Gender in the frame: photography and the performance of the nation narrative in early twentieth-century Ireland

Abstract

This article considers the role of visualising in the formation of the nation narrative. It foregrounds the significance of gender performance in early twentieth-century Irish cultural nationalism. Prior to the consolidation of a hegemonic narrative of state, spaces existed for the exploration of a range of possible projections of identity. This study focuses on one of those possibilities, namely a series of costume photographs where gender is literally performed. A contextual reading of these photographs is offered in order to situate them within the formation of the nation narrative. The gender of the nation is enacted through performativity, which through its repetition comes to be seen as natural. The photographs under consideration here undermine that process of naturalisation by revealing a more complex and contradictory history of the relationship between gender and nation. The omission of this more complex representation in the Irish narrative, it is argued, reveals how monopoly of narrative is integral to both hegemonic control in the visual field and how we understand the nation.

Keywords::

• nation narrative
• gender performance
• photography
• masculinities
• Ireland

Notes

^1. Lloyd, Anomalous States, 6.

^2. I apply the term nation narrative in its generic sense to indicate the stories told to give the nation meaning and thereby bolster state hegemony. However, it needs to be noted that in the case of Ireland this has never been fully secured with, for example, a “Northern” inflection assigned to 1798 being downplayed in the dominant narrative of the formation of the Irish Free State.

^3. Maguire, A Century in Focus, 54.

^4. Hobsbawm, “Introduction,” 1–14.

^5. Billig, Banal Nationalism, 10.

^6. Phoenix, Northern Nationalism, xv; Neeson, Birth of a Republic, 66.

^7. Hutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism, 153.

^8. O Snodaigh, Hidden Ulster, 86–7.

^9. Foster, Paddy and Mr Punch, 34.

^10. Hutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism, 178.

^11. His first contribution to Uladh was an essay on “Art and Culture in Old Belfast” in which he advocated the rejuvenation of homebred culture. Hay, “Explaining Uladh,” 126.

^12. Herbert Hughes, along with Fred Hughes, John Campbell, Bulmer Hobson and Bigger undertook a trip to north Donegal in 1903 to collect the folk songs of the region. Hughes took his notepad and Bigger his camera: they returned with many unrecorded airs and photographs. Saunders and Kelly, Joseph Campbell, 23. Hughes, an accomplished musician, set these airs to music while John Campbell produced illustrations (some of which were based on photographs taken by Bigger during the trip): the outcome was the publication Songs of Uladh. Both the trip and publication were funded by Bigger.

^13. McBrinn, “The Peasant and Folk Art Revival,” 38.

^14. McCole, “The Magic Lantern,” 258.

^15. A notable absence in Bigger's collection is photographs of the urban milieu or ones that include signs of modernity. The exception in this non-representation is photographs of his motorcar, which provided a mode of travel that he was captivated by. Even here he had to accommodate this symbol of modernity by romanticising it. Referring to the vehicle as “Cu Ulas”, he renders it a latter-day equivalent of a Gaelic warrior's steed: “Cu Ulas is in splendid order snorting for the high hills and deep valleys and sea edges” (letter to Alice Stopford Green, 1907, MSS 15072 (1), NLI). The choice of interpretative frame is revealing: it expresses both an idealised rejection of materialism and modernity and also the historicising of heroic myth that pertained specifically to the North of Ireland – his geographical and cultural space.

^16. Mathews, Revival, 26.

^17. O'Mahony and Delanty, Rethinking Irish History, 111.

^18. Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland, 239.

^19. O'Mahony and Delanty, Rethinking Irish History, 112.

^20. Bigger intended to write individual accounts of all the Northern leaders of 1798 but William Orr was the only one to see publication. Fellow cultural nationalist, neighbour and later member of Sinn Féin Bulmer Hobson (1883–1969) collaborated with Bigger on William Orr. Newman, Dictionary of Ulster Biography, 110. Bigger's working manuscript for Orr reveals that some of the illustrations were based on photographs which he then drew on with pencil, pen and ink to include details from the period. This is an interesting instance of where the photographic serves to give verisimilitude to a pre-photographic moment (Misc., Box Z315-Z342, Box K5, Bigger Collection, BCL).

