POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE
SHAN VAN VOCHT MAGAZINE, 1896-1899:
AN EXAMPLE OF PRINT CULTURE,
A MEDIA PROJECT WITH ACTION-VALUE.
STUDY SUBMITTED IN PART FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT
FOR THE AWARD OF M.A. IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
BY
NORA SHOVELIN
JUNE 2005
ABSTRACT
This project examines the promotion of activism in a magazine from the era of
print culture, the Shan Van Vocht. The magazine was independent and
nationalist and it was based in Belfast and edited by two women, Alice Milligan
and Anna Johnston, who were active in the self-help movement. The project
investigates the political ideas being promoted which were ideas of
decolonisation and self-help. It considers the way in which these ideas were
promoted through Irish history, fiction and poetry, legend and folklore in the
pages of the magazine.
The research then goes on to investigate the ways in which the readers of the
magazine were encouraged to take action and to become participants in the selfhelp activities of the time. It shows that the two women, who were leaders of
the Irish Revival, extended their activism to include their journalism. It shows
that their magazine promoted meetings and events throughout Ireland and drew
interest and contributions from the leading activists of the Revival. It analyses
the way in which the magazine promoted a major political campaign, the 1798
Centenary Celebration.
Lessons are drawn for political communication by activists and journalists
today: the importance of understanding the nature of the medium being used as
this will determine the way in which the message is transmitted; the importance
of taking advantage of accessible media; the benefits of challenging the
dominant ideology on a number of fronts; the benefits of forming links; and the
reminder that politics and activism often flourish away from centres of power.
2
CONTENTS
Page number
ABSTRACT
2
CONTENTS
3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
6
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
7
Background of the Shan Van Vocht
7
Description of the Magazine
Content
Circulation
7
8
10
The Two Editors
11
Alice Milligan
Anna Johnston
11
12
Reasons for the Study
13
Reasons for its importance at the time
Reasons why it is important today
Methodology
Thesis
Rationale
Definitions
Politics in the Shan Van Vocht
Culture in the Shan Van Vocht
13
15
18
18
19
20
20
23
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
26
Introduction
26
The Irish Revival
26
Newspapers and Periodicals
31
Newspapers, Empire and Separation
The Nature of News
Periodicals
3
31
33
35
The Shan Van Vocht Magazine
36
CHAPTER THREE: CONFIDENCE-BUILDING
38
Preparation
38
History
38
Literature
40
Folklore
41
Music
43
Summary
44
CHAPTER FOUR: DECOLONISATION AND SELF-HELP
45
Decolonisation
45
James Connolly
Links within Ireland and Abroad
Self-Help
The Irish Language
Horace Plunkett
The Gaelic Athletic Association
48
50
52
52
54
55
Summary
56
CHAPTER FIVE: ACTION
57
Encouraging Readers to Action
57
Examples of Action
58
1798 Commemoration Celebrations
61
Preparation for the ’98 Celebrations
The’98 Celebrations
People Being Addressed
Women and the SVV
Women in Public Life
4
62
63
66
66
68
Achievements of the SVV
71
Summary
72
CHAPTER SIX: LESSONS FOR POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
73
Taking Advantage of the Nature of the Medium
73
Access and Technology
77
Challenging the Dominant Ideology
79
Attempts to Unite
81
The Importance of the Local
82
Summary
82
CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION
84
BIBLIOGRAPHY
86
5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My thanks are due to Professor John Horgan for telling me about the magazine,
the Shan Van Vocht. I wish to thank the staff of the Allen Library, the National
Archive and the National Library of Ireland for their help with research. I
would particularly like to thank two librarians at the National Library of Ireland,
Tom Desmond and Colette O’Daly, both of whom went to considerable trouble
to assist me with references.
I am grateful to my friends, Muireann Ní Dhuigneáin, Maura Owens and Marie
Dunne, who always managed to take an interest in the project, for their
thoughtfulness and support.
Special thanks are due to my supervisor, Eddie Holt, for his expert guidance in
showing me the possibilities within this research, for his constant interest in the
project and for his patience and encouragement.
6
1. INTRODUCTION
“[W]e were full of almost envious admiration of some numbers of the Shan
Van Vocht, the daring little paper Anna and Alice were editing … I thought
Dublin would have to look to its laurels if it were not to be outdone in
literary journalism by Belfast …”. Maud Gonne1
BACKGROUND OF THE SHAN VAN VOCHT
Description of the Magazine
The Shan Van Vocht (SVV) was a monthly magazine which was published in
Belfast between January 1896 and April 18992. The 40 issues of the magazine
contained writing on politics and history and also fiction and poetry. Clyde3, in
his catalogue of Irish Literary Magazines, describes it as “primarily a political
journal”. The Waterloo Directory4 describes the magazine as “nationalist”: “Its
politics were separatist in the Tone-Emmet-Mitchel tradition”.
Matthews5
describes it as a “pivotal nationalist newspaper”. It provided a forum for debate
and among its contributors were political and cultural leaders of the time
including Douglas Hyde, James Connolly and Arthur Griffiths.
The SVV was independent of any political or cultural organisation and depended
for its income on subscriptions and advertising. It was established by two
women, Alice Milligan and Anna Johnston, who was well-known as a poet
under the pseudonym, Ethna Carbery. Both were activists on political and
cultural issues and the magazine was an extension of that activism. Turner
1
Gonne, M. 1938 IN N. A. Jeffares and A. MacBride White. (eds.). 1994. Maud Gonne
MacBride A Servant of the Queen. Gerrards Cross : Colin Smythe. p176.
2
Most collections of SVV are missing the issue of April 1899.
3
Clyde, T. 2003. Irish Literary Magazines: An Outline History and Descriptive Bibliography.
Dublin : Irish Academic Press. p143.
4
The Waterloo Directory of Irish Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900: Phase Two. 1986.
Canada : North Waterloo Academic Press. p440.
5
Mathews, P. J. 2003. Revival: The Abbey Theatre, Sinn Féin, The Gaelic League and The
Co-operative Movement. Cork : Cork University Press. p76.
7
Johnston6 explains that these two women were members of the Henry Joy
McCracken Literary Society which came into being in Belfast in 1895. They set
up and were joint editors of its magazine, The Northern Patriot. After only
three issues there was a disagreement and the editors either resigned or were
sacked. Milligan explains this falling-out in more detail in an interview given
to the Sunday Press newspaper in 19517. She describes the literary society as a
National Workingman’s Club. When some members of the club learned that
one of the editors of their journal “was in reality the daughter of a Fenian”, they
wrote to Milligan asking her to dissociate herself from Carbery and to ask
Carbery to leave the club.
Both women left and set up the SVV with Alice Milligan as editor and Anna
Johnston as secretary. Johnston became co-editor in 1898. Anna Johnston’s
sister, Maggie, also worked on the magazine8 although she did not write for it.
The women set up office at Robert Johnston’s timber yard9 in Belfast and
organised the editing and marketing of the magazine. Alice Milligan and Anna
Johnston did most of the writing for the magazine and dealt with subscriptions
and distribution.
Content
As an example of print culture, the SVV takes no account of the layout of the
popular press in its layout. It did not cover news, being a monthly magazine.
Neither is there any prioritising of content. The first pages usually begin with a
poem followed by a long piece of fiction or account of a Gaelic legend. Notices
of events and meetings which were of great interest to the editors are usually to
be found on the last few pages of the magazine and in smaller print. The
percentage of the magazine given over to various kinds of writing is shown in
Table 1 below.
6
Turner Johnston, S. 1994. Alice: A Life of Alice Milligan. Omagh : Colourpoint Press.
pp81-87.
7
McGrath, K. 1951. Grand Old Lady of Irish Letters Alice Milligan at 84. Sunday Press. 21
October. Held at the Allen Library.
8
Meehan, H. 1993. p58. Ethna Carbery: Anna Johnston McManus. Donegal Annual 45,
pp55-65.
9
Turner Johnston. 1994. p87.
8
DESCRIPTION OF CONTENT
PERCENTAGE
COVER
Reading for Pleasure
Fiction, Poetry and Travel
History
Historical events and characters, monuments, legends and
folklore
Activities
Notices of events and meetings and coverage of the 1798
Commemoration
Decolonisation
Separation issues and news from abroad
Self-Help
Articles on the importance of literature, music, Gaelic
games, agriculture & industry and the Irish language to
the movement for decolonisation and articles in the Irish
language.
Miscellaneous
A small number of articles which did not fit in the above
categories10 and some pages of advertisements
34
32
13
9
8
4
Table 1. This table shows the percentage cover of content in the Shan Van
Vocht magazine11.
It is an example of a magazine which had no competition from other
communication media, perhaps even from the popular press.
It has the
appearance of a magazine that was going to be read from cover to cover by
readers who had time to devote to reading and who relished the idea of
spending time on reading. Readers were expected to choose their own priorities
from what was on offer in the content.
The magazine was dependent on subscriptions and advertising for its income.
It was successful in attracting advertising. The covers of the magazine and
sometimes the last page contained a variety of advertisements from large
fashion, jewellery and furniture stores in Belfast as well as grain suppliers and
drinks distributors.
10
For example, ‘Press notices of our paper’: articles in support of the SVV from newspapers
abroad.
11
The percentage cover was worked out by measuring in centimetres the length of columns in
the magazine under twenty separate categories such as separation and folklore. The percentages
were calculated for each category and the categories were then grouped together into the six
headings shown.
9
Circulation
There is little evidence of the magazine’s circulation although the readership
would have been many times greater than the circulation as copies of journals
were circulated between friends and family members and there was access to
public reading rooms and libraries. Glandon explains that the subscription list
of the SVV was passed on to Arthur Griffith when he set up the United Irishman
in 189912 and she estimates the subscribers to the United Irishman at a few
thousand13.
The Allen Library holds a letter, dated 1898, to the SVV secretary, Anna
Johnston, from J. Brolly of Glasgow14 confirming a regular order for five dozen
copies. This number seems to indicate a high circulation although there was a
large Irish population in the Glasgow area and there have always been close
links between Glasgow and different parts of Ulster, so a high circulation in
Glasgow may not indicate a high circulation elsewhere. The magazine cost 2d
which many would not have been able to afford at the time. In this regard, it is
interesting that the New York publication, The Irish Republic, in an article
promoting the SVV regarded it as good value, at “only fifty cents annually”15
which may be a reflection of the better standard of living among the Irish in
New York than back home at the time.
The magazine seems to have been distributed widely throughout Ireland. The
issue of October 189616 lists agents in Belfast, Dublin and Londonderry and the
issue of September 1898 lists ten agents in Dublin who stocked the magazine17.
It was read in London, South Africa and in the United States as it has frequent
contributions from these places, albeit from a small number of individuals, and
12
Glandon, V. E. 1981. p25. The Irish Press and Revolutionary Irish Nationalism. ÉireIreland 16 (1), pp21-33.
13
Ibid., n6.
14
Letter to Anna Johnston from J. Brolly, 255 Cumbernauld Road, Dennistown, Glasgow. 24
February ’98. Held at the Allen Library.
15
The Irish Republic. 6 September 1896. Held at the National Archive, 12631/s Crime Branch
Special. Location, 3/716/11
16
SVV 1(10), p200
17
SVV 3(9), P174
10
by June 1897 it had an agent in New York: Mr. M. T. O’Brien, Room 70, 195
Broadway, New York 18.
THE TWO EDITORS: ALICE MILLIGAN AND ANNA JOHNSTON
Alice Milligan (1866-1953)
“Alice small, aggressive and full of observant curiosity …”. Maud Gonne19
Alice Milligan was born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone into a wealthy Methodist
family. Her father, Seaton Milligan, was a successful businessman whose work
involved extensive travel throughout Ireland. He was a noted antiquarian and
published a number of books. She learned some Irish from a great uncle and
went to Dublin to continue her studies in Irish from 1888 to 1891. While in
Dublin she attended one of Parnell’s last rallies. In 1893 the Milligan family
moved to Belfast and here Alice met up with a group of active like-minded
people – Robert Johnston and his daughter, Anna Johnston, Bulmer Hobson,
Francis Joseph Biggar and Roger Casement20.
Milligan was on friendly terms with many of the leading nationalist activists of
her time. She was “an intimate friend” of the widow of John Martin, the Young
Ireland leader. O’Donovan Rossa and John O’Leary were numbered among
“her close friends”. As a Gaelic League activist, she travelled the country
giving lectures on Irish history and producing historical tableaux. Through this
work she met William Butler Yeats, Maud Gonne, George Russell, George
Moore and Patrick Pearse. She met Roger Casement at Bulmer Hobson’s
house. She travelled to London to attend Casement’s trial. He requested her to
write a poem about it which she did after his death21.
She was a well-known poet. Thomas McDonagh, a professor at University
College, Dublin, who later became one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising,
described her as “the most Irish of living poets and therefore the best”22. She
also wrote fiction, sometimes under the pseudonym ‘Iris Olkyrn’. She wrote
letters to a range of nationalist publications and later she wrote plays, some of
which were staged in Dublin. In 1900 her play, The Last Feast of the Fianna,
was staged by Yeats’ Irish Literary Theatre as a way of healing a rift with
Gaelic League activists23. Mathews24 points out that the play was innovative in
18
SVV 2(6), p107
Gonne, M. 1938. IN A. N. Jaffares. and A. MacBride White. (eds.). 1994. Maud Gonne
MacBride A Servant of the Queen. Gerrards Cross : Colin Smythe. p176.
20
Turner Johnston. 1994.
21
McGrath, K. 1951. Grand Old Lady of Irish Lettters Alice Milligan at 84. Sunday Press.
21 October. Held at the Allen Library.
22
Morris, C. 2003a. p1. Becoming Irish? Alice Milligan and the Revival. Irish University
Review 33 (1), pp79-98.
23
Mathews. 2003. p76.
19
11
taking Irish legend as the subject for a play, an idea which influenced Yeats’
writing.
After the SVV came to an end Milligan’s time was taken up caring for members
of her family who were ill. She had no time to devote to public life and she
gradually lost touch with public figures. In 1941 she received an honorary
doctorate from the National University of Ireland. She died in poverty in
Omagh25.
Anna Johnston (1866-1902)
“Anna, tall and romantic with her long face and tender dreamy eyes …”
Maud Gonne26
Anna Johnston was a well known poet who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Ethna
Carbery’. The name Johnston is the anglicised form of Mac Seain. The family
spelt the name without a‘t’ until Anna’s father, Robert, altered the name when
he established himself in business in Belfast27.
The family had a history of involvement in nationalist rebellion. Anna’s great
grandfather was a member of the United Irishmen and was imprisoned. Her
father, Robert, “joined the Fenians and played a leading role in organising the
association throughout Ulster”28. The Crime Branch Special file on Robert
Johnston, dated 1890, claims that he was the Ulster Representative on the
Supreme Council of the IRB29. He was a friend of Charles Kickham and of
Charles Stuart Parnell30. The file also commented on his income:
He was originally a labouring man, but is now
very well-to-do. He is supposed to have made
some of his money by smuggling monies
belonging to the IRB [Irish Republican
Brotherhood] entrusted to him for other purposes,
and he has made a good deal more through
dishonesty in business31.
24
Ibid.
Turner Johnston. 1994. pp130-148
26
Gonne, M. 1938. IN Jaffares and MacBride White. (eds.). 1994. p176.
27
Meehan, H. 1993. p55. Ethna Carbery Anna Johnston McManus. Donegal Annual 45.
pp55-65.
28
Ibid.
