Civic Virtue in the Modern World: The Politics of Young Ireland

Abstract

This article examines Young Ireland’s strong links with a civic republican tradition of politics. It shows how the group set out to revive a neo‐classical ideal of an ethical community in a modern setting. The object of political association for these patriots was not to secure basic securities or peaceful co‐existence between competing parties, but to provide an enabling context for the good life. A life of active citizenship was a fundamental constituent of the good. While Young Ireland’s positive conception of freedom was drawn from civic republican sources, the article demonstrates that the group’s criticisms of faction, collective slavery and corruption are also related to their republican vision of politics. The article concludes by outlining the difficulties Young Irelanders faced in harmonising their political ideals with the institutional realities of the modern state and the basic organisation of a commercial age. While Young Ireland proposed a variety of measures to resuscitate civic virtue in the modern world, this article shows that the group struggled to overcome the individualism that modern societies seemed structurally disposed to produce.