^21. Crooke, “Revivalist Archaeology and Museum Politics,” 83.

^22. Maguire, A Century in Focus, 56. He decorated the castle in a quasi-Elizabethan baronial fashion, adorning it with Irish antiquities and memorabilia from 1798. When in residence he flew a large flag with the Red Hand (emblem of the O'Neills) on it, dressed as the Chief and entertained with largesse appropriate, he believed, of Gaelic hospitality. He commissioned photographers, most notably Robert Welch of Belfast, to record both the interior and the cultural events performed there.

^23. Carville, Photography and Ireland, 41.

^24. McNulty, “The Place of Memory,” 205.

^25. Morris, Alice Milligan, 174.

^26. Gaughan, Memoirs of Senator Joseph Connolly, 77.

^27. The significance of 1798 was that it symbolised a key point where as F. C. McGrath notes a “settler” colonist culture that had not managed to achieve hegemonic control aligned itself to the indigenous colonised culture to challenge the colonial power. McGrath, “Settler Nationalism,” 1.

^28. See Jackson, “Unionist Myths 1912–1985,” 164–85.

^29. McNulty, “The Place of Memory,” 203–21.

^30. Roger Casement quoted in Inglis, Roger Casement, 113.

^31. Dixon, Francis Joseph Bigger, 15.

^32. Bulmer Hobson recalled borrowing Bigger's magic lantern projector for a Duncannon Club street lecture on the Falls Road, Belfast where it received hard treatment from missiles thrown by a less than enthusiastic crowd (Ireland Yesterday and Tomorrow, 9–10).

^33. Dixon, Francis Joseph Bigger, 5.

^34. The bulk of the Ulster Museum's collection comprises photographs collected by him in his lifetime, with additions acquired by purchase or gift after his death (Nesbitt, A Museum in Belfast, 32). Belfast Central Library's collection forms part of a much larger archive of Bigger's private library, personal papers, correspondence and materials relating to the history of Irish music. This bequest was initiated by a falling out between Bigger and the authorities of the Linen Hall Library, Belfast over his “Holy Hills of Ireland” lecture (see Killen, A History of the Linen Hall Library, 85–6).

^35. For the significance of tableaux vivants, their use by the Gaelic League and their popular currency see Morris, Alice Milligan. Bigger and Milligan worked together for the Belfast League's 1898 commemoration celebrations for which Milligan directed tableaux scenes which were presented at the Ulster Hall, Belfast. Milligan's letters to Bigger, which begin in 1899, indicate correspondence relating to further dramatic performances for the League propaganda (MI5, Bigger Correspondence, BCL). Bigger's interest in Milligan's plays and poems is indicated by the two Scrap-books he compiled of them (MSS: Q9, J212–213, FJB Papers, BCL).

^36. The index entries for both images open with the phrase: “Photograph of a person in an Elizabethan gown …”

^37. Bigger knew Hogg as both a fellow member of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club and also as a commercial photographer whom he commissioned to take numerous photographs, many of which are held in the Collection.

^38. Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, 127–8.

^39. Tagg, The Burden of Representation, 63.

^40. , “Francis Joseph Bigger,” 40–7; “Heroes for a New Ireland,” 29–38; Francis Joseph Bigger.

^41. McBrinn, “The Peasant and Folk Art Revival in Ireland,” 14–61; Phoenix et al., Feis na nGleann; Dudgeon, Roger Casement, 160–98.

^42. Dixon, Francis Joseph Bigger, 13.

^43. Dixon, “Heroes for a New Ireland,” 32.

^44. Dixon, Francis Joseph Bigger, 4.