29
Ibid.
30
Meehan. 1993. p55.
31
Crime Branch Special 11194/s, 1896, held at the National Archive.
25
12
He had a successful timber business and imported timber from the United
States, Canada and Scandinavia. He became wealthy and lived in a “large
villa”, called ‘Lisnaveen’ on the Antrim Road in Belfast32.
Anna was born in Ballymena, Co. Antrim. Like Milligan, she was active in
political and cultural circles. In 1901, she married Seumas MacManus, a
schoolmaster and writer from Donegal who had been a frequent contributor to
SVV.
Among the songs and poems written by Anna under the name, Ethna Carbery
are : Glen Moylena, Rody McCorley, Willie Nelson, In Glengormley, The
Erin’s Hope and Neece the Rapparee33 .
REASONS FOR THE STUDY
Reasons for its importance at the time
The SVV appeared in 1896, at an important turning point in Irish history.
Parnell died in 1891 and Gladstone’s second home rule bill was defeated in
1893, bringing to an end any hopes of change by parliamentary means.
Activists were turning away from party politics and towards cultural and
political self-help projects as ways of promoting change. Some people such as
Horace Plunkett saw self-help as a way of improving conditions within the
existing system while others began to see it as a way of promoting self-belief
and a separate identity so that people would eventually believe that they would
be able to take charge of their own affairs.
Clyde34 describes the period 1882-1912 as “the second golden age of Irish
literary magazines, the period of greatest fecundity and innovation since before
the Great Famine”. He describes the new titles of this period as falling into two
camps, “Literary Revival and Political Revival” although he emphasises that
there was a great deal of overlap of both content and contributors. The SVV was
the first of the Political Revival magazines to appear and although
32
Meehan. 1993. p57
Concannon, H. 1928. p880. ‘The Ethna Carbery Country’. Catholic Bulletin 18 (8), pp876880.
34
Clyde. 2003. p33.
33
13
Clyde35describes it as devoting “a rather larger proportion of its space to
literature than is the norm …”, he is right in stating that its “political coverage
has clear primacy …”. Mathews36 describes it as “pivotal”. It does appear that
it played an important part in the political and cultural debate of the time,
perhaps by drawing together a wide range of contributors and by covering a
range of issues from politics and history to language, literature and Gaelic
games.
The SVV promoted strongly the idea of decolonisation.
It advocated the
political separation of Ireland from the British empire. At the same time it
encouraged the development of a separate identity and the notion that people
could take control of their own affairs by promoting self-help cultural projects
such as the GAA and the Feis Ceoil; by developing links with places other than
England, such as the United States and South Africa; and by placing an
emphasis on the fact that the magazine was northern and Belfast-based and
setting it apart from Dublin, the second city of the empire.
Both of the women who ran the magazine were activists. Anna Johnston, who
was secretary and, from 1898, co-editor, was a well-known poet and writer.
She used the pseudonym ‘Ethna Carbery’. Her father, Robert Johnston, was a
Fenian and a friend of John O’Leary37. She attended the first meeting of Maud
Gonne’s organisation, Inghinidhne na hÉireann, in Dublin in 190038. Alice
Milligan, who was editor of SVV from the start and shared the editorship with
Anna Johnston from 1898, was well-known in literary and political circles. She
was a poet and a playwright and was active in lecturing on Irish history and in
encouraging the setting-up of reading circles39. Because Milligan and Johnston
were activists they were able to comment knowledgably on the issues of the
day, to distribute the magazine among activists and to draw articles, poems and
other contributions from leading activists.
35
ibid., p36
Mathews. 2003. p76
37
Kelly, J. (ed.). 1986. The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats, 1865-1895. Volume 1. Oxford :
Oxford University Press. p188n
38
Luddy, M. 1995. Women in Ireland A Documentary History 1800-1918. Cork : Cork
University Press. p300
39
Turner Johnston, S. 1994. p97 and SVV 1(2), p38.
36
14
The SVV was independent of any organisation and was funded by subscription
and advertising. It seems to have had a wide circulation. It managed to survive
for more than three years. It had a large number of contributors, many of whom
were active in the self-help movement. These contributors must have felt that
the SVV provided a useful forum for their ideas.
Both Milligan and Johnston travelled widely in Ireland which gave them an
opportunity to promote the magazine. Each issue of the magazine consists of
about twenty pages and it appeared without interruption from 1896 until the
project came to an end in 1899 because of external circumstances, despite the
fact that during this time Milligan and Johnston were active in other campaigns
and activities especially the centenary celebration of the 1798 rebellion which is
covered in detail in the SVV. The entire project of the magazine appears to be
well organised and is a good example of the self-help ethos which the two
women promoted.
The magazine is also a good example of the participation of women in public
life. It was the project of Milligan and Johnston and they did not hesitate to
take contributors to task when they disagreed with them. They did not appear to
have felt that views should in any way be subservient to those of the men but
neither did they feel the need to explore the position and roles of women in
society. They seemed to expect women to work alongside men on campaigns
and sometimes to take up work that was being ignored by men, as in the case of
the 1798 commemoration when women are encouraged by the SVV to form a
separate committee for organising demonstrations40.
Reasons why it is important today
The British empire was at its strongest at the end of the nineteenth century with
a huge expansion having taken place in trade. Between 1809 and 1839 exports
40
SVV 2(6), p104
15
grew from £25.4 to £76 million and to £124.5 million ten years later41.
This
expansion was brought about by improvements in shipping lines and the
expansion of the railways. Between 1861 and 1888 the mileage of rail network
grew by 81 percent and the traffic carried grew by 180 percent42.
This
expansion in trade required rapid communication systems which led to the
spread of the telegraph. In 1866 a telegraph cable was laid across the Atlantic
and by 1878 Britain had telegraph links with India43. As a result of economic
and political dominance and of the expansion in communication systems,
British culture was the dominant culture of the world. It was also sowing the
seeds of its own destruction as this expansion provided a means of developing
alternative cultures. Said states:
The power to narrate, or to block other narratives
from forming and emerging, is very important to
culture and imperialism, and constitutes one of the
main connections between them …44.
The widespread use of the telegraph since the middle of the nineteenth century
had led to a flourishing of news and newspapers but, as Postman explains, it had
also changed the nature of discourse by “introducing on a large scale
irrelevance, impotence and incoherence”:
Telegraphy gave a form of legitimacy to the idea
of context-free information; that is, to the idea that
the value of information need not be tied to any
function it might serve in social and political
decision-making and action, but may attach
merely to its novelty, interest and curiosity …45.
This change served the needs of colonialism and capitalism by separating
information and discourse from an ability to take action;
41
Atterbury (2005) p1. Victorian Technology. [Online]. Available from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/industrialisation/victorian_ technology_print.htm
Accessed 11 June 2005
42
ibid. p5
43
ibid. p6
44
Said, E. W. 1993. Culture and Imperialism. London : Vintage. pxiii
45
Postman, N. 1987. Amusing Ourselves to Death. London : Methuen. p66-67
16
Prior to the age of telegraphy, the informationaction ratio was sufficiently so that most people
had a sense of being able to control some of the
contingencies in their lives. What people knew
about had action-value. In the information world
created by telegraphy, this sense of potency was
lost …46.
Alice Milligan complained of this trivialisation of news in the Dublin papers:
Space can be found to insert column after column
recording the horrible annals of London crime …
Railway accidents, conflagrations, disasters at sea
are dealt with at length…The social beauty, the
music-hall favourite, the royal Derby winner are
the subjects of paragraphs and portraiture …47
The magazine faced a daunting task in opposing this cultural domination and
there is a sense in the SVV of the need to move people away from a lack of
belief in their own abilities to take charge of any aspect of their lives, even
down to organising their own sporting activities.
Today we have globalisation and the hegemonic dominance of American
culture which seems to leave us again with only one view of the world. The
control is ideological and is concerned not only with the promotion of United
States’ style political dominance but also with the requirements of corporate
capitalism, that is, consumerism. The mass media ensure the dominance of
consumerism:
In their capacity of information providers, they
instruct their readers/viewers/listeners on why
massive armaments are good for everyone, why
the demands of the poor (people and nations) are
not to be taken seriously, and why the United
States must ‘lead’ the world …48.
The effect of the mass media has been so far-reaching as to bring about a
change in public consciousness:
46
ibid. p70
SVV 1(9), p178
48
Schiller, H. I. 1984. Information and the Crisis Economy Norwood : Ablex Publishing
Corporation. P24.
47
17
It has sold successfully, a way of life and a set of
beliefs, which tie human well-being to the
individual possession of an ever-expanding array
of purchasable goods and services. Acquiring
material goods has either superseded or been made
the equivalent of, love, friendship, and community
…49.
Projects which promote alternative politics need to be able to promote change
through rational and emotional means and to be able to challenge people in the
different aspects of their lives. The SVV is an example of a project which
opposed the dominant world view in its writing and in the activism it promoted.
It is an example of a project in which readers were encouraged to become active
and to develop a separate identity. The project contained the rational arguments
of political debate alongside the emotional charge of poetry and fiction.
METHODOLOGY
Thesis
Postman explains that in the age of print culture, public discourse was “serious,
inclined towards rational argument and presentation and, therefore, made up of
meaningful content …”50. The impact of the telegraph on information was to
give it “irrelevance, impotence and incoherence …”51.
He describes the relationship between information and action: “In both oral and
typographical cultures, information derives its importance from the possibilities
of action …”52. He continues: “Prior to the age of telegraphy, the informationaction ratio was sufficiently close so that most people had a sense of being able
to control some of the contingencies in their lives. What people knew about had
action-value …”53.
49
Schiller. 1984. p97
Postman. 1987. p53.
51
Ibid., p66.
52
Ibid., p69.
53
Ibid., p70.
50
18
This thesis is based on the idea of action-value, not in the sense of any action
that the SVV magazine may have caused but in the sense of whether or not it set
out a clear and practical course of action for its readers. The title of the thesis
is:
Political Communication in the Shan Van Vocht magazine, 1896-9: an example
of print culture, a media project with action-value.
The research is broken down into five questions:
1. What was the central idea being promoted by the magazine?
2. In what ways did the magazine prepare its readers for action?
3. What were the courses of action promoted by the magazine?
4. To what sections of society were these courses of action suggested?
5. What are the lessons for today?
Rationale
This methodology has its basis in the area of cultural studies and particularly in
the work of Raymond Williams whose interest in social history led to his
broadened the definition of culture54. Williams describes three levels of culture,
the third of which is the ‘social’ definition of culture: “a description of a
particular way of life, which expresses certain meanings and values not only in
art and learning but also in institutions and ordinary behaviour”55. An analysis
of culture based on this definition will include:
… analysis of elements in the way of life that to
followers of the other definition [of culture] are
not ‘culture’ at all: the organisation of production,
the structure of the family, the structure of
institutions which express or govern social
relationships, the characteristic forms through
which members of the society communicate …56.
54
Mullan, J. 2005. Rebel in a Tweed Suit. Guardian. 28 May. Review section. p37.
Williams, R. 1965. p332. The Analysis of Culture. [Reprinted from The Long Revolution].
IN O. Boyd-Barrett & C. Newbold (eds.). Approaches to Media A Reader. 2004. London :
Arnold. p332-337.
55
56
Ibid.
19
This research will examine a means of communication at a particular time in
history. This is a way of examining power relations in society because as
Williams explains: “The traditional culture of a society will always tend to
correspond to its contemporary system of interests and values, for it is not an
absolute body of work but a continual selection and interpretation”57.
DEFINITIONS
Politics in the Shan Van Vocht
If politics is defined as the “science and art of government”58, Alice Milligan
was not so much concerned with the details of the way in which Ireland was
governed as with the question of by whom it should be governed. She believed
that Ireland should be separate from the British empire and should control its
own affairs. Her politics were therefore not merely radical but revolutionary in
the sense that she believed in “forcible action by [a] nation to substitute [a] new
ruler”59. While she believed that force would be required to achieve complete
separation, she saw the achievement of this goal as involving a process where
people would develop a belief in their own ability to bring about separation and
to build a new independent identity. She saw self help as the way of starting out
on this process and believed that it would show the ways in which the new state
could be organised by providing models for agriculture and for various cultural
activities.
Alice Milligan’s view of separatist politics was the central idea driving the Shan
Van Vocht magazine. Her editorial in the SVV of August 189660 deals with the
question, “Why must we strive for freedom?” She sets out the arguments for
remaining part of “the mightiest empire in the world” and rejects these
arguments “because we believe that our nation has a high and noble destiny to
57
ibid., p336.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary. 1976. 6th Edition. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
p855
59
ibid. p964. definition of revolution
60
SVV 1(8) p150
58
20
fulfil, a part to play in the advancement of the human race along the upward
path of progress”. She explains why a new leadership is required in the world:
We live in an era which, in spite of its advance
along the line of material civilisation, is
retrograding towards utilitarian philosophy61and
mere paganism, an age which has lost or is fast
losing faith in immortality and things divine, and
which is necessarily becoming debased …62.
She was resolutely anti-parliamentarian. Because she wanted complete
separation from the British empire she saw no value in the work of Irish MPs at
Westminster. Her opposition to party politics is evident in her reply to James
Connolly’s suggestion that republicans should stand for parliament:
Mr. Connolly and his supporters can do good
work for Ireland in preaching the gospel of
democracy and spreading National principles. In
advocating the formation of a democratic party in
Parliament they are taking the broad road that
leads to destruction, as such a party would
inevitably be in alliance with the English Labour
party …63.
The achieving of separation is seen as a process requiring work and
commitment: “the freedom of Ireland…must be worked for, prayed for, longed
for, night and day unceasingly, and in the end be nobly won …”64
In the April 1897 issue of SVV Milligan sets out the arenas in which the
separation of Ireland will be achieved:
Far beyond the vicissitudes of a desultory
Parliamentary warfare, beyond even the growth of
an independent and fearless National Press, we
must place the Irish literary revival in the front
rank among the forces tending to the regeneration
of Ireland …65.
61
Not in the Bentham sense of enlightened benevolence.
ibid.
63
SVV 2(10) p188
64
SVV 1(8) p151
65
SVV 2(4) p62
62
21
The role of the press would be to advocate this transformation. The next arena
of importance is the co-operative movement in the economic arena, in
particular, the work that was being undertaken by Horace Plunkett and the Irish
Agricultural Organisation Society:
But literature alone, though it move mountains,
will not stir the rank and file of the breadwinners
and nerve them for an arduous struggle for selfgovernment. The best thing that could happen
would be that the people at large found out that
they could hold their own in the world’s market,
that they could by their own effort, without
intervention from outside, open up markets and
command prices; that they could oust competitors
and put an Irish product in the highest place …
Anything therefore which tends to create new
industries and to teach people how to help
themselves towards material prosperity should be
welcomed as a direct furtherance of the national
ideals and aspirations …66.
On the matter of whether or not the self-help movements are political
movements, Mathews states:
Although the self-help movements professed to
operate beyond conventional party politics, their
activities … clearly had political ramifications. If
there is tension within Irish nationalism at this
time, it is more useful to see it as a battle between
a newly-emerging self-help consensus and oldstyle parliamentary politics, rather than a struggle
between clearly delineated ‘cultural’ and
‘political’ forces …67.
Milligan also believed that education would play an important part in enlisting
the mass of people to support separation:
The gradual spread of education among the
masses of the people, their consequent
enlightenment, and the disappearance of the castiron prejudices separating and estranging Irishmen
66
67
ibid
Mathews. 2003. p7
22
from each other constitute another powerful
influence working for the advancement of Ireland
…68.
