Lines of Resistance: The O’Kelly Brothers in the Sudan

Abstract

LINES OF RESISTANCE: THE O’KELLY BROTHERS IN THE SUDAN NIAMH O’SULLIVAN in its eagerness to divest the historical record of mythic and fictive elements , recent scholarship too often ignores how reality itself could outstrip the tales of intrigue that passed for Irish