one single tenement building was often very large. The average family having between six to twelve children, some having over sixteen children. With multiple families living together in a relatively tint space, the sense of community in the tenements grew very strong, especially when the neighbor children grew up and married one another, moving to other tenement buildings and forming their own community.

For those in the lower classes, family was the central component around

which life revolved. While the father was legally deemed as the head of the household and was responsible for providing the family with financial income, it was the mother who was the heart of the household, providing the family with food, clothing, and other essentials. The family worked together as a unit, with the father filling the role as the breadwinner and the mother as the nurturer; if this unit fell into dysfunction, the whole system would unravel. Once a woman became a wife and a mother, she was expected to stay within the confines of the house unless it was to get essentials for the family or attending mass at the local Catholic Church. Anything else was deemed as immoral and reflected poorly on the family’s reputation.

Mothers were considered to be the keepers of a family’s morality as well as the parent that most children remembered fondly since she was an ever-present figure in the home. As Bridie Kelly remembered, “I always remember my mother, she always had a child wrapped up in her shawl with her old skirt and apron on and maybe two broken shoes. She had a big head of black hair tied up in a bun and we would always be playing around her.” Parents strove to provide the best life possible for their children, and families would often save all-year long for Christmas. Women would often be in charge of the family’s financial savings, and thus, it became her responsibility to ensure that there was enough saved for each child’s First Holy Communion and Confirmation, as well as future weddings and holidays such as Christmas and Easter. In poorer, urban neighborhoods, there would often be an early version of a community savings bank, in which, wives would deposit “a few pennies or shillings each week assured mothers that, come Christmas, they would have enough money for the pudding, dinner, and a few simple gifts for the children.”

Women would also obtain additional income by pawning or selling items at the local pawnbroker. The presence of the pawnshop was a quintessential establishment in any tenement neighborhood. For some families, a weekly trip to the pawnshop afforded them enough money to get through the week. “Pawn day” became such a crucial component to tenement life that the day was often treated as a large social event. Not only did the pawnbrokers themselves treat “their customers with friendliness and dignity”, but the women also treated the space as an alternative space outside of the tenements to converse and share the daily gossip.

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Primary Source:
Whyte, Robert. Robert Whyte’s 1847 Famine Ship Diary: The Journey of an Irish Coffin Ship. Edited by James J. Mangan. Cork: Mercier Press, 1994.

Secondary Sources:
Anbinder, Tyler. “Lord Palmerston and the Irish Famine Emigration.” Historical Journal 44, no. 2 (June 2001): 441-469. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3133615.
Anbinder, Tyler. Five Points. New York: The Free Press, 2001.
Bernstein, Iver. The New York City Draft Riots: Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Corporaal, Marguerite and Christopher Cusack. “Rites of Passage: The Coffin Ship as a Site of Immigrants’ Identity Formation in Irish and Irish American Fiction, 1855-85.” Atlantic Studies 8, no. 3 (September 2011): 343-359. http://proxy.geneseo.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hia&AN=64133810&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Donnelly, James S. The Great Irish Potato Famine. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2001.
Eide, Marian. “Famine Memory and Contemporary Irish Poetry.” Twentieth Century Literature 64, no. 1 (Mar 2017): 21-48.
Ireland Story. “The Famine 2: Distribution of Famine Effects.” Last modified 2001. http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/famine/distribution.html.
Jackson, Pauline. “Women in 19th Century Irish Emigration.” International Migration Review 18, no.4 (Winter 1984): 1004-1020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2546070.
Lloyd, David. “The Indigent Sublime: Specters of Irish Hunger.” Representations 92, no.1 (Fall 2005):152-185. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rep.2005.92.1.152.
“National Famine Monument, Westport in Co. Mayo.” County Mayo: Where Ireland Goes Wild. Accessed November 13, 2018. http://www.mayo-ireland.ie/en/towns-villages/westport/visitors-guide/national-famine-monument.html
O’Rourke, John. The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847: with Notices of Earlier Irish Famines. London: Dodo Press, 2009.
Wikipedia contributors. “Blight.” Last Modified October 2, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blight.
Wikipedia contributors. “Kindred Spirits (sculpture).” Last modified September 15, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred_Spirits_(sculpture).

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Devastation of Sackville Street

The urban landscape of Dublin played a key role in how the 1916 Easter Rising played out. On April 24th, armed insurrectionists rushed the city of Dublin and took the General Post Office (GPO) in an attempt to declare the Irish Republic. What better place to send a message to the world than the center of all message commerce in Ireland. Their choosing of the GPO as their primary base over any other culturally important building is significant to their overall plan of rebellion. The General Post Office represented everything the rebels wanted to destroy. It was the symbol of elite commerce while standing amid slums. (Clair Wills Pg. 8) While many would think that the most ideal place to stage a rebellion would be the Dublin Castle, these rebels had a different idea in mind for their road to martyrdom.