Milligan’s idea of education extended beyond what was being taught in schools
and included the Irish language and Irish history, which she herself promoted
through lectures and through the pages of the SVV.
To summarise, Milligan’s politics were separatist and revolutionary and the
arenas that she identified for the promotion of separation are the literary
Revival, the co-operative movement and education, none of which would be
seen as forces for change in the Ireland of today.
Culture in the Shan Van Vocht
Milligan, who was a noted poet and later, playwright, would have seen culture
as high culture, in Matthew Arnold’s phrase, “a pursuit of our total perfection
by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best
which has been thought and said in the world …”69. The common expressions
of culture in Ireland at that time were literary – poetry, drama and prose and
these cultural forms were then being democratised. Milligan and Johnston were
writers and activists of the literary revival; so they were attempting to produce a
new writing, partly through journalism, that promoted an independent Irish
identity.
They were also aware that they needed to gain widespread support for the
project of independence, which was unlikely to come about without some
degree of democratisation: “When patriotism is supposed to be the exclusive
birthright of a single class, creed or station in life, we may well despair of the
building of a nation …”70. To this end activists were attempting to promote
peasant culture and to search for an older ‘purer’ kind of Irish literature such as
that collected by Douglas Hyde. The leaders of the Revival were Anglo-Irish
68
ibid
Arnold, M. 1869. Culture and Anarchy. p4. [Online]. Available from:
http://www.authorama.com/culture-and-anarchy-1.html#p4 Accessed 5 March 2005.
70
SVV 2(4), p62
69
23
and had to go all the way back to pre-Christian Ireland to find a culture to which
they could relate.
Peasants were also the main source which the Gaelic League had for the revival
of the Irish language as it was they who actually spoke the language. The SVV
includes some material which would now be described as folklore: “Manus
O’Mallaghan and the Fairies”71; “The Shearing of the Fairy Fleeces” by Ethna
Carbery”72; and “Peadar Bocach and the Monk of Burrishoole, A Mayo
Legend”73. It also promoted the Irish language and Irish music.
From its cover price of 2d and the advertisements for jewellers’ shops and
suppliers of animal feed it would seem that the readers of SVV were from the
wealthier sections of society but the editor may have hoped to reach other
sectors of society at least occasionally and she may also have intended to inform
readers about aspects of peasant culture.
All of the writing in the SVV was towards the same purpose of promoting the
political separation of Ireland. Mathews explains:
This drive towards cultural sovereignty proceeded
by revising the imperial narrative of Ireland and
relocating the nation at the centre rather than at the
periphery of experience – a strategy which cannot
be seen as apolitical …74.
Culture in the SVV is wider then than high culture and may fit better the
definition that Terry Eagleton gives when he describes it as “less those spiritual
goods made available by wealth, leisure and education, than language, customs,
religion, tradition, popular art – everything, in short, which constitutes a
particular people as distinctive …”75.
71
SVV 1(2), p25
SVV 3(6), pp97-99
73
SVV 1(7), p127-128
74
Mathews. 2003. p10
75
Eagleton, T. 1995. p241. Heathcliff and the Great Hunger Studies in Irish Culture.
London : Verso.
72
24
To summarise, culture in the SVV includes high culture and peasant culture. Its
purpose is political, to promote the separation of Ireland from the British empire
by developing a separate Irish identity.
25
2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
This study will examine ways in which the Shan Van Vocht challenged the
dominant ideology of empire in the 1890s by considering the coverage of
political and cultural ideas in the magazine. The review of literature will cover
three areas. First it will look at writings on the Irish Revival that deal with the
ideological context of the 1890s and the ways in which the political and cultural
activities of the Revivalists challenged this context. The second part of the
review will consider writings on the expansion of the press at the end of the
nineteenth century and on the range of periodicals which presented an
alternative view to that of the popular press. The third section will deal with
writings on the SVV and on its two editors.
THE IRISH REVIVAL
In his review of recent research on Irish history Ó Tuathaigh76 identifies four
strands as “particularly influential in recent writings on the politics of Ireland
under the Union”. One of these strands is “the growing awareness of and
engagement with ideology, and the examination of the role of ideology in
determining the agenda of politics at every level …”77. The term, ‘ideology’, is
being used here in the Marxist sense of a set of ideas and values underpinning a
political and economic system. The ideology that is being challenged by the
Revivalists is the ideology of empire. They are doing this by developing an
ideology of resistance.
Until recently much of the study of ideology has taken place in the area of
literary criticism. Edward W. Said, in his study, Culture and Imperialism, set
out the range of influences of culture on the maintenance of, and challenges to,
76
Ó Tuathaigh , G. 2005. Political History IN L. M. Geary and M. Kelleher (eds.) NineteenthCentury Ireland: A Guide to Recent Research Dublin : University College Dublin Press, pp126.
77
Ibid., p2
26
power within empires:
“Culture … is a source of identity, and a rather
combative one …”78.
Eagleton’s trilogy of studies on Irish culture79 has
emphasised the closeness of culture and politics in Ireland:
In a familiar Irish displacement, culture was called
upon to play the formative, unifying role that
political institutions might have been trusted to
perform in a more developed or emancipated
society …”80.
In his major study of Irish literature, Kiberd81 describes the achievement of the
Irish revival:
That enterprise achieved nothing less than a
renovation of Irish consciousness and a new
understanding of politics, economics, philosophy,
sport, language and culture in its widest sense
…82.
A number of recent studies have broadened the examination of the ideology of
this period to focus on its more directly political aspects. In a collection of
essays on conflicting ideologies in nineteenth century Ireland Foley and Ryder83
consider these conflicts of ideology in relation to art, public discourse and
identity. They explain that, in nineteenth century Ireland, “ideology found itself
continually in a state of exposure and confrontation, unable to ‘naturalise’ itself
and to achieve hegemonic invisibility …”:
The failure or crisis in Ireland of those ideas and
practices which had become hegemonic or at least
dominant in the metropolitan imperial culture of
Britain could in fact be understood in quite
diametrically-opposed ways. Such failures were,
from an imperial point of view, a mark of
78
Said, E. W. 1994. Culture and Imperialism London : Vintage
Eagleton, T. 1995. Heathcliff and the Great Hunger London : Verso
Eagleton, T. 1998. Crazy John and the Bishop Cork : Cork University Press
Eagleton, T. 1999. Scholars and Rebels in Nineteenth Century Ireland Oxford : Blackwell
80
Eagleton. 1995. p228
81
Kiberd, D. 1996. Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation London : Jonathan
Cape
82
ibid., p3
83
Foley, T. and Ryder, S. 1998. Introduction IN T. Foley and S. Ryder (eds.) Ideology and
Ireland in the Nineteenth Century Dublin : Four Courts Press, pp7-12
79
27
Ireland’s hopelessly recalcitrant primitivism. On
the other hand, from an anti-imperial position one
might see such ‘failures’ quite differently, as
positive evidence of the ideological and selfinterested character of those supposedly ‘natural’
or ‘progressive’ imperial values …84.
Mathews describes the Irish Revival as “a key moment in Ireland’s
decolonisation …”85. Mathews’ study focuses on the range of self-help
activities underway and the degree of co-operation across the various self-help
movements during the Revival:
That the early theatre movement occasionally
found itself at odds with elements within the
Gaelic League and with the leadership of the
nascent Sinn Féin is undeniable. However, it
would seem to me that the sustained attention
devoted to these disputes has worked to conceal
the nature and extent of the co-operation across
the self-help movements …86.
Mathews87 goes on to complain that attention by researchers has been focused
on personalities rather than on processes:
There has been much interest in the individual
self-fashioning of the leading figures during the
revival but little recent analysis of the material
impact the movement had on Irish culture and
society in general, notwithstanding the fact that
the imprint of revivalist thought and initiative is
everywhere traceable in the cultural and social
make-up of contemporary Ireland. Moreover …
the revival was characterised by a rich and
complex ferment of political thinking and no small
amount of liberational energy …88.
84
ibid., p7
Mathews, P. J. 2003. p2, Revival: The Abbey Theatre, Sinn Féin, the Gaelic League and the
Co-operative Movement Cork : Cork University Press
86
ibid., p2
87
Mathews. 2003. p146
88
ibid., p148
85
28
A collection of conference essays edited by Taylor FitzSimon and Murphy89
calls for a broader approach to the study of the Revival in order “to expand the
number of individuals, movements and viewpoints …” 90.
Apart from the above collection there is little research of the kind called for by
Mathews. The main reason for this has been that the revisionist point-of-view
held sway in history writings about this period. As Miller points out, “the
purported goal of the revisionists was the creation of a more ‘professional’ and
‘impartial history’, stripped of romantic nationalist (and, at least in theory,
unionist) ‘myths’, for its own ‘objective’ sake …”91. Miller goes on:
Unquestionably, the revisionists made important
contributions … However, it is equally clear that
the agenda of many writers was to demobilise
popular support for forms of contemporary
nationalism of which they did not approve by
deconstructing the ideologies and by destabilising
popular understanding of the past events from
which nationalist had drawn for inspiration and
example …92.
As Ó Tuathaigh states, “the shadow of contemporary political preoccupations
invariably lies across historiographical directions and trends …”93. Because it
involved a struggle for political legitimacy, the conflict in northern Ireland was
always going to bring contemporary political issues into any discussion of
history. As Whelan remarked in relation to the 1798 rebellion, the crisis in the
northern state “never passed into history because it never passed out of
politics”94. Those who are seeking what Ó Tuathaigh calls ‘frameworks of
accommodation’95, as examples of ways of bringing to an end the conflict in
89
Taylor FitzSimon, B. and Murphy, J. H. (eds.). 2004. The Irish Revival Reappraised Dublin
: Four Courts Press
90
ibid., Introduction, p13
91
Miller, K. 1998. p2. Introduction. Eighteenth-Century Life 22(3), pp1-6.
92
Ibid.
93
Ó Tuathaigh, G. 2005. p23
94
Whelan, K. 1996. The Tree of Liberty Radicalism, Catholicism and the Construction of
Irish Identity, 1760-1830. Cork : Cork University Press. p133
95
ibid.
29
northern Ireland, might not find such frameworks in this period of the late
nineteenth century which was about to experience massive upheaval.
For
similar reasons scholars do not want to ‘drag politics into culture’, and we are
deprived of studies ranging across areas not usually defined as political.
Another reason for the shortage of writings on ideology and process is that
much of the scholarship has concentrated on individuals and resulted in
biographies, diaries and collections of letters. As Mathews96 points out, this has
led to attention being focused on the quirkiness of individual personalities to the
neglect of their work and achievements.
As Ryder97 explains, Yeats’ view of the history and literature of the period and
of the central role he himself played has come to dominate writings on the
literature of the nineteenth century:
In the late 1880s Yeats energetically set about
anthologising, eulogising and tabulating his
nineteenth-century predecessors – largely in order
to construct a role for himself as both the inheritor
of a tradition and as someone who would radically
extend and improve upon that tradition …98.
Ryder goes on to say that as late as the 1980s, Thomas Kinsella, in his writings
on the history of poetry, “simply repackaged Yeats’s perspective …”99. If this
is true of literature it may well be true for wider areas of culture and politics.
It may also be the case that researchers might believe that the concept of empire
is no longer relevant and that this period has nothing further to teach us
concerning the hegemony and ideologies that are in place today.
Mathews’100 study covers the years 1899-1905 and examines a number of
debates surrounding decolonisation and the self-help movement. This present
96
Mathews. 2003. p146
Ryder, S. 2005. p119, Literature in English IN L. M. Geary and M. Kelleher, Nineteenth Century Ireland: A Guide to Recent Research Dublin : University College Dublin Press, pp118135
98
ibid., p119
99
ibid.
97
30
study on the SVV has a much narrower focus and will consider the ideas on
decolonisation and self-help under discussion in the magazine by leaders of the
Revival during the period 1896-1899.
NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS
This section will consider journalism of the late nineteenth century. It will
examine the coverage of issues of empire and separatism. Then the nature of
news will be considered.
This will then be contrasted with the different
character of the writing in periodicals.
Newspapers, Empire and Separatism
Some recent research has investigated the role of newspapers in promoting
ideology. A collection of essays edited by Potter101 examines “the images of
the British empire that were projected by newspapers and periodicals in Ireland
and Britain”.102 In one of these essays MacKenzie103 notes the paucity of
research into the role of newspapers “as a means for the transmission and
reinforcement of ideologies of consensus and controversy, compliance and
conflict …”104. There is a need to investigate the power of newspapers in an era
when print culture had a monopoly and, as a result of this, an ability not only to
change consciousness but to form it. Newspapers formed people’s worldview.
MacKenzie situates the direction taken by the developing newspapers at the end
of the nineteenth century in the expansion of empire:
The conjunction of the technical and
organisational transformations that overtook the
100
Mathews. 2003.
Potter, S. J. (ed.). 2004 Newspapers and Empire in Ireland and Britain: Reporting the
British Empire c.1857-1921 Dublin : Four Courts Press
102
Ibid., Introduction, p11
103
MacKenzie, J. M. 2004. The Press and the Dominant Ideology of Empire IN: S. J. Potter
(ed.) Newspapers and Empire in Ireland and Britain: Reporting the British Empire c.18571921 Dublin : Four Courts Press. pp23-38.
104
Ibid., p24
101
31
newspaper industry, and the simultaneous
‘imperialising’ of the press, was not planned, but
neither was it coincidental.
For the
industrialisation of the press, and late nineteenthcentury imperialism, were facilitated by similar
technological developments …105.
Sheehy106 documents the support for empire shown by Irish journalists working
in Fleet Street who were supporters of Home Rule. Two studies from the same
collection examine the reporting of empire in Irish national newspapers.
Larkin107 explains that the Freeman’s Journal did not concern itself with the
issue of empire:
Significant events in individual colonies and
Dominions were, of course, reported in the paper
leader columns, but the Freeman neither espoused
the cause of empire nor offered a critique of it
…108.
Maume109 reports that the Irish Daily Independent which was founded in 1891
took a more separatist stance. It was “sponsored by the Parnellite party110 and
had links with the militant Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB):
The IRB leader Fred Allen was manager, and
many separatists worked on the printing and
delivery staff. The Independent offices became
the IRB’s unofficial Dublin headquarters ...111.
Maume finds that the anti-imperialist stance of the newspaper in the early days
was “opportunistic and unsystematic …”112.
105
Ibid., p26
Sheehy, I. 2004. ‘The View from Fleet Street’: Irish nationalist journalists in London and
their attitudes towards empire, 1892-1898 IN: S. J. Potter (ed.) Newspapers and Empire in
Ireland and Britain: Reporting the British Empire c.1857-1921, pp143-158.
107
Larkin, F. M. 2004 The dog in the night-time: the Freeman’s Journal, the Irish
Parliamentary Party and the empire, 1875-1919 IN: S. J. Potter (ed.) Newspapers and Empire in
Ireland and Britain: Reporting the British Empire c.1857-1921, pp109-123.
108
Ibid., p109
109
Maume, P. 2004. The Irish Independent and empire, 1891-1919 IN: S. J. Potter (ed.)
Newspapers and Empire in Ireland and Britain: Reporting the British Empirec.1857-1921,
pp124-142
110
ibid., p124
111
ibid., p125
112
ibid., p141
106
32
In a detailed study of the Irish provincial press from 1850 to 1892 Legg113
identifies the importance of local reports on the development of nationalist
politics:
In the last two decades of the nineteenth century
the provincial press brought their readers
increasingly into contact with the rest of Ireland,
politically and economically. The business of the
Land League and parliamentary politics were
conducted locally as well as nationally and the
size and importance of the provincial press grew
accordingly ...114.