^45. Ibid., 8.

^46. Dudgeon, Roger Casement, 181–2.

^47. Ibid., 184.

^48. The Journal runs for the period November 1900 (when the group was formed) to December 1901. Within a bound ledger it records hand-written accounts of meetings, outings and papers given by the members. Bigger (who took the pseudonym of “Bluemantle”) and H.R. Brett (Rector of St Peter's) founded the club, which comprised nine members. Meetings were held at the Schoolroom of the church and at the “Bungalow” at Ardrigh (MSS 16994, NLI).

^49. Dudgeon, Roger Casement, 186.

^50. Ibid., 184.

^51. Ibid.

^52. Ibid.

^53. Tagg, The Burden of Representation, 65.

^54. Morris, Alice Milligan, 253.

^55. Sheehy, The Rediscovery of Ireland's Past, 148; McMahon, Grand Opportunity, 187–210.

^56. Clarke was a poet, journalist and founder of the Gaelic League in the Glens of Antrim (Gaughan, Memoirs of Senator Joseph Connolly, 152). He was involved in setting up a local Gaelic Society (a literary society), which Bigger supported, was on the organising committee (alongside Bigger) for the revised feis in the Glens and was also a correspondent of Bigger's (see CL6, Bigger Correspondence, BCL, for his letters).

^57. “Benmore,” “Bigger of the Glens,” Weekly Telegraph, April 23, 1927, n.p.; “Bigger/Biggar Family Papers (1686–1927),” D3905/A/3, Public Records Office Northern Ireland.

^58. O'Grady had published the fourteen-act historical drama Red Hugh O'Donnell in 1889.

^59. Foster, The Irish Story, 12.

^60. Butler, “Otway Cuffe,” 9.

^61. Maume, entry for “Standish James O'Grady.”

^62. Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland, 422.

^63. Morris, Alice Milligan, 234.

^64. O'Bolguidhir, “The Early Years of the Gaelic League,” 1021.

^65. Maume, entry for “Otway Frederick Seymour Cuffe.”

^66. Quoted in Butler, “Otway Cuffe,” 4. See also Bowe, Art and the National Dream, 194, and Sheeny, The Rediscovery of Ireland's Past, 138–41 for Cuffe's involvement in the Arts and Crafts movement.

^67. Both were actively involved in the promotion of the arts, home industries, native dress and the use of Irish products. See McBrinn, “The Peasant and Folk Art Revival,” 34–51 for Bigger. Cuffe was a guest at the Glens of Antrim feis (1904) that Bigger was instrumental in revising.

^68. Letters from Cuffe to Bigger (CUI, Bigger Correspondence) held at Belfast Central Library cover the period August 1901 to December 1904. As with all correspondence for Bigger held at the Library these letters do not include letters written by Bigger.

^69. CUI, Bigger Correspondence, BCL, August 29, 1901.

^70. Letter in Journal of the Neophytes, dated October 10, 1901, n.p.

^71. Ibid., letter dated October 13, 1901.

^72. Seamus Deane suggests that this was the play; he refers to Hubert Butler's recollection of his mother's account of the disruptive crowd. Deane, The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, 548, note 7. For Butler's account see “Divided Loyalties,” 97.

^73. Journal of the Neophytes, September 17, 1901.

^74. In addition to O'Grady's version, Alice Milligan had staged her The Deliverance of Red Hugh O'Donnell (acted by the “Daughters of Erin” and the Fay Brothers amateur theatre troop) in Dublin in August 1901; the play text was reprinted in the Weekly Freeman in March 1902, with significant parts translated into Irish (Morris, Alice Milligan, 233).

^75. CUI, October 23 and October 29, 1901.

^76. Ibid., November 21, 1901.

^77. Ibid.

^78. Ibid., May 6, 1902.

