Breaking the law: Patrick Pearse, cultural revival, and the site of sovereignty

Abstract

This paper focuses on the intersections between Patrick Pearse’s revolutionary career as leader of the Easter Rising and his interests in the law and theatre. The paper opens with a discussion of the context of cultural revival and the emergent anti‐colonial movements that so radically shaped Irish history in the early decades of the 20th century – a key suggestion here is that the idea of the law shadows much of this period’s discourse. It is in this context that Pearse’s political pamphlets are unpacked to reveal the manner in which he theorizes the problematic linkages between empire, sovereign power, and the law. The paper then moves to examine Pearse’s use of the theatre as a space for exploring the intimate connections between conceptions of the law and national identity. In all of this, Pearse’s work is seen as much more experimental, and perhaps even proto‐modernist, than is often suggested within a critical discourse that focuses on the Romantic‐nationalist elements of his revolutionary activities.

Keywords:

• law
• theatre
• identity
• Easter Rising
• republicanism
• sovereignty