In conclusion, with a small number of exceptions, newspapers are seen to be
generally supportive of empire.
The Nature of News
Postman115 describes the changes in the nature of news brought about by the
advent of the telegraph:
It was not long until the fortunes of newspapers
came to depend not on the quality or utility of the
news they provided, but on how much, from what
distances, and at what speed … Only four years
after Morse opened the nation’s first telegraph line
on May 24, 1844 … news from nowhere,
addressed to no one in particular began to crisscross the nation. Wars, crimes, crashes, fires,
floods … became the content of what people
called “the news of the day”...116.
Kiberd117 offers a commentary on contemporary newspapers and news-making
through the writings of James Joyce. He sees Joyce’s Ulysses as “a slow-motion
alternative to the daily newspaper of Dublin for 16 June 1904 ...”118. He goes
113
Legg, M. L. 1999. Newspapers and Nationalism: The Provincial Press, 1850-1892 Dublin
: Four Courts Press
114
ibid., p147
115
Postman, N. 1987 Amusing Ourselves to Death London : Methuen
116
ibid., p68
117
Kiberd, D. 2001. Irish Classics Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press
118
ibid., p463
33
on to state that Joyce’s appropriation of newspaper methods was “not
necessarily hostile”:
When he called himself a scissors-and-paste man,
he was casting himself as editor-in-chief of the
counter-newspaper that was Ulysses: but his own
apprenticeship as a writer of stories for The Irish
Homestead was a major factor behind his first
collection, Dubliners … 119.
Kiberd points out that the “qualities of watchfulness, scepticism and
unshockability” which were required of the characters in Ulysses “are
demanded also of the scanners of a broadsheet page …”120. He sees in Ulysses
a similarity with the structure and content of newspapers:
As a book Ulysses assembles many of the raw
materials that also filled out newspapers: snatches
of overheard conversation, editorial commentary,
government edicts, commercial advertisements,
short stories … As a collection of stories bolted
with some strain together, rather than a smoothly
linear narrative, the book does read like a
newspaper …121.
On instant news Kiberd comments that “the capacity for news that stays news
was being lost in the welter of sensation: people felt oppressed by an overload
of information but in no way illuminated by it …”122.
This kind of superficial instant news was shunned by writers in the periodicals
of the nineteenth century who offered alternative reading material to the
newspapers of the time.
119
ibid.
ibid., p465
121
ibid., p467
122
ibid., p470
120
34
Periodicals
Periodicals stayed true to the original nature of print-culture which informed by
offering rational argument and debate. Clyde’s major work of reference on
Irish Literary Magazines123 provides a comprehensive history of these
magazines. He identifies the period 1892-1922 as:
[T]he second golden age of Irish literary
magazines, the period of greatest fecundity and
innovation since before the Great Famine, and it is
grounded in two overlapping and interlinked,
movements in Irish society: the Irish Literary
Revival and the revival of militant Irish
nationalism after the shock waves following
Parnell’s death began to subside...124.
Clyde describes the SVV as a political magazine and as
[A]typical, coming as it does from Belfast, being
produced by women, and devoting a rather large
proportion of its space to literature than the norm
… However the political coverage has clear
primacy, and most of the literary items which did
appear conformed to the political agenda …125.
The idea of focusing research on one publication is based on the work carried
out by Uí Chollatáin126 on the Gaelic League newspaper, An Claidheamh Soluis.
This work examines the evolution of An Claidheamh Soluis into a national
newspaper and its coverage of events and issues under different editorships.
This study on the SVV will examine the magazine as an example of print culture
and will consider the process of promoting separatist politics and self-help ideas
through the magazine as a means of encouraging activism.
123
Clyde, T. 2003 Irish Literary Magazines: An Outline History and Descriptive
Bibliography Dublin : Irish Academic Press
124
ibid., p33
125
ibid., p36
126
Uí Chollatain, R. 2004. An Claidheamh Soluis agus Fáinne an Lae, 1899-1932. Dublin :
Cois Life Teoranta.
35
THE SHAN VAN VOCHT MAGAZINE
Much of the detailed research which has been carried out on the SVV magazine
and on its editors, Alice Milligan and Anna Johnston, has been in the area of
local history. This work provides us with details of the lives of the two women
as well as of how the magazine was organised and put together. Meehan’s
research into the life of Anna Johnston127 explains the political involvement of
her family over several generations and Meehan has also undertaken work on
the content of the SVV.128 Harp129 has researched Milligan’s diaries and letters.
Turner Johnston’s biography of Alice Milligan130 is another example of detailed
and painstaking research.
Innes finds in the SVV and other publications of the time an attempt by women
to take a role in public life or ‘a voice in directing the affairs of Ireland’, while
denying that they distrust the men.131
Catherine Morris has undertaken a long-term study of the life and work of Alice
Milligan.132 She sees several aspects to Milligan’s work:
As a northerner, she operated outside the
centralised cultural focus of Dublin.
As a
Protestant Irish republican, she compromised the
traditional dualisms structuring the Irish political
unconscious. As a woman, moreover, she was
inevitably cast – and indeed volunteered herself –
as the handmaiden of a male-defined history.
Milligan’s occlusion from the historical record
127
Meehan, H. 1993. Ethna Carberry Anna Johnston McManus. Donegal Annual 45, pp55-65
Meehan, H. 1997. Shan Van Vocht. Ulster Local Studies 19 (1), pp80-90
129
Harp, R. 2000. No Other Place But Ireland: Alice Milligan’s Diary and Letters. New
Hibernia Review 4 (1), pp79-87
130
Turner Johnston, S. 1994. Alice: A life of Alice Milligan Omagh : Colourpoint Press
131
Innes, C. I. 1991. ‘A voice in directing the affairs of Ireland’: L’Irlande libre, The Shan Van
Vocht and Bean na h-Éireann IN P. Hyland and N. Sammells (eds.) Irish writing: Exile and
Subversion London : Macmillan
132
Morris, C. 2003. In the enemy’s camp: Alice Milligan and fin-de-siecle Belfast IN N.
Allen and A. Kelly (eds.) The Cities of Belfast Dublin : Four Courts Press. Pp62-73 AND
Morris, C. 2003a. Becoming Irish? Alice Milligan and the Revival Irish University Review 33
(1), pp79-98
Morris, C. 1999. From the margins: Alice Milligan and the Irish cultural revival, 1888-1905
PhD Thesis. University of Aberdeen. [Online] Available from Index to Theses
http://www.dcu.ie/~library/Eresources/databases-az.htm Accessed 29 March 2005.
128
36
was further ensured by her commitment to a
localised politics of community participation ...133.
This study will concentrate on the work of Milligan and Johnston during the
period 1896-99 through the magazine, SVV, and it will examine the views of the
two women on separatist politics during this time and their ways of promoting
these views.
133
37
Morris. 1999. p1
3. CONFIDENCE-BUILDING
“ … the people, as a whole, even those who sympathised with the Fenians,
and even many of them who were Fenians, had not any real conviction that
Ireland was at the time ready and fit to take her destiny into her own
hands …”134.
PREPARATION
Having abandoned parliamentary politics as a means of achieving separation,
the SVV is supportive of any other means but shows an awareness that nothing
will be achieved without self-belief.
It sets about encouraging people to
develop a separate identity through an understanding of Irish history and an
appreciation of Irish culture.
HISTORY
Almost one third of the SVV magazine is devoted to describing Irish history,
particularly the 1798 rebellion and the Fenians. An example of this coverage is
a detailed description of the events of the 1798 rebellion taken from the sevenvolume work by R.R. Madden. Some extracts from Madden’s history are
serialised in the first year’s issues of SVV and including an account of the
imprisonment and death of Henry Joy McCracken by his sister, Mary
McCracken. Whelan describes Madden’s history and its effect:
Madden had assiduously corresponded with and
interviewed the surviving United Irish leaders, and
his books are biographical in focus and
hagiographical in tone … Madden’s books were a
profound influence on the Thomas Davis and the
Young Irelanders, who celebrated the United
Irishmen not as passive victims or reluctant rebels,
134
38
Milligan, A. 1897. SVV 2 (2), p29
but as ideologically committed revolutionaries
with a coherent political strategy …135.
This version is the kind of example of revolutionary activity that the SVV was
endeavouring to promote.
Many of the writings on history in the SVV are by Milligan as she was actively
researching Irish history for the lectures which she delivered all over the
country.
For Milligan, history had a practical purpose. Milligan’s aim was to give
people an understanding of their own history so that they would have an innate
belief in a separate Ireland. In February 1897, writing about William Smith
O’Brien, Milligan comments on the failure of the Fenian uprising:
The organisation which he controlled, vast as it
was, was powerless to bring about a Rising, still
less a revolution, in the country and why? Simply
because the people, as a whole, even those who
sympathised with the Fenians, and even many of
them who were Fenians, had not a real conviction
that Ireland was at the time ready and fit to take
her destiny into her own hands …136.
Coverage of history in the SVV then was geared to the aim of providing people
with a strong sense of self-belief and towards providing them with a separate
identity so that they could actually visualise being in charge of their own affairs.
135
Whelan, K. 1996. The Tree of Liberty Radicalism, Catholicism and the Construction of
Irish Identity, 1760-1830. Cork : Cork University Press. p167.
136
SVV 2(2), p29
39
LITERATURE
The role of literature is described by John R. Whelan in the SVV of January
1897:
The necessity of every great movement for the
advancement of the popular cause in any country
having behind it a literature of and peculiar to
itself, has been proved so often that to assert it
now is the merest truism … In our own country
we find the bard seated next the king – we find
him the receptacle of the history, the traditions, the
glories of the past – the source from which sprang
the prowess and the valour of the warriors of his
own time …137.
Milligan and Johnston were both well-known writers and poets. Each issue of
the magazine contains several poems by these poets or by others; just over one
third of the content of the magazine is taken up with poems and stories, most of
them written by Milligan or Johnston. Harp138 compares the themes of this
historically-inspired “compelling revivifying poetry” to the historical references
that are to be found in the works of Spencer and Milton.
Many of the stories are overtly political, for example, containing characters who
are involved in one of the uprisings; in others the political message is more
hidden and might involve poverty or emigration.
The stories are sentimental and nostalgic, particularly those written by Anna
Johnston. Lowenthal points to the changes in fashion with regard to nostalgia:
Nostalgia today is less often prized as precious
memory or dismissed as diverting jest. Instead it
is a topic of embarrassment and a term of abuse.
137
SVV 2(1), p10
Harp, R. 1989. p47. The Shan Van Vocht (Belfast, 1896-1899) and Irish Nationalism.
Éire-Ireland 24. pp42-52
138
40
Diatribe upon diatribe denounce it as reactionary,
regressive, ridiculous …139.
Yet nostalgia is present at many times throughout history, even
in Victorian times:
A perpetual staple of nostalgic yearning is the
search for a simple and stable past as a refuge
from the turbulent and chaotic present … Even
those most proud of Victorian material advances
expressed nostalgic regrets for pre-industrial rustic
calm …140.
Frawley describes a function of nostalgia in the culture of the present day:
In post-colonial cultures, and cultures that have
experienced large scale emigration or social
disruption, one would expect to find high levels of
nostalgia, whether for the pre-colonial past, or for
a time before emigration was economically and
socially necessary. In Ireland, with its strange
status as a western European former colony and its
history of emigration, nostalgia has functioned at
all of these levels …141.
It is to be expected then that nostalgia would feature in writing of the 1890s,
less than half a century after the famine, at a time of high emigration and
political uncertainty.
FOLKLORE
At the end of the nineteenth century, cultural activists such as Douglas Hyde,
W. B. Yeats and Augusta Gregory were attempting to create a Gaelic past based
on ancient legend and manuscript writings. Their only living link with an
ancient past was through peasant culture. Peasants, some of whom were Irish
speakers, still retained customs of story-telling, reciting poetry and singing
songs and it was to these aspects of culture that the activists turned. Folklore
139
Lowenthal, D. 1989. p20. Nostalgia tells it like it wasn’t IN C. Shaw and M. Chase (eds.).
The Imagined Past: History and Nostalgia. Manchester : Manchester University Press.
pp18-32.
140
ibid., p21
141
Frawley, O. 2005. Irish Pastoral: Nostalgia and Twentieth-Century Irish Literature.
Dublin : Irish Academic Press. p3
41
then becomes, for activists, a way of developing a new aspect of culture and a
way of enlisting the support of the mass of people through an acknowledgement
of their culture.
Alice Milligan and Anna Johnston were themselves cultural activists and the
SVV carries a number of examples of peasant folklore.
The issue of August
1897 reprints an article from the New Ireland Review entitled “The Salutations
of the Irish” by Dr. Douglas Hyde142 and, in the issue of September 1898, there
is an article entitled “Our Peasant Poetry” by William Rooney, which points to
new ways of analysing the merits of this poetry: “Style and elegance in art or
literature are to be admired, but they are not things to which everything is to be
subordinated” 143.
Legends are also to be found in the pages of the SVV, such as “The Three Swans
of Loch na mBean Fionn”144 by Mac and “The Pursuit of Diarmid and
Grainne”145. No author is given for this last story but from its romantic style of
writing it was probably written by Anna Johnston. The activity of collecting of
folktales is also accorded importance by the SVV as evidenced by the titles
given to two stories by Alice Milligan’s brother, Ernest Milligan:
•
“Death and Donal O’Doherty”146, a folktale heard in Glencolumbcille by
Ernest Milligan and
•
A Donegal Folk Story “Morroughagh Mor and Morroughagh Beg”147
The following folk story was told to the writer by James MacNellis,
Malinmore, Co. Donegal. It is set down according to the diction of the
narrator without any change. [written by Ernest Milligan].
The SVV was innovative in attempting to collect and publish stories and to
provide some kind of theoretical framework for analysing folklore.
142
SVV 2(8), p147
SVV 3(9), p163-164
144
SVV 3(6), p107
145
SVV 3(2), p39-43
146
SVV 3(10), pp190-191
147
SVV 4(1), p11-12
143
42
MUSIC
Alice Milligan was well acquainted with Irish music. She is credited with
writing words to song airs148. Her older sister, Charlotte Milligan-Fox, was a
well-known musician and collector of music. She studied music in Frankfurt,
London and Milan149. In 1907 she was given some papers from the famous
Bunting Collection of harp music, which was collected from ageing Gaelic
harpers at the end of the eighteenth century. She used this material as a basis
for her book, Annals of the Irish Harpers150. Anna Johnston was known as a
song-writer and poet under the pseudonym, Ethna Carbery.
An early issue of SVV, in April 1896 carries an article, “A plea for Irish Music”
by M. P. R. (Maurice P. Ryle151). The magazine carries regular reports on the
Feis Ceoil by Thomas O’Neill Russell.
The Feis Ceoil which is still in
existence was set up by the Gaelic League to promote Irish music and singing.
The issue of June 1897 carries an article entitled “Report on the Oireachtas, ‘the
first Gaelic Literary Festival’, followed by the Feis Ceoil”152. In the April 1898
issue, T. O. Russell responds to complaints that few of the songs being entered
in the Feis Ceoil are Irish153.