^79. For example, his presidential address to the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club on 1 December 1902 was a paper on “Elizabethan Ireland”. He characterised the period as one where men “met and fought it out like gentlemen” in an age of “chivalry” (Bigger, Proceedings of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, 93–7).

^80. McMahon, Grand Opportunity, 197–8.

^81. “Aboo” is an ancient Irish rallying cry.

^82. O'Grady (1902) Hugh Roe O'Donnell: A Play, in Scrap-book, J299, F.J. Bigger Papers, BCL.

^83. Holland, “‘Sweet it is to scan …,’” 114.

^84. Schwartz, “Un beau souvenir du Canada,” 26.

^85. There is no evidence in Bigger's papers that the photographs were used for performance programmes or playbills. Requests for prints appear to be largely for personal use: Cuffe contacts Bigger to arrange for prints (from Hogg) for the Kilkenny boys and for himself to send to friends (CUI, BCL, October 14 and 21, and November 16, 1902). I have identified a small number of photographs of the Kilkenny boys in their costume roles in the Alexander Hogg collection (Ulster Museum) but none of the Neophytes are there.

^86. Turner, “Saint Pauls and the Project of Masculinity,” 239.

^87. Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality, 45.

^88. Beyson, Masculinities and Culture, 90.

^89. Reeser, Masculinity in Theory, 178.

^90. Review of gymnastic display at 1901 Sheestown pageant, Kilkenny Moderator, August 21, 1901.

^91. Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland, 295.

^92. Tosh, Manliness and Masculinities, 24.

^93. Bigger, “‘Hugh Roe O'Donnell,’” 172.

^94. A copy of the Rules is pasted into the Scrap-book (J299). It is worth noting that this mode of accommodation pre-dates Thomas Hiram Holding's National Camping Club (1906), which, while established for differing ideological ends, shared a similar mistrust of the “softening” effects of home comforts on masculinity

^95. Sheehy, The Rediscovery of Ireland's Past, 175.

^96. O'Grady, All Ireland Review, vol. 3: 28 (1902–06): September 13, 1902, 438. (A98) Bigger Collection, BCL.

^97. Ibid., vol. 3: 25, August 16, 1902, 390.

^98. Kilkenny Journal, August 20, 1902. Pasted into the Scrap-book (J299).

^99. The Daily Chronicle, August 25, 1902. Other reviews collected by Bigger include: Irish Times (August 23), The Northern Whig (August 21), The Gael (November) and The Leader-San Francisco (September 20). The Irish News and Belfast Morning Star (August 21, 1902) praised the performance for its “meeting of the North and South, the Lagan and the Nore, with no distinction of creed or party” as evidence of a blending “together in brotherly enmity for the common good”.

^100. The chosen name for the clubs consciously recalls the republican ideals expressed by the United Irishmen Convention held at Dungannon (Co. Tyrone) in 1782.

^101. Quoted in Phoenix et al., Feis na nGleann, 73.

^102. Fianna Handbook, MSS 1A3325, NLI.

^103. Tosh, A Man's Place, 183.

^104. Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality, 84, 64.

^105. Frazier, “Queering the Irish Renaissance,” 8–38.

^106. Reeser, Masculinity in Theory, 195.

^107. Ibid., 177.

^108. O'Tuathaigh, “Nationalist Ireland 1912–1922,” 50–1.

^109. O'Mahony and Delanty, Rethinking Irish History, 112.

^110. Breathnach-Lynch, “Landscape, Space and Gender,” 27.

^111. Phelan, “Queer Up North.”

^112. Dudgeon, Roger Casement, 191. He quotes Austen Moran's assertion that Bigger's homosexuality was common knowledge in Belfast. Moran, Labour and Partition, 199.

^113. McCormack, Roger Casement in Death, 77–8.

^114. Conrad, “Queer Treasons,” 127.

^115. Reeser, Masculinity in Theory, 179.

^116. Hacking, “The Archaeology of Foucault,” 30.

^117. Conrad, “Queer Treasons,” 125.