 The city center around the River Liffey was the location of most of the action. The roads of Dublin stretch out from the river in a web work of criss-crossing lines reaching out to the rest of the country. By taking over roads into and out of the city, the rebels were able to strengthen their hold on Dublin, and when British forces first responded to the Rising, they were unable to accurately determine exactly how many rebels there were, which in part led to the British bringing in way more troops than was needed. O’Connell Bridge stretches over the River Liffey and connects the Southside of Dublin to the North. Rebels chose this bridge to hold and buildings around it because it was the closest to the GPO, the single most important building to the rebels. The only issue with this plan was that the British were able the sail the HMS Helga right up the Liffey and shell the city at point blank range. (Hamilton). This is one of the major reasons that the Rising failed and the Rebels had to surrender or die.

 

The concept of “two Dublins” plays into effect here because most of the general public had no idea that the Rising was going to take place. So, on the surface there was the general populace who were completely oblivious of the brewing revolutionary sentiments. They were far too busy worrying about their own lives and their poverty to spare any thought towards the whole of Ireland and its place in the world. However, below the surface, tensions were brewing. Rebels were growing restless within the British hold and were frustrated with the control Britain was exerting over the Irish and longed for freedom for their country. These tensions fed the fire that would eventually lead to the Rising.

The leaders and members of the rebellion knew they were going to die with the Rising, and yet they still saw their deaths as necessary for their country. Many would die during the fighting while others would be executed for their involvement with the Rising. This did not deter them from their goals. “Connolly himself said ‘we are going to be slaughtered’. When asked was there any chance of success he responded ‘none whatsoever’.” While some would argue that this was a ridiculous notion, the rebels knew exactly what they were doing and how they would do it.

Inside the GPO after the Rising

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The urban conditions found throughout the poorest parts of Dublin were prominently inadequate. Housing over 20,000 families, Dublin’s borderline uninhabitable tenements housed much of the lower working class. Women, already predetermined to play the roles rigidly placed by society, were most victimized by these conditions as they attempted to raise families in small, deeply unsanitary rooms.
Unsanitary Conditions
The tenements were often very unsanitary, with households sharing a single unclean bathroom and lacking facilities for washing. In addition, the infrastructure was often weak, with buildings collapsing from time to time. Malnutrition exacerbated the chance of disease, which often went untreated and spread through households quickly due to the prevailing lack of personal space and hygiene. This is evident in both Kevin Kearns’ Dublin Tenement Life: An Oral History and various articles published during 1912 and 1913 in Dublin. In Charles Dawson’s 1913 paper regarding Dublin’s sanitation practices, he attributed these conditions to “hard-hearted” owners exploiting the desperation of the lower class, a lack of investments which fueled decay, and a government which left them at the mercy of coincidental charity.

Workload
Women were typically expected to care for the family and clean the rooms, which proved increasingly difficult as more children were common for poorer families, whose households required more upkeep. For single mothers, these expectations were coupled with the overbearing pressure to acquire finances to feed and clothe the family, a feat often only possible through begging and and the chance reception of charity.
Finances
Women had very little to no access to outside jobs and paid work, as the urban work environment was commonly dominated by men, with women being expected to limit themselves to the demands of the domestic sphere. This was especially problematic as one man’s wages were not enough to sufficiently feed a whole family, and only got worse as many fathers were engulfed by alcoholism or left the picture altogether, a theme present in Kearns’ An Oral History. For mothers in these situations, obtaining a job was typically not a realistic option because of the rigid gender roles and expectations by society for women to remain at home and be provided for by a husband. Even in situations where these norms were overcome, single women working jobs while simultaneously trying to care for their family were placed in predicaments humanly impossible to wholly solve.
Domestic Abuse
Poor Irish women were often the victims of domestic abuse, with men turning to alcoholism and physical violence as a means to maintain some sort of power in a class characterized by the lack thereof. This placed women in additional danger, as they were not only encumbered by the demands of urban poverty, but also by their socially-labelled “caretaker’s” violent outbursts. This is made evident in both Kearns’ aforementioned documentations and a 1913 article which draws connections between housing conditions and rampant crime.
Children
Under the 1908 Children Act, many men and women served time at Mountjoy Prison by 1911 for mistreating and neglecting their children, with many children also ending up in confinement, whether it be penitentiaries for petty crime or boarding and industrial schools.