The May 1896 issue contains a poem, “Turlough MacSweeney” by Ethna
Carbery, “written in honour of the piper from Donegal who played at the
Belfast Gaelic League Concert”154. This piper features again in a later article by
P. T. MacGinley, “An Piobaire Mor at home”155 in the January 1899 issue.
The power of music has been well known to political and church leaders
through the ages. It was also recognised by activists like James Connolly who
148
Alice Milligan wrote the words to two of the songs in the collection, Four Irish Songs, by C.
Millington-Fox. Dublin : Maunsel and Co. Ltd., no date given, held at the Allen Library.
149
Turner Johnston (1994), p34
150
Vallely, F. (ed.). 1999. The Companion to Irish Traditional Music. Cork : Cork
University Press. p46-47
151
Appendix 2
152
SVV 2(6), p110-111
153
SVV 3(4), p74
154
SVV 1(5), p1
155
SVV 4(1), p10-11
43
wrote a number of songs and who referred to singing songs as “one of the most
distinct marks of a popular revolutionary movement”156. It is little wonder that
music was promoted as part of a new separate culture by the SVV.
SUMMARY
The content of the magazine, its history, fiction, revival of Gaelic legends and
its promotion of aspects of Irish peasant culture such as music and folklore, all
served to promote the idea of a separate identity and to prepare its readers to
take control of their own affairs.
156
Berresford Ellis, P. (ed.). 1997. James Connolly: Selected Writings. 2nd Edition. London :
Pluto Press. p48
44
4. DECOLONISATION AND SELF-HELP
“… a year of great awakening …”157
DECOLONISATION
The central political idea being advocated by the SVV is the separation of
Ireland: “that Ireland shall be free, from the centre to the sea”158, in the words of
the “old rallying song of the United Irishmen”159 after which the magazine is
named. The magazine editor promotes this idea constantly through the 40
issues. In fact, the entire content of the magazine could be said to consist of an
exploration of ways of achieving separation. For Milligan, separation from
empire means political, economic and cultural separation and requires the
involvement of all classes, “poets, patriots and populace…”160 in Mathews’
phrase, and involves the participation of women as well as men.
In the early issues of the magazine the idea of separation is expressed in a
general way, perhaps as a means of including all those who held this aspiration
in some form.
The political message is backed up by articles on history,
particularly on the 1798 rebellion, “the last era of Irish revolution”161. Alice
Milligan, herself a Methodist, would have been likely to be more in sympathy
with the 1798 rebellion than the later 1867 Fenian rebellion because of the
involvement of members of the other Dissenter tradition, Presbyterianism,
among the 1798 leadership. By September 1896 the political message is being
expressed in more concrete terms and the editor is expressing her determination
to report on current issues and activities, presumably with a view to
encouraging readers to participate in these activities.
157
Milligan, A. 1896. SVV 1(9), p178
SVV 1(1), p1
159
SVV 2(8), p142
160
Mathews. 2003. p146
161
SVV 1(9), p178
158
45
The first editorial in the issue of January 1896 encourages people to take
matters into their own hands in order to bring about change, expressing the hope
“that all those that have any power or influence for good, will exert it
steadfastly and hopefully, as if all depended on their efforts …”162. The reasons
for pursuing separation are explained in a later editorial, in the August 1896
issue, which discounts revenge and the promotion of Irish culture within the
British empire as acceptable reasons.
Milligan sets out the arguments for
remaining within the empire:
Why should we not accept for Ireland the place
and destiny to which the dispensation of
Providence has guided her. She is linked with the
mightiest empire in the world, and is called upon
to share in governing it; through that alliance with
England she can extend her commerce, and find a
scope for the valour of her sons in wars of
conquest and defence. She need not abandon her
national characteristics, but can develop her
genius in the domain of literature and music, as
Scotland has done. Her fertile hills and plains
tilled by a peaceful and contented race will
support a greater population in ease and comfort
…163.
She rejects these arguments:
Why must we strive for freedom? It is because we
believe that our nation has a high and noble
destiny to fulfil, a part to play in the advancement
of the human race along the upward path of
progress. She cannot barter that birthright and
heritage of hope for any mere material good, nor
consent to sink her individual nationality, as part
of an empire whose rule was extended over her
island by force and injustice …164.
In the September 1896165 issue the editor takes stock: “For some time we have
realised the necessity of bringing the Shan Van Vocht more into touch with the
times we live in …”. Milligan explains that she wishes the SVV “to stand
162
SVV 1(1), p8
SVV 1(8), p150
164
ibid.
165
SVV 1(9), p178
163
46
entirely aloof” from party politics which is divisive and in which, she claims,
people have lost interest. She complains that the newspapers are filled with
reports on parliamentary proceedings and frivolous news from London. She
promises that the magazine will be more forthright in promoting the “National
cause”:
We are not at liberty to preach revolution, but
there is no restraint upon our reporting the doings
of revolutionists, insurgents, conspirators in
Matabeleland, Johannesburg, Cuba, Canada and
elsewhere, so long as their proceedings come
before the public and are matters of interest…In a
few pages we can monthly compress a record of
every incident which is of permanent importance
to ‘the cause’, and which will give our readers a
right understanding of the events of the day as
they affect the destiny of Ireland …166.
This quote is also evidence of a deliberate attempt to turn away from London,
the centre of power and to focus attention on the achievements of others who
opposed empire. It is an example of practical decolonisation. The writers in the
SVV see no value in parliamentary politics167. The readers are exhorted to find
new approaches to bringing about change.
Milligan tries to develop links and to point to common interests. An example
of this is when she finds common ground with the unionist newspaper, the
Belfast News-Letter, when it criticised the authorities for over-reacting to an
amnesty demonstration in Belfast168.
While the editor’s views are stated clearly, there is a range of opinion expressed
by a number of contributors. The following section will examine a contribution
to the SVV on practical politics by James Connolly.
166
ibid.
ibid.
168
SVV 1(9), p179
167
47
James Connolly
Between November 1896 and October 1897, James Connolly contributed four
pieces to the SVV. As might be expected these pieces are practical in their
approach to politics in that they suggest a course of action, the establishment of
an organisation with republican aims which would attract mass involvement by
standing for parliament. They drew some comment from Alice Milligan and
from other contributors.
The first article entitled “Can Irish Republicans be Politicians?”169 was written
in response to a call from the editor for opinions on the relative merits of
revolutionary uprisings and mass agitations. In the article James Connolly
points out that people who took part in previous uprisings had no way of
knowing in advance how much popular support they had. He advocates the
setting up of a political party dedicated to achieving a republic and states that a
candidate “is as much at liberty to put the attainment of a republic on his
programme as he is to pledge himself to Home Rule or any other scheme of
political reconstruction …”170.
The following issue of December 1896 has two replies to James Connolly, one
supporting his views and the other calling for parliamentarians who will
advance “Ireland’s material welfare” while “looking to have her liberty
achieved elsewhere …”171. Milligan concludes by citing an article in the United
Ireland of November 28 suggesting that some parliamentarians were attempting
to address the disenchantment with their approach: “if the people are tired of
constitutionalism their present ‘leaders’ (i.e., of the Independent party) would
not be unwilling to guide them on other and more advanced lines …”172.
The second article by James Connolly is entitled “Nationalism and Socialism”
and appears in the issue of January 1897.
Here, Connolly calls upon the
National movements to consider the kind of new society they want to create and
169
SVV 1(11), pp210-212
SVV 1(11), p211
171
SVV 1(12), p234-5
172
ibid.
170
48
warns that political separation alone will not change the conditions of many
people’s lives:
Nationalism without Socialism; i.e., without a
reorganisation of society on the basis of a broader
and more developed form of that common
property which underlay the social structure of
ancient Erin, is only national recreancy, since it
would be tantamount to a public declaration that
our oppressors had so far succeeded in inoculating
us with their perverted conceptions of justice and
morality, that we had finally accepted them as our
own, and no longer needed an alien army to force
them upon us …173.
The next piece by Connolly appears in August 1897 under the title of
“Patriotism and Labour”. In this article Connolly points out that wages being
paid in Ireland are lower than in England or Scotland even in the case of
municipal employees. He calls for electoral support for the Irish Socialist
Republican Party because it provides a chance for a clear majority of the
electorate to register its desire for separation. Milligan adds an editorial note to
the effect that the oath of allegiance might pose a problem for Connolly’s party
and calls for a debate174.
Connolly’s fourth contribution in the October 1897 takes the writer Patrick
McManus to task for claiming that most people in Ireland are republicans. In
rebutting this opinion Connolly points out that the two republican uprisings of
the century were easily suppressed. He supplies a number of quotes from
parliamentary politicians and from the mainstream press in support of the
monarchy and against complete separation from England. He argues that these
views are not condemned by the press or by politicians and that people do not
withdraw their electoral support from politicians who express these views.
Milligan again adds a note stating that she has been invited to lecture to the
I.R.S. Association and, again, expressing disagreement with Connolly’s attitude
to parliament:
173
174
49
SVV 2(1), pp7-8
SVV 2(8), p9
Mr. Connolly and his supporters can do good
work for Ireland in preaching the gospel of
democracy and spreading National principles. In
advocating the formation of a democratic party in
Parliament they are taking the broad road that
leads to destruction, as such a party would
inevitably be in alliance with the English labour
party …175.
Milligan’s disillusionment with parliament seems to have been so strong that
she felt unable to support any involvement with it for any reason. Neither
Milligan nor the other critics of Connolly’s writings took any interest in his
argument that they should seek mass support for the idea of separation in
isolation from other political or cultural activities.
Links within Ireland and abroad
Promoting the idea of decolonisation involved attempting to reduce the
significance of London as the centre of power of the empire. To this end the
SVV turned its attention to developing links within Ireland and across other
areas of the world, notably the United States.
SVV appears to have been read widely in political and cultural circles in Ireland
because it attracted contribution from many well-known writers, such as
Douglas Hyde176, Lionel Johnson177, William Rooney178, Arthur Griffith179,
Maud Gonne180, T. W. Rolleston181, Alice Furlong182, P. J. McCall183 and
Francis A. Fahy184. The magazine was based in Belfast and appears to have had
a readership among the business and farming classes from the range of
advertising it was able to attract.
175
SVV 2(10), p188
SVV 2(8), p147
177
SVV 1 (4), p70
178
SVV 3 (9), pp163-164
179
SVV 3(8), pp146-149
180
SVV 2(5), p80
181
SVV 1(5), pp86-87
182
SVV 3 (2), p26
183
SVV 1 (4), p65
184
SVV 1(2), p27
176
50
Each issue contained four pages of
advertisements from, for example, a grain and animal feed supplier, hardware
store, jewellery store, a tailor and a whiskey manufacturer. Being based in
Belfast and apart from Dublin may have made it more accessible to writers from
other parts of the country. Among the contributors were lesser known Ulster
writers such as Patrick and Seumas McManus and P. T. McGinley from
Donegal.
The SVV had many links abroad. It was read in the United States and by 1898 it
had an agent there. There are a number of articles from the United States,
including one reproduced from the Criterion, “one of the New York literary
journals”185 and, in the same issue, ‘Impressions of a recent gathering in New
York’ by M. K.
A series of articles on ‘Irish influence in the American
colonies’ was contributed by Edward T. McCrystal, President, Gaelic Society,
New York. ‘The Fighting Race’ by W. J. B. is an account of the Irish regiments
which were going to fight in America’s war with Spain186. In the June 1897
issue, the editor sends “thanks to Irish American and Irish Republic of New
York for generous reviews of Shan …”187.
Thomas Concannon sent a number of pieces from Mexico on Irish involvement
in south American politics. He returned home to the Aran Islands later and
became active in setting up branches of the Gaelic League in the west of
Ireland. His activities get mentioned in the notes on societies in the SVV.
Milligan kept her promise to report on current events by providing details of the
activities of clubs and societies in Ireland and in London. There are also
detailed accounts of Amnesty organisations in England and of the GAA in
London.
In the June 1897 issue, the editor salutes “readers in South Africa, introduced to
Mr. Geraghty by our friends, Mr. John McBride and Mr. John R. Whelan
…”188.
185
SVV 3(12), p244
SVV 3(6), p111
187
SVV 2(6), p107
188
ibid.
186
51
These extensive links show the ability of Milligan and Johnston to form
networks, their attitude of inclusiveness to those of like mind and their desire to
promote the idea of decolonisation and the undermining of empire by shifting
attention from the centre of the empire to the periphery.
SELF-HELP
Mathews claims that the self-help movements made “a vitally important
contribution to Irish decolonisation”189. The work of three of these movements
– the Gaelic League, the Gaelic Athletic Association, and, to a lesser extent,
Horace Plunkett’s Irish Agricultural Organisation Society - receives support
from the SVV which sees these efforts as working towards separation and as
examples of new ways of organising society after independence.
The Irish Language
Milligan was enthusiastic about the Irish language and chose to go to Dublin to
study Irish in 1888 rather than to go to the continent to study music as her other
sisters had done190. She and Anna Johnston were active members of the Belfast
Branch of the Gaelic League and, together with Seamus McManus, they
undertook a lecture tour of Donegal191.
Milligan saw the Irish language as being important for the development of a
separatist identity. In the January 1897 issue of the SVV and again, in the
following issue, the editor explains that she would like to carry articles in Irish
but feels that many readers would be unable to read Irish.
She asks for
feedback from readers on this matter192. There would not have been many
people able to read Irish at this time although the Gaelic League had been set up
in 1893 and had classes underway. The October 1896 issue gives the number of
Irish speakers in the country as 680,157 from the 1891 census193; but even Irish
189
Mathews. 2003. p146
Turner Johnston. 1994. p41
191
ibid., p97
192
SVV 2(1), p13 and SVV 2(2), p36
193
SVV 1(10), p200
190
52
speakers in Gaeltacht areas would have been literate in English only as Irish
was not taught in schools.
Popular use of the Irish language dropped dramatically in the aftermath of the
famine, as entire communities were wiped out by death and emigration. Its
status among the population dropped also as people recognised the need to
speak English when they emigrated. When the language was lost, a huge body
of oral culture, consisting of poetry, folklore, song and music, was lost with it.
These are the elements that add richness to people’s lives and they are an
important aspect of identity.
The second issue of SVV, in February 1896, contains an article on the
importance of the Irish language by Edith Dickson194. The early issues of SVV
contain a debate on the value of the Irish Language with T. W. Rolleston
arguing that it has no practical use and Henry Dixon replying by making
suggestions on ways of teaching the language195. The issue of June 1896
contains an article on ‘How to save the Irish language’ by John MacNeill196
who later began using the Irish version of his name, Eoin MacNeill, and was a
founder of the Gaelic League.
The second last issue of SVV, of March 1899, contains an article by Milligan on
the Inquiry into Irish and Intermediate Education, in which she criticises the
submissions of Mahaffy and Atkinson of Trinity College and praises the
submission of Hyde. She explains why she regards an education in the Irish
language as important:
The Irish boy who takes up his Gaelic grammar
and reading-book will learn one thing even should
he not become a scholar, namely, this – I am not
an Englishman …197.
194
SVV 1(2), 31-32
See, for example, SVV 1(4), p67-69
196
SVV 1(6), p118-119
197
SVV 4(3), p50
195
53
She views the language as a way of developing a separate identity in
preparation for complete separation. As Maalouf explains, “people often see
themselves in terms of whichever one of their allegiances is most under attack
…” 198 and “the identity a person lays claim to is often based, in reverse, on that
of his enemy …” 199. The work of Milligan and the other leader of the Revival
involved placing an emphasis on differences from the coloniser.
