Description
Recruitment posters frequently incorporated symbols of national identity into their designs. But in early twentieth-century Ireland, the concept of national identity was highly politicized and fragmented. The country was divided not only between nationalists and loyalists, but also along religious, geographic, and economic lines. The Third Home Rule Bill of 19121914 had nearly brought the country to civil war, and final passage of the Bill was put on hold for the duration of the war. When the war erupted, Irish attitudes towards England (was it a protector or an imperialist enemy?) led to conflicting opinions about joining Great Britains war efforts. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, eased nationalists concerns by calling for a distinctly Irish Army composed of Irishmen, led by Irishmen and trained for the field at home in Ireland. Eventually, over 200,000 Irishmen, both nationalists and loyalists, enlisted and, in some cases, served side-by-side on the battlefield. This poster was created only two months after the bloody Easter Uprising (1916), in which radical Irish separatists temporarily seized control of Dublin, declaring it a free and separate Irish republic. Britains brutal repression of the rebellion sharply increased Irish resentment towards England, posing serious challenges for recruiters. This poster, like almost all Irish recruitment posters, avoids Irelands political troubles. Responding to growing Irish nationalism, the artist has inserted several symbols (or caricatures) of Irish identity: a soldier wearing an Irish skirt and cap plays a bagpipe with an Irish wolfhound at his side, while, in the background, a regiment marches with the Irish green harp flag.
Details
- Work Date:
- 1916
- Dimensions:
- 29⅞ x 19⅞ inches
- Medium:
- color lithograph
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Bartlett H. Hayes, 1985