Life for urban women, characterized by demeaning circumstances and an overwhelming workload, contributed to the fervor which defined the Rising in Dublin and prevailed after.

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The photos within this gallery represent the idealized authentic Irish landscape. These landscapes of Connemara and Killarney are void of any human presence, thus representing a romantic perspective of Ireland, in which the absence of people is part of the pleasure.

Ireland’s landscape is prominently known for the feelings of sublime it provides to those who bear witness to its raw beauty. It evokes an overwhelming sense of awe as the viewer observes its grandeur. In connection to the sublime landscape of Ireland, the unique authenticity of the state as a whole is another significant factor that draws travelers from all areas of the world with the desire to experience the true simplicity of a landscape pure and untouched.  As stated previously above, the picturesque landscapes of Ireland provide a sense of an authentic Ireland seen through a romanticized lens.

However, the presence of sublime landscapes are not the only elements that help portray the image of an idealized, authentic Ireland. Two specific regions in Ireland, Connemara, located in the northwest corner of County Galway, and Killarney, located in County Kerry in the southwest, offer both the sublime beauty of Irish landscape and the image of an ‘authentic’ Irish culture to tourists. As pure depictions of sublime landscapes, both of these regions are known for attracting floods of tourists year-round with their rolling, green hills, quaint villages, and strips of rugged coastline bordering sparkling bodies of water. In addition to representing the romanticized landscapes that portray the authentic, idealized version of Ireland, other elements including the Irish natives themselves, representation of the historical Ireland, traditional craftsmanship, and physical remains of the past all encompass this concept.

 

Representation of the Historical

Representation of historical Ireland is another key factor that maintains the ideology of Irish authenticity. As a way to promote tourism, the Irish use the authentic Irish ‘image’ to their advantage. At Irish festivals, or large tourist attractions, people will dress up in traditional, Celtic costumes and play traditional folk music to advertise this image and boost tourism as many tourists seek to experience this unique aspect of traditional Irish culture. Furthermore, Connemara is one of the few remaining regions that continues to speak Gaelic. Maintaining the use of this traditional language contributes to the projection of legitimacy. This display preserves the image tourists have of Ireland; as a result, people seeking to experience the “authentic” are attracted to the area.

 

Work

Another means in which authenticity is promoted to attract tourists is through work. This prominently includes the work area of basic craftsmanship, like knitting. Tourist attraction videos portray this type of work in a pure and wholesome form. For example, hand-made, knit, sweaters are a huge commodity surrounding Irish tourism. The Irish use this to their advantage to attract tourists, seeking to experience the ‘authentic’ Ireland. By promoting this “authentic” image of Ireland through commodified goods, such as these sweaters, it feeds into tourists’ image of Ireland as an organic, authentic place, but especially benefits the Irish economy.

Figure 1: 

For tourists, hand-made sweaters represent an ‘authentic’ aspect of Ireland.

 

 

 

 

Remains of the Past

Past remains of Ireland continue to actively impact and connect to modern Ireland and its authenticity. The remains showcase the absence of people in locations where there was once an abundance. Ruins represent the loss of life and community; yet, the absence creates the aesthetic of an empty landscape which establishes romanticized authenticity. Travelers come to experience the true authenticity that Ireland claims to possess. Tourists come to the remains to witness the sublime. These ruins force outside observers to acknowledge the hardships and successes of the people who had once inhabited landscape. The ruins are a reminder of Ireland’s history. They make it impossible for travelers or the native people to escape it. They are captivated by them and are subjected to look at that the ruins and become overtaken with their emotions while being present at the remains. They have to face the truth of how they became what they are and the horrible events of the famine that made so many people lose their lives or forced to move away. If there were no remains left it would be harder to confront the historical past of remains and how everyone living a life within the remains vanished.

Figure 2: 

Ruins in Ireland represent the loss of community in Ireland’s history.

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The landscape of a city, with the physical placement of vital thoroughfares and important landmarks as well as varying disparity of the physical conditions of neighborhoods, can help to foster a revolutionary environment. Revolutions are often inspired by events that occurred many years prior to the initial start to the rebellion. In the case of the Easter Rising of 1916, both political and economic situations helped to inspire the revolutionary leaders. While historical martyrs, such as Robert Emmet and Theobald Wolfe Tone, inspired the leaders of the Rising, the immediate political relationship between Ireland and England, as well as the economic disparity within Dublin, served as the final spark that ignited the Revolution.