Horace Plunkett
The Irish Agricultural Organisation Society was founded by Horace Plunkett in
1894, “to better the material circumstances of the emerging class of small
farmers …”200. He also set up the Recess Committee in 1895, which contained
members of parliament of each of the political parties and whose purpose was to
promote non-contentious issues affecting the country201.
In the October 1896 issue of SVV Milligan comments on Plunkett’s efforts “to
bring about just government under Imperial rule …” by forming an alliance
with nationalist achieved because Irish industries will not be allowed to flourish
as they might provide competition with those in England. She advises caution
rather than hostility to the project202.
In the November 1898 issue, in an article entitled “Industrial Ireland”, Milligan
calls for people to be more industrious and comments to women in particular
that many looms are needlessly idle in the west of Ireland:
“The native
housewives of Ireland could do more for the revival of trade and manufacture
… if they would but realise their power …” 203.
198
Maalouf, A. 2000. On Identity. Translated from the French by Barbara Bray. London :
The Harvill Press. p22..
199
ibid., p13.
200
Mathews. 2003. p29
201
Minute Book of the Recess Committee, Ms. 4532, National Library of Ireland
202
SVV 1(10), p206
203
SVV 3(11), p206
54
The Gaelic Athletic Association
In the May 1896 issue of SVV, an editorial entitled “Gaelic Athletes and the
National Movement” points out the difficulties for Irish people of organising
and running a national sporting body in a country where people have no
experience of organising legislative assemblies or any other assembly:
Thus it is that a people acquainted with the routine
and machinery of their native legislature, and
controlling its decrees, should have, from the
experience of the working of so great a model,
little trouble in reconciling themselves to the
government of the minor organisations that are
intended to cater for their amusement and social
happiness …204.
Milligan is supportive of people taking charge of their own affairs but is always
adamant that their work should be of the highest standard: “Men superior to
local prejudices are… the best suited to guide the destinies of an organisation of
this kind …”205.
Milligan is clear that she sees any Irish-run organisation as having a “National”
role which is “the ambition to have the country rather the club or individual
profiting the honour and glory …”206.
The SVV contains a number of articles on Gaelic games such as “The Revival of
the GAA: An Appeal to the Young Men of Belfast” by F. P. Burke207 in the
issue of September 1898. Regular coverage of match reports from Gaelic
games in London208 begins in the August 1897 issue. This issue also carries a
piece by Michael Cusack209 entitled ‘The rise of the Gaelic Athletic
Association’ and at the end of this piece he makes an appeal to women to help
restore the GAA by encouraging their sons to become involved.
204
SVV 1(5), p88
ibid.
206
ibid., p89
207
SVV 3(9), p186
208
SVV 2(8), p148
209
ibid., p147-148
205
55
SUMMARY
The central idea being promoted in the SVV is the idea of separation from
empire. The SVV supported the idea of self-help and promoted it through its
pages but always viewed it as a step towards decolonisation.
56
5. ACTION
“And who is there that has not power to accomplish something?”210
ENCOURAGING READERS TO ACTION
Postman describes nineteenth century America as “a fully print-based
culture”211, although it still contained elements of the oral tradition. Not only
was an enormous amount of printed matter available and accessible to the mass
of society but there was no competition from any other medium212. To be a
participant in print culture required a reader to be able to comprehend abstract
ideas and follow arguments213. It follows then that a reader would read for a
purpose such as learning although reading for pleasure was also popular214. The
large volume of fiction and poetry in the SVV provided recreational reading.
Other sections of the magazine served a more practical purpose of informing
readers with a view to action.
An example of writing to prepare readers for participation is given at the
beginning of one of a number of pieces by Alice Milligan on William Smith
O’Brien where she explains how to read history with a view to taking useful
lessons from it:
A propos of reading history let me recommend the
plan which I have always followed. After reading
a book continuously as a narrative on first forming
acquaintance with it, re-read it frequently with a
special purpose in view. Take the series of Young
Ireland books I have mentioned for example, and
trace through them the career of Thomas Davis as
long as he is a living actor in the events of the era,
also trace the influence of his work and principles
after death …215.
210
Milligan, A. 1896. SVV 1(1), p8
Postman. 1987. p39
212
ibid., p42
213
ibid., p26
214
ibid., p40
215
SVV 2(3), p49
211
57
What reads as stating the obvious to us may have been a route into active
participation in political discussions for readers who had not been introduced to
this kind of activity through acquaintances or through involvement in self-help
organisations.
Milligan did wish to involve more people in the various
activities and her writing contained ways of bringing this about. As well as
addressing activists, the magazine was attempting to reach people including
women who had not taken an active part in political activities and this level of
instruction may have been welcomed by such readers. The magazine was
inclined to be didactic but this may not have been resisted by readers in a
society where access to information was limited.
Apart from this kind of instruction, the SVV provided readers with examples of
self-help activities and organisations in which they could participate.
EXAMPLES OF ACTION
There are general calls to action in editorials and accounts of political and selfhelp organisations with which to become involved.
The most practical
examples of ways into action are the accounts of meetings, classes, lectures and
demonstrations which are announced and described in the magazine, many of
which included Milligan and Johnston as active participants. Organisations
whose activities are covered regularly include the Amnesty Associations that
were concerned with prisoner welfare, the Gaelic League and the various
literary societies. Although many of these notices consist of descriptions of
events already past they give a flavour of the organisations and of their
activities and therefore provide readers with information concerning events in
their area of the country in which they might wish to participate.
The activism of Milligan and Johnston was not separate from their writing but
rather the SVV provided them with a way of extending their activities and
advertising them to readers. Milligan undertook tours in Cork and Donegal to
lecture in Irish history and saw these lectures as a beginning of activism for
those attending; so she often attempted to set up a group to continue the interest
that had been shown at her lectures. One of these ways was to begin reading
58
circles. The following notice appeared in the second issue of SVV, that of
February 1896:
We submit to our friends among the literary
societies very briefly the following scheme, on the
lines of which we are at present organising
amongst our private friends and societies which
we are connected, reading circles for the study of
Irish history and literature. The system is intended
to make up for the want of libraries in country
districts, and to encourage our people to acquire
and value and study Irish books. I am seeking the
co-operation of a secretary, whose name will not
give to the Home Reading Union, which we hope
to build up, any political bias …216.
The issue of March 1896 contains two pages of notices. Under the heading of
‘Irish Women’s Association’ there are two notices, one from the Belfast
Branch, announcing a lecture and one from the Moneyrea Branch, stating that a
meeting had been held at which “papers by members were read and
criticised”217. The notice for the Belfast Branch states that the forthcoming
meeting is to be addressed by Mrs. Armour of Ballymoney, President of the
Association. Milligan comments that this is “the wife of Rev. J. B. Armour,
who on many occasions has spoken of behalf of the Irish cause in the
Presbyterian General Assembly”218.
This comment shows again Milligan’s
desire to establish and maintain links.
There are five notices under the ‘National and Literary Societies’ heading, from
The Irish Literary Society, London, C. J. Kickham Literary Society, [Belfast],
The Celtic Literary Society, Dublin, The Edmund Burke Literary and Debating
Society, Dublin and Cork Parnell National Boys’ Brigade.
These notices
indicate that the literary societies are thriving with large memberships and a
wide range of activities being organised.
The London Society reports list
papers read on Irish history, musical items, classes on drama and elocution and
Irish language.
216
SVV 1(2), p38
SVV 1(3), p59
218
ibid.
217
59
Milligan and Johnston were members of the Kickham Society. The notice for
this society describes a meeting held on February 14 during which “a literary
and musical programme was gone through by some members and friends of this
growing young society”. Milligan goes on to describe a second meeting on
February 18 at which a debate was held:
The audience were hardly able to appreciate the
unprejudiced way in which Mr. Barton put the
case for England, and showed the advantage of
living under the glorious old Union Jack. We fear
the Kickhams will require some breaking in and
training before such subjects can be serenely
discussed in their presence …”219.
A report is given by William Rooney, Hon. Sec., on the Celtic Society, who
went on to found the United Irishman newspaper with Arthur Griffith in 1899.
It describes a “satisfactory increase” in the numbers attending its Irish classes
and describes a meeting in February which consisted of “a concert of Irish
songs and recitations of a national character, some songs being rendered in
Gaelic …”. The notice finishes with the announcement that the “membership of
the society is open to residents in the country at an annual subscription of 2s.
6d.220
A list of the notices in the August issue of the SVV gives an indication of the
wide links developed by the magazine both locally and internationally. Under
the heading of ‘National and Literary Societies’ there are three notices from The
New York Gaelic Society, the Cork Gaelic League and the Irish Literary
Society, Forestgate, London. The remaining notices concern ‘Decoration Day’,
a day when the graves of Fenians and Young Irelanders were decorated and
commemorations were arranged at historical sites. The notices reported here
are: The Wolfe Tone Commemoration at Bodenstown, Decoration Day in the
North, Excursion to the scene of the Antrim Fight and Patriot Graves, Newry,
219
220
60
ibid.
ibid., pp59-60
Saintfield and Ballynahinch, Co. Down, Donegal, Toomebridge, Glasgow and
Paris221.
Readers are provided with a range of activities in which they might participate
and these activities are presented as popular and stimulating. A major campaign
that is covered in detail in the SVV is the 1798 Centenary celebration.
1798 COMMEMORATION CELEBRATIONS
The SVV gives detailed coverage of the preparations for and the celebration of
the 1798 Centenary.
As well as reports of planning meetings and
demonstrations there is special coverage of the history of 1798 and space is
allocated for the publication of poetry and songs, many of them specially
written for the celebration222.
O’Keefe223 describes the atmosphere in which the celebrations were being
planned. The celebration of national heroes was happening throughout Europe,
mostly involving the construction of national monuments and public
participation in ceremonials and processions. Public monuments in Ireland had
been mostly loyalist but nationalists took up this form of political activity in
1882 with the erection of a statue to Daniel O’Connell in Dublin’s Sackville
Street224.
Women were enthusiastic participants in the public processions
although, as Owens225 states, the reasons for this are not immediately
obvious226. Nationalists were especially interested in celebrating the heros of
their tradition because of the huge officially-organised celebrations which took
place during the spring and summer of 1897 to mark the diamond jubilee of
Queen Victoria227.
221
SVV 1(7), pp159-160
SVV 3(8), p137-138 and p139-140, and SVV 2(4), p73
223
O’Keefe, T. 1988. The 1898 Efforts to Celebrate the United Irishmen: The’98 Centennial.
Éire-Ireland 23(2), pp51-73
224
ibid., p51
225
Owens, G. 1999. Constructing the martyrs: Manchester executions and the nationalist
imagination IN L.W. McBride (ed.). Images, Icons and the Irish Nationalist Imagination.
Dublin : Four Courts Press. pp18-36.
226
Ibid., p29
227
O’Keefe. 1988. p52
222
61
Preparations for the ’98 Celebrations
Milligan and Johnston were active participants in this major political campaign
which was a year in preparation and which provided an opportunity for the
mobilisation of a wide range of nationalist opinion.
Yet, as O’Keefe228
explains, “instead of demonstrating the unity and commitment of the
nationalists, it was to illustrate vividly the divisions and rancour of Irish
political life at the end of the nineteenth century”. The SVV magazine contains
details of the preparative meetings, which began in March 1897229, with the
tensions and differences which surfaced over the months as well as exhortations
to readers to take part.
In spite of Milligan’s enthusiasm230 the Northern delegation found themselves
on the periphery of events even at that first meeting231. Already different
factions were vying for position and John Dillon’s Anti-Parnellite group had
tried to stack the executive before the delegations from outside Dublin had even
arrived232.
The same issue of the magazine carries a notice on the setting-up of the Belfast
’98 Centenary Committee. At this meeting Milligan proposed two motions:
that the committee would abstain from communicating officially with any
political party and that no elected parliamentarians should be office holders233.
In the following issue, that of April 1897, Milligan expresses her concern that a
breakaway group appeared to have been formed in Dublin by Frederick Allen234
and she calls on local committees “to retain control of their own funds and take
no steps towards affiliation” until the situation is clarified at the June
228
ibid., p54
SVV 2(3), p47
230
ibid.
231
ibid.
232
O’Keefe. 1988.p56
233
SVV 2(3), pp54-55
234
SVV 2(4), p96
229
62
convention235.
The issue of July 1897 carries a report on the activities of the
Belfast ’98 Committee on Decoration Day236. In the following issue Milligan
comments on the ’98 Central Executive which has just been elected and in
which she has confidence237.
The SVV of September 1897 carries an account of an acrimonious meeting of
the various nationalist groupings in Belfast concerning their association with the
’98 General Executive in Dublin. Joseph Devlin took the opportunity to wrest
control of the Belfast organisation from the more militant nationalists. As a
result he became more influential within his party, the Irish Parliamentary
Party238. Milligan gives an account of this meeting:
[Joseph Devlin] objected to any gentleman coming
down [from Dublin] to interfere and dictate in
Belfast. Miss Milligan observed that Wolfe Tone
was a gentleman from Dublin who came down as
secretary of the Catholic Association and who
interfered to such as extent that he transformed
Belfast politics and founded the United Irish body
…239.
Devlin gained the support of the crowd and Milligan and a handful of others
walked out240. As the time for the celebrations approaches less is to be read in
the SVV concerning divisions among the organisers, probably because the more
militant nationalists, especially in Belfast, had lost influence on the organising
committees to the parliamentarians and did not wish to be seen to cause further
division.
The ’98 Celebrations
The main demonstration to celebrate 1798 took place in Dublin on the 15th of
August 1898. 100,000 people took part in the march and attended the laying of
235
ibid.
SVV2(7), p129
237
SVV 2(8), p151
238
O’Keefe. 1988. p63
239
SVV 2(9), p171
240
O’Keefe. 1988. p63
236
63
the foundation stone for a memorial to Wolfe Tone on St. Stephen’s Green241.
Whelan comments on the significance of the event:
The centenary became easily the most spectacular
commemorative event of the nineteenth century:
in terms of mass participation in a political
project, it was matched only by O’Connell’s
monster meetings and the high point of the Land
League campaign …242.
Celebrations organised by local committees began some months earlier and the
SVV reports that during the month of March demonstrations were held in
Dublin, Ballina, Derry, Dungannon, Lurgan, Ardloe and Toomebridge243.
Demonstrations also took place in Scotland at Glasgow, Greenock, Motherwell
and Clydebank244. The London celebration consisted of a Centenary Banquet
chaired by R. Barry O’Brien. The other speakers were W. B. Yeats, J. F.
Taylor, Dr. Hogan and Dr. Mark Ryan245.
The May issue of the SVV reported that the two ’98 organisations in Dublin had
amalgamated: “This news will be greeted with heartfelt pleasure by everyone
who desires to see the Centenary celebrations carried out with unanimity and
success …”246.
The July issue of SVV reports that the celebrations “have commenced in earnest,
the month of June being marked by several immense demonstrations”247. The
Belfast demonstration met with some hostility from Orangemen248. The August
issue describes the preparations for the main demonstration:
On August 15th the foundation stone of the
monument to Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen
will be laid in Dublin … The Dublin Corporation
241
Whelan, K. 1996. The Tree of Liberty Radicalism, Catholicism and the Construction of
Irish Identity, 1760-1830. Cork : Cork University Press. p172
242
ibid.
243
SVV 3(4), p75
244
ibid.
245
SVV 3(5), p95
246
ibid.
247
SVV 3(7), p135
248
ibid.
64
has granted the site, and in honour of the occasion
given a municipal holiday … The Executive of
Great Britain has arranged a banquet for August
10th to receive French and South African
delegations en route to Ireland. Miss Maud
Gonne…is actively engaged in arranging for a
representative delegation from Paris …249.
The Dublin demonstration is not described in detail in the September issue as it
has received widespread coverage in the “daily and weekly press” and the
editors invite readers, instead, “to consider with us the significance of the
celebration, and to try to understand how far it gives us reason to hope for the
future of our country …”250.
Milligan notes the lack of support from the
business community: “Coming down O Connell Street I was struck by the
significant fact that there was not a single flag hung out from any of the
business houses or offices in honour of the day …”251. She comments on the
behaviour of the crowd: “… the orderly behaviour and sobriety of the vast
multitude were better than any display of arches or banners. No drunkenness or
rowdiness was evident anywhere …”252. Milligan expected people to behave in
such a way as to show themselves capable of taking charge of their own affairs.
The Northern contingent is praised for its display of banners. Maud Gonne is
praised for bringing the French delegation and for organising the Connaught
demonstrations in Castlebar and Ballina. Milligan expresses disappointment at
the small number of delegates who came from America and at the fact that they
were kept in the background during the celebration253. This may have been
because only a small delegation travelled from the United States despite the
elaborate plans that were underway there.
This was because the Spanish
American war had broken out in February 1898 and Irish Americans turned
their attention to the needs of their adopted republic254.
249
SVV 3(8), p155
SVV 3(9), p160
251
ibid., p161
252
ibid.
253
ibid.
254
O’Keefe, T. 1992. p71. “Who Fears to Speak of ’98?” The Rhetoric and Rituals of the
United Irishmen Centennial, 1898. Éire-Ireland 27(3), pp67-91.
250
65
The same issue of the SVV carries “Press Comments on the Demonstration”
from the national newspapers and “A French View of the Demonstration” by a
member of the French delegation, Lucien Millevoye, Maud Gonne’s lover and
father of her son who died, reprinted from La Patrie255.
In summary, the SVV magazine’s reports on the preparations and celebration of
the ’98 Centenary gave to its readers an insight into the organisation of a major
political event, from the attempts of people of differing viewpoints to work
together, and the demands of putting together major events to the conclusion,
with demonstrations countrywide and abroad, culminating in the Dublin
celebration.
PEOPLE BEING ADDRESSED
The readers who are being addressed by the SVV are, first of all, activists of like
mind to Milligan and Johnston. Then as now, the majority of activists were
men but a small number of women were active in public life and women in
particular were addressed in the magazine. The magazine also addresses a
wider readership of potential activists. In other it attempts to mobilise people to
participate in the self-help organisations.
The SVV looks to the future and it addresses, but not directly, the concerns of
children in that it deals with education especially regarding the Irish language
and Irish history. As the role of women in public life up to then had been
limited, and, as women were addressed separately by the SVV on a number of
occasions, it is worth considering in detail the approach of these two activist
women, Milligan and Johnston, to promoting the participation of women.
Women and the SVV
Milligan and Johnston believed that women had a definite and distinctive role to
play and they addressed themselves to women in a number of ways through the
255
66
SVV 3(9), p162
pages of the SVV. A number of women are included in the profiles of historical
figures, such as Speranza (Jane Wilde, mother of Oscar Wilde)256, Lady Edward
Fitzgerald257 and Betsy Gray of Co. Down, who took part in the 1798
rebellion258.
There are several appeals to women in particular. In the August 1897 issue,
Michael Cusack writes a piece entitled ‘The rise of the Gaelic Athletic
Association’259 and at the end of this piece he makes an appeal to women to
help restore the GAA. In the November 1898 issue, in an article entitled
‘Industrial Ireland’, Milligan calls for people to be more industrious and
comments to women in particular that many looms are needlessly idle in the
west of Ireland: “The native housewives of Ireland could do more for the
revival of trade and manufacture…if they would but realise their power …” 260.
The SVV of June 1897 contains an ‘Appeal to the Women of Ireland’ to join a
special ’98 women’s committee which “will not intrude on the sphere of the
committees already formed in Dublin and London”. Milligan lists the tasks
which could be carried out by this committee:
“the care of decoration of graves, the collecting of memorials of ’98, and
publication of records, and doubtless it will be found possible to arrange
in Belfast an exhibition of ’98 relics and portraits, combined with a sale
of home industries, and concerts of Irish music at the time when IrishAmerican tourists are passing round the country …” 261.
In the October 1897 issue, Milligan encourages women to participate in the
‘Irish
Women’s
Centenary
Union’,
organising
demonstration
commemorate 1798. She gives reasons why women should do this:
256
SVV 1(3), pp48-49
SVV 1(4), pp74-75
258
SVV 1(5), pp98-99
259
SVV 2(8), pp147-148
260
SVV 3(11), pp206-207
261
SVV 2(6), p104
257
67
to
•
Women who have not been active in politics will be able to work
free from political faction-fighting
•
Some men will not all be free to participate in demonstrations
because of business commitments
•
The government would be less likely to forbid women’s
demonstrations262.
Milligan expects high standards of women as of others. She acknowledges the
influence of women in the home and she again calls for women to use their
influence to bring about unity263. Crossman264 explains: “The idea that women
were somehow above party divisions was a common one at this time, and was
linked to the image of women as more spiritual and less worldly than men
…”265. However, as Crossman goes on to point out the image of passive
women working in the background is undermined by Milligan and Johnston
themselves, who participated fully in the political debates and activities of the
time266.
Women in Public Life
Ó Ciosáin267 attributes the high level of reading ability particularly in Ulster in
the middle of the nineteenth century to the influence of religion268. Reading the
Bible was an important activity for many families and often this duty fell to
women. As women played such a central role in Bible readings and discussions
it was not easy to limit their participation in other discussions.
explains in relation to literacy in the United States:
For it was not only a frontier mentality that led
Kansas to be the first state to permit women to
vote in school elections, or Wyoming the first
state to grant complete equality in the franchise.
262
SVV 2(10), p192
ibid.
264
Crossman, V. 1998. The Shan Van Vocht: Women, Republicanism, and the
Commemoration of the 1798 Rebellion. Eighteenth-Century Life 22(3), pp128-139.
265
Ibid., p134
266
ibid., p135
267
Ó Ciosáin, N. 1997. Print and Popular Culture in Ireland, 1750-1850. London :
Macmillan.
268
ibid., pp31-33
263
68
Postman
Women were probably more adept readers than
men, and even in the frontier states the principal
means of public discourse issued from the printed
word. Those who could read had, inevitably, to
become part of the conversation …269.
By the second half of the nineteenth century a small number of wealthy women
were being educated. A season of public lectures on literature and the arts was
open to women between the years 1863 and 1868270. Colleges of medicine
were admitting women as students and by 1886 there were 50 women on the
General Medical Council register271. By the 1890s women had access to higher
education272. By 1896 women could serve as poor law guardians and by 1898
they could vote in local elections273.
Women’s participation in the area of politics had been limited and not
welcomed by men. Ward describes the legacy of the short-lived Ladies Land
League (1881-2) as “the bitter realisation that if women wanted to be politically
active, they had to either form their own organisation or accept subordinate
status”274. The next time that women would organise themselves into a formal
political organisation was in 1900 when Inghinidhe na hÉireann was formed
with Maud Gonne as President and Anna Johnston as one of four VicePresidents275.
Maud Gonne’s work as a political and cultural activist is well known. She
edited and was the main writer of a newspaper based in Paris, L’Irlande Libre,
269
Postman. 1986. p62
Hunt Mahony, C. 1997. p195. Women’s Education, Edward Dowden and the University
Curriculum in English Literature: An Unlikely Progression. IN M. Kelleher and J. H. Murphy
(eds.). Gender Perspectives in 19th Century Ireland. Dublin : Irish Academic Press. pp195202.
271
Bewley, B. 2005. p34. ‘On the Inside Sitting Alone’: pioneer Irish women doctors.
History Ireland 13(2), pp33-36.
272
Steele, K. 1999. p90. Raising Her Voice For Justice: Maud Gonne and the United
Irishman. New Hibernia Review 3(2), pp84-105.
273
Biletz, F. A. 2002. p59. Women and Irish Ireland: The Domestic Nationalism of Mary
Butler. New Hibernia Review 6(1), pp59-72
274
Ward, M. 1983. p39. Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism.
London : Pluto
275
ibid., p50
270
69
from 1896 to 1897276. She later wrote and fund-raised for the United Irishman,
the newspaper set up by Arthur Griffith and William Rooney in 1899277. She
played a leading role in many of the political campaigns of the time278. Gonne,
therefore, represented the uncompromising public role that women could play
but many women were uncomfortable with the total abandonment of the role of
home-maker. One such woman was Mary Butler, a member of the Executive of
the Gaelic League and a frequent contributor to nationalist publications279.
Butler was of the opinion that women held the real power in society “because of
their control of the domestic realm …”280.
As a language activist Butler
understood the influence of women in the home on the promotion of language
and culture281.
These views on the influence of women on society from within the home were
widely held by activist women and extended into the twentieth century. In the
early years of that century, Katharine Tynan complains that Irish women do not
have role models of domesticity or teachers of home-making as celibate priests
and enclosed nuns “furnish no substitute for those benevolent busy-bodies, the
squire’s wife and the parson’s wife in English rural life …”282. She complains
that the education available to girls involving the finer arts such as learning the
violin or embroidery and lace-making have left “a distaste and contempt for
domestic work in the minds of the girls …”283
Tynan goes on to complain that “people will not face their practical problems.
The Irish … have not begun to learn citizenship …”284. Women like Butler and
Tynan show a willingness to allow society to dictate that women should remain
in the home but they also show a concern about the way in which society
276
Innes, C. L. 1991. p146. ‘A voice in directing the affairs of Ireland’: L’Irlande Libre, The
Shan Van Vocht and Bean na hÉireann IN P. Hyland and N. Sammels (eds.). Irish writing
Exile and Subversion. London : Macmillan. Pp146-158.
277
Steele. 1999. pp91-92
Innes. 1991. p147
279
Biletz. 2002. p60
280
ibid., p66
281
ibid., p67
282
Tynan, K. 1928. p170. 1924. A Trumpet-Call to Irish Women IN W. G. Fitz-Gerald
(ed.) The Voice of Ireland. Dublin : Virtue & Co.
283
ibid., p171
284
ibid., p173
278
70
functions and a recognition that work has to be done to teach children the values
of the society and to care for those in need. They view this work as solely the
responsibility of women and although they acknowledge the importance of the
role of home-maker it does not seem to concern them that the members of
society who are allocated such important work are also relegated to a secondary
position in that society.
Milligan and Johnston, who did play a full part in public life, did not discuss the
role of women in society separately from their role in the political struggle of
decolonisation. When women were addressed through the pages of the SVV it
was always as homemakers or as participants in the self-help activities of the
time alongside the men and mostly subservient to them. When women were
called upon to participate separately in the ’98 celebrations the areas of
participation suggested to them never encroached on the more high profile
activities of the main male-dominated committees.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE SVV
The editorial of the final issue of the SVV, of April 1899, explains regretfully
that the paper is to cease publication because of the number of new publications
covering the same interests285. The editors outline their achievements:
•
They developed connections abroad
•
They “steered clear of sectional interests”
•
They spread the message of the Gaelic League
•
They received visitors, such as John O’Leary and Maud Gonne, to
Belfast and organised lectures and other events
•
They were members of the ’98 Central Executive
•
They published historical literature
•
They promoted Gaelic legends which led to their involvement in
organising Tableaux and other events, in Belfast and Donegal286.
285
286
71
SVV 3(4), p68
ibid.
Their impressive achievements were all activity-based and were central to the
political developments of the time.
SUMMARY
The magazine encourages activists to support the various self-help movements
and political activities such as the Amnesty Associations. As well as addressing
activists the magazine provides a way to encourage potential activists to become
involved by making practical suggestions on, for example, how to read history
and by carrying notices of a wide range of meetings and other activities.
Coverage of the 1798 Centenary celebration provides details of the organisation
of a major political campaign. Among the readers being addressed, women are
singled out at a time when they are beginning to emerge into public life.
Milligan and Johnston envisaged a role for women in public life that was
distinctive, if limited.
72
6. LESSONS FOR POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
This study of the SVV examined ways in which the magazine encouraged
activism and broadened the idea of politics and political activity. The SVV
rejected parliamentary politics which had failed in its major aim of achieving
Home Rule and had no vision to offer of other ways forward.
The SVV
promoted the politics of separation by encouraging self-help activities across a
number of fronts. This had the effect of encouraging readers to become active
participants through the development of a separate identity.
This approach was avant-garde at the time, taking, as it did, a broad approach to
political activity. The approach was also democratic for the time in that it
encouraged mass participation. The magazine came into existence at a pivotal
time in history so there are lessons from this project for journalism and for
activism. These lessons relate to the nature of communication media and also
to ways of promoting action.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE NATURE OF THE MEDIUM
The SVV appeared at a time when print culture held a monopoly of the
communication media.
This monopoly was about to end because of the
trivialisation of news which came about with the expansion of the popular press
at the end of the nineteenth century. This was a period of huge expansion in
industrialisation and the press, as an industry, was part of that expansion.
The editors of the SVV consciously rejected the news styles of the popular
press in favour of a way of writing which encouraged action based on rational
thought. They understood that they were addressing activists and potential
activists and they wrote in a style that was informative if sometimes didactic but
always making rational arguments to their readers and encouraging them to
become involved in self-help activities. The editors were, therefore, part of a
tradition that has largely been swamped but remains influential.
73
It is now well understood that ways of communicating are dependent on the
particular medium from which the message is emanating and those promoting
political ideas need to understand the effect of the various media on the way the
message will be received. Postman’s analysis of the trivialisation of news that
took place with the advent of the telegraph has already been described in the
Review of Literature. It made “the relationship between information and action
both abstract and remote …”287. He goes on to describe the profound effect that
television has had on the world. The result is that we have stopped wondering at
the strangeness of this medium and now accept it and what it portrays as
natural:
Our culture’s adjustment to the epistemology of
television is by now all but complete; we have so
thoroughly accepted its definitions of truth,
knowledge, and reality that irrelevance seems to
us to be filled with import, and incoherence seems
eminently sane ...288.
Television need not have developed into such a passive medium or have
become so dominated by entertainment. The nature of the modern print and
visual media with their emphasis on trivia and on entertainment has changed
public consciousness to such a degree that taking action is no longer regarded as
a logical outcome of being informed. Now that there is easy access to a lot of
information it often seems that the detailed knowledge that members of the
public have is on movie trivia, sport and lives of celebrities. This trend has now
gone on to create a passive audience of consumers for newer media such as the
internet which is regularly used for shopping. Schiller describes the forces
behind this development as “business and marketing, law and order, and
ideologised entertainment …” 289.
287
Postman. 1987. p69. Amusing Ourselves to Death. London : Methuen.
ibid., p81.
289
Schiller, H. I. 1984. p24. Information and the Crisis Economy. Norwood : Ablex
Publishing Corporation.
288
74
In the history of popular media throughout the twentieth century there have
been attempts to inform and educate the public and to encourage dissent and
protest about injustice. Some success has been achieved. Chomsky290 points
out that market research keeps on finding public opinion to be far to the left of
the policies on offer from the political elite. He also claims that there is
growing public resistance to official policies as evidenced by the recent protests
against the war with Iraq:
Those protests were a critically important
historical event, not only because of their
unprecedented scale, but also because it was the
first time in hundreds of years of the history of
Europe and its North American offshoots that a
war was massively protested even before it was
officially launched …291.