With enactment of the Act of Union

in 1801, and the subsequent dissolution of the Irish Parliament, Dublin’s Parliamentary members left their Georgian town-homes for London’s political circles. By the 1840s, the once opulent homes were modified into tenement houses to accommodate multiple lower-class families. As more rural families, seeking to escape the Famine, internally migrated to urban centers, the need for housing increased, resulting in overcrowding and steady decline of tenement neighborhoods. As the economic and physical state of tenement neighborhoods steadily declined, along with a growing discontent with the political relationship with England, various leaders throughout the city began to take notice of the civil unrest and acted upon their dissatisfaction, both with respect to the economic conditions in Dublin and British control over Ireland as a whole.

The Rising leaders utilized the landscape of Dublin to work on their side in their fight against the British. They planned to physically take control of major landmarks such as the General Post Office (GPO), St. Stephen’s Green, the Four Courts, St. James’ Hospital, Shelbourne Hotel, and Dublin Castle. While the Rising did not unfurl as planned, and was ultimately defeated, the Rising still serves as a symbolic emblem of what Revolution represents. The occupation of these major landmarks, most of which were symbolic markers of British control of Ireland, is intrinsically connected to the strategy of using landscape to convey Revolutionary ideals and symbolic gestures.

Thus, the city of Dublin was a city of duality: the city of the tenements and the city of politics. While these two components had been in contact with one another on various occasions such as the 1913 Lockout, it was in 1916 that the two truly collided, forming a new city: Revolutionary Dublin.

How to Navigate: Click on the purple or red points on the map to explore pages

Map Key: Purple Points (pre-1916); Red Points (1916 Rising)

Meet the Group!

Authors: Emily Meyer, Robby Billings, Lauren Lambie, Joey Saxton, and Cathrine McNeil

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Western Ireland is highly desired for its naturally beautiful landscapes. These scenes evoke the inclination to control the sublime, for controlling the sublime is to obtain power. As such, the English adopted considerable interest in Irish affairs. Through the means of colonization, they commodified the Irish landscape. Viewing the land as potential for new markets, the English plundered natural resources for the purposes of benefitting their industrial endeavors. Constructing an economic system based on property ownership and industrial activity undermined the organic relationship the Irish people had previously established with their homeland. In addition to commodifying the landscape, the English commodified the Irish populace itself. What they perceived to be a primitive body of people presented the perfect opportunity to claim more laborers.

In Killarney, a shift in control over commodification began in the 18th century. Local wealthy families virtually acted as tourism-development agencies. They shaped the town into organized settlements and established accessible roads and transportation options. This allowed for the eventual formation of an Irish-owned industry of tourism.

In both Killarney and Connemara, the aftermath of the Great Famine of 1852 served as a major turning point in the evolution of tourism. The Famine decimated the Irish population, resulting in a landscape uninhabited by many people. This contributed to a “picturesque” spectacle that drew tourists to the area. Regarding this as an economic opportunity, the Irish proceeded to commodify themselves. By choosing to develop the tourism industry, the Irish people reclaimed agency and escaped the depression partially caused by British influence.

The 19th and 20th centuries saw a revival in Celtic culture accompanied by a return of traditional Gaelic language, music, art, literature, sports, and stories. The Irish sold images of authenticity to consumers. By embracing expectations of Irish behavior, Ireland commodified the authentic and placed the power of the economy under Irish control.

Today, the presentation of Irish tourism is in a double bind as two different images are sold. The older notion of the empty, picturesque landscape still stands. Yet, the presence of people has been commodified as well. These two ideas conflict with one another, because people soil the “perfect” landscape. Making spaces accessible to people disrupts the sense of isolation and potential for adventure associated with empty land. This double bind is evident in different activities tourists can participate in when visiting Ireland.

Figure 1: 

Traditional Irish attire enforces the festivity of the celebration.

 

 

Figure 2: 

Tourists take advantage of the natural landscape of Ireland by hiking.

 

 

 

In many advertisements, the Irish people are portrayed as “adventurous” and “welcoming.” They are depicted dining in upscale restaurants, engaging in athletic activities, and socializing in festive gatherings. This is clearly seen in Figure 1, in which Irish people are dressed in festive costumes, drinking at a pub, and reinforcing a celebratory atmosphere. Other advertisements utilize a more traditional representation of Ireland: rugged wilderness and desolate landscapes. Figure 2 shows people taking advantage of this type of scenery by hiking among rolling hills. Both of these presentations of the Irish populace fortify the idea that Irish identity lacks complexity. Believing it to be exceptionally simple, tourists traveling to Ireland think that they can immerse themselves within the local culture easily and without lasting consequences. This is deleterious to the perceived identity of the Irish people because it perpetuates superficial stereotypes. Nonetheless, as the industry attempts to cater to a wider range of consumers, both the Irish landscape and people continue to be commodified in the interest of benefitting tourism.

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