But knowledge is kept from the public in subtle ways. The most informative of
the print media are the elite press and much of the information needed to make
informed judgements, for example, on an issue such as the reasons the United
States government gave for going to war with Iraq, is not widespread in the
public domain:
[T]he US media do not function in the manner of
the propaganda system of a totalitarian state.
Rather, they permit – indeed, encourage, spirited
debate, criticism, and dissent, as long as these
remain faithfully within the system of
presuppositions and principles that constitute an
elite consensus, a system so powerful as to be
internalised largely without awareness ...292.
It would be worthwhile for media professionals to increase their awareness of
the nature of the communication medium in which they work and, in particular,
to examine imaginative ways of experimenting with presentation if they wish to
reach the public consciousness at a level other than that of entertainment. The
290
Chomsky, N. 2004. Imperial Presidency. Canadian Dimension 39 (1) [Online] Available
from: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20041217.htm Accessed 5 June 2005.
291
Ibid.
292
Herman, E. S. and Chomsky, N. 1994. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of
the Mass Media. London : Vintage. P302
75
presentation of the SVV was direct and effective although it shunned the style of
the popular press at the time.
On the matter of print culture as a medium of communication, this style of
writing led to the development of a society where rational argument had a
central role. This was the contribution of the printed word to society before the
advent of the telegraph and instant news. There is now concern over the future
of print media with reductions in the funding of all public services including
libraries and the under funding of humanities in universities293. Libraries in the
United States have even come under scrutiny because of the Patriot Act294. The
printed word in digital form may not become widely accessible:
The digital revolution may be liberating for the
end user in many respects, but the consolidation of
publishers and recent serial price increases send a
very clear message that the revenue bottom line
will not be diluted …295.
There are also issues concerning the evolution from print culture to digitised
culture and the richness of experience and outcomes which might be expected
from the new medium in comparison to traditional print culture. For example,
questions are being raised concerning the range of skills which it is practical to
develop through e-learning296.
This entire worldview and way of thinking provided by print culture accelerated
the promotion of the means of reasoning which began with Socrates and upon
293
Schiller. 1984. p34
Jaeger, P. T., McClure, C.R., Bertot, J. C. and Snead, J. T. 2004. p99. The USA Patriot Act,
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and Information Policy Research in Libraries: Issues,
Impacts, and Questions for Libraries and Researchers. The Library Quarterly 74 (2), pp99-121.
[Online]. Available from Business Source Premier/EBSCO. http://search. global.epnet.com
via Dublin City University Library. http://www.dcu.ie/~library/Eresources/databases-az.htm
Accessed 16 May 2005.
295
Young, A. P. 1996. p12. Libraries and Digital Communication: Collision or Convergence?
The Journal of Academic Librarianship 22 (1), pp11-13. [Online]. Available from Business
Source Premier/EBSCO. http://search. global.epnet.com via Dublin City University Library.
http://www.dcu.ie/~library/Eresources/databases-az.htm Accessed 16 May 2005.
296
Huynh, M. Q. 2005. p33. Viewing E-Learning Productively from the Perspective of
Habermas’ Cognitive Interests Theory Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organisations 3 (2),
pp33-46. [Online]. Available from Business Source Premier/EBSCO. http://search.
global.epnet.com via Dublin City University Library.
http://www.dcu.ie/~library/Eresources/databases-az.htm Accessed 16 May 2005.
294
76
which modern liberal society is based297 and these thought processes of print
culture are now under threat from neglect by outdated education systems and
the encroachment of new media. The SVV is an example of a media project
from a time when print culture had a monopoly. It would be a great loss to
civilisation if the thought processes associated with print culture were to
disappear.
ACCESS AND TECHNOLOGY
The SVV was a small venture with limited resources which managed to reach a
wide audience. It had as its aim the promotion of political action in the face of
what in the 1890s was the massive and growing power of empire. This massive
power soon began to decline and the beginning of its decline in Ireland can now
be traced to the self-help movements of the 1890s.
The SVV played a part in promoting these movements and in promoting
resistance to empire. It was able to do this because print technology had
become less cumbersome and more accessible at the end of the nineteenth
century and because there was now an educated public who could read. This is
an example of Marxist dialectic in the unfolding of history and shows that
empire had within the very forces which made it so successful the seeds of its
own destruction. Print technology’s accessibility provided the conditions for
the expansion of the popular press which was largely supportive of empire. At
the same time the technology was accessible to those who opposed empire.
And now that people were educated and could read about the benefits of empire
in the popular press, they also had access to reading material opposing empire.
Chomsky tells us that we now have “permanent hegemony”298, this time under
the influence of the United States government. The task of opposing this
dominance again seems daunting and what is now a global society seems to be
297
Postman. 1987. pp39-44.
Chomsky, N. 2003. On Hegemony or Survival. Talk delivered at Illinois State University
[Online]. Available from : < http://www.chomsky.info/talks/20031007.htm> Accessed 6 June
2005.
298
77
in political stagnation. In a criticism of the field of international relations
research, Darby299 states that “market rationality has colonised the space of
politics …”300 and concludes that “the political as it is currently understood
works to underwrite the existing order and … what is threatening is relegated to
the sphere of the non-political …”301. As with the parliamentary politics of the
1890s, we are once again in a situation where politics seems to be the
prerogative of those in power and seems to have little to offer to the mass of
people.
Yet the technology of media production has become more accessible. There are
many examples of media projects that work to counter the dominant ideology.
Al-Jazeera is an example of a hugely successful independent television project
which came to prominence at a time when most television channels are merging
to become parts of huge media conglomerates. It serves Muslim communities
and other Arabic speakers in the West302 who are distrustful of the reporting on
matters to do with the Middle East and the war in Iraq. The Indymedia
worldwide project provides local communities with the facilities and training to
become involved in media production, “offering grassroots non-corporate
coverage …”303.
Anti-globalisation groups use internet, e-mail and text
messaging as a means of organising.
The internet has changed the face of political reporting with individuals, some
of them already well established in the media placing their own views in the
public domain in the form of web diaries or blogs. On occasions during the
2004 US presidential election “the blogging community … was credited with
leading the news agenda …” but a recent survey by the Pew Internet and
299
Darby, P. 2004. Pursuing the Political: A Postcolonial Rethinking of Relations
International. Millenium: Journal of International Studies 33 (1), pp1-32.
300
Ibid., p16
301
Ibid., p1
302
Al Yafai, F. 2003. Lack of trust in media turns many to alternative sources. Guardian
[Online]. Media section, 28 March, 2003. Available from :
http://media.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4635175-111303,00.html Accessed 1 January 2005.
303
Independent Media Center. 2005. (homepage). [Online]. Available from :
http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml Accessed 6 June 2005.
78
Academic Life Project found that bloggers often follow the news agenda304.
Writers and journalists maintain their own websites; and websites are taking
over from established media in carrying out investigations. FactCheck.com
provides a fact-checking service to individuals and to established media305 and
the work of Carl Conetta at the Project on Defense Alternatives provides
detailed information on the casualties of, and resistance to, the US invasions of
Iraq and Afghanistan306.
Castells307 points out that technology can be used for or against powerful forces
in society:
In fact, freedom is never a given. It is a consistent
struggle; it is the ability to redefine autonomy and
exact democracy in each social and sociological
context …The Internet brings people into contact
in a public agora, to voice their concerns and share
their hopes. This is why people’s control of this
public agora is perhaps the most fundamental
political issue raised by the development of the
Internet …308.
The SVV magazine is an example of a project with limited resources which
raised issues of power in society and proposed ways of challenging centres of
power.
CHALLENGING THE DOMINANT IDEOLOGY
The dominant ideology, which is the set of ideas underpinning the way in which
society is organised, is promoted seamlessly across parliamentary politics,
history, the arts and entertainment. Challenges to this dominant ideology have
304
Gibson, O. 2005. The bloggers have all the best news. Guardian. 6 June. [Online].
Available from : http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5208852-111163,00.html Accessed
6 June 2005.
305
Will, L. 2004. Finding Truth on the Internet. [Online]. Available from :
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64967,00.html Accessed 19 September 2004.
306
Conetta, C. 2005. Vicious Circle: The Dynamics of Occupation and Resistance in Iraq, Part
1. Patterns of Popular Discontent. And 2004. Disappearing the Dead : Iraq, Afghanistan, and
the idea of a “New Warfare”. [Online]. Available from : http://www.comw.org/pda/index.html
Accessed 6 June 2005.
307
Castells, M. 2002. The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society.
Oxford : Oxford University Press
308
ibid., p164-165
79
to be made across these aspects of society. That was the achievement of the
Revival movement of the 1890s. They were able to devise and promote ways of
opposing the dominant ideology in the political vacuum following the death of
Parnell.
Milligan and Johnston took an active part in a range of activities. They were
writers, lecturers and organisers and travelled widely throughout Ireland
promoting their various activities. They promoted Irish history, Gaelic legend
and Irish music. The impact of the self-help movements was great because they
were able to mobilise people on political issues at a time when parliamentary
politics was discredited because of the broader connections that the activists
made with each others’ work over a number of areas. The Revival was a very
practical movement and it was not, as it is sometimes portrayed, merely
concerned with mystical issues and fairy lore.
This ability to engage in a number of ways on a range of issues meant that the
leaders of the Revival including Milligan and Johnston were strong role models
especially for women. Many of their lectures were carried out for the Gaelic
League. The League was unique in allowing young men and women to meet in
Irish language classes, at lectures on Irish history and at musical evenings. It
was from this that the organisation drew much of the dynamism which is
obvious from the descriptions of activities in the SVV. Milligan and Johnston
were a part of this. The Revival leaders also provided constant examples to
each other of new ways of developing their ideas and thereby provided constant
intellectual stimulation and a vibrant innovative atmosphere.
These leaders of the Revival were intellectuals as described by Eagleton309,
having “a capacity for superior forms of knowledge” and being “alienated from
the state”, for example, by colonial conditions. He explains that many of the
leading intellectuals in nineteenth century Ireland “were not Trinity College
dons but lay enthusiasts, professionals in one field propelled by a sense of
309
Eagleton, T. 1999. p5. Scholars and Rebels in Nineteenth Century Ireland. Oxford :
Blackwell.
80
political responsibility into another …”310. He goes on to explain that political
upheaval produces active and involved intellectuals: “there is likely to be rather
less tolerance for cloistered academicism in a society plagued by such urgent
political problems …”311.
These were the conditions which produced the
Revival leaders, including Milligan and Johnston.
It is the task of societal leaders to find ways of challenging the dominant
ideology in whatever special circumstances prevail in their lifetime. The SVV
magazine and its editors provide an example of effective activism in their time.
ATTEMPTS TO UNITE
Milligan called for unity on a number of occasions. She pointed to common
ground among the various strands of nationalism and even among nationalists
and unionists.
During the ’98 Centenary celebrations she advocated unity
among the various factions involved in organising the events.
As Mathews312 points out the leaders of the Revival worked together more often
that they were in dispute and even Yeats, who had disagreements with the
Gaelic League, went back and worked with the League to produce Hyde’s play
in Irish, Casadh an tSúgáin, as a conciliatory gesture because he realised that
the various groups needed to work together. The success of this period was in
no small part due to the strength of the network of co-operation between the
various self-help organisations that worked together and promoted each others’
activities. Much of this was held together by print culture as writing was an
important aspect of much of the activism.
The difficulties of co-operation have always plagued left-wing political parties
and protest groups. A recent Irish example is the anti-war coalition which
continues to have difficulty in forming a united front. It is easy to see that unity
310
ibid., p12
ibid., p13
312
Mathews. 2003. p86
311
81
is best but a clear commitment to outcomes, as shown by Milligan in the pages
of the SVV, is required to emphasise common ground and put aside differences.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LOCAL
Milligan and Johnston undertook lecture tours throughout Ireland. Several
accounts are given in the SVV of visits to west Donegal. On each visit they
attempted to set up a reading group or put some on-going activity in place in
order to build on the interest of local people. The history and fiction writing in
the SVV emphasised the idea of place. The editors also encouraged new writers
on the pages of the SVV. They understood the need to build a movement across
the whole country and to develop activism by also encouraging interest away
from centres of power such as Dublin.
It is clear that revolutionary change does not always originate in the centres of
power. In recent times political resistance has been associated with Central
American countries during the 1980s and with areas such as East Timor and
Indonesia in the 1990s. It is also important that change should be promoted to
entire communities and not just to those in the centres of power. Now once
again, with threats from economic and cultural globalisation there is an
emphasis on the local as a hope for resistance.
SUMMARY
As a magazine established at a time of political stagnation, with the aim of
bringing about fundamental societal change, the SVV has a number of lessons
for the present:
•
Media professionals should take account of the nature of their medium
in order to communicate effectively.
•
Individuals and small groups can access technology and use it
effectively.
•
The promotion of real change involves a challenge to the dominant
ideology across a number of fronts.
82
83
•
More is likely to be achieved by working together.
•
Effective political action can take place away from centres of power.
7. CONCLUSION
This project investigated the promotion of separatist self-help politics in the
SVV magazine and the way in which the magazine editors promoted
involvement in self-help organisations and other related activities. It examined
the account given in the magazine of the 1798 Centenary Celebration as an
example of a major political campaign in which the two editors were centrally
involved. The reporting on this campaign in the SVV gave its readers an insight
into political activism.
The magazine considered the fact that women in
particular were addressed by the magazine and encouraged to participate, if in a
somewhat limited way.
The research was limited to a short time period of just over three years and to
one aspect of the activism of two women, that is, their journalism. The media
project was a small independent journal which managed to draw contributions
from major activists of the time. The research focused only on the way in
which activism was promoted in the magazine and it yielded some far-reaching
lessons.
Lessons were drawn for political activists and journalist of the present day
around the issues of the nature of the media, access to media, the benefits of
challenging the dominant ideology on a number of fronts, the benefits of
forming links and the importance of activism away from centres of power.
This research is intended as a contribution to the study of the political processes
which formed part of the Irish Revival, as an examination of print journalism of
the late nineteenth century, and as a way of drawing lessons from the patterns of
history. As already discussed in the Review of Literature, these areas merit
further research. The strong personalities who led the Revival have received a
great deal of attention and it is important that attention should now turn to
processes. The late nineteenth century was the heyday of print journalism when
the printed word held a monopoly and the effect of print culture and the popular
press on public consciousness is a major question for researchers.
84
Milligan who researched, wrote and lectured on history was very clear about its
value. She pointed out that the value of history was to provide practical lessons
for the present and although this is implicit in historical research it is often the
case that these lessons are not clearly signposted. This research has attempted
to make these lessons explicit.
The leaders of the Revival are to be admired for their commitment to their
activism, for their ability to form links, for their resourcefulness when materials
and funds were scarce and for their indefatigable energy. There are lessons for
researchers to uncover in their motivation and in their ability to carry such a
workload for it is now clear that their work contributed to massive political
upheaval in the early decades of the twentieth century.
There is also the need for research into the promotion of activism through other
media – radio, television and internet – and for research into the far-reaching
effects of small local projects which use these media.
Another approach to a study such as this might be to investigate power relations
and the shifts in balances of power which may be brought about by activism
through journalism.
In conclusion, this research is intended as a contribution to the study of the
process of the Irish Revival, to the history of print journalism and to the process
of learning practical lessons for activism from the study of media history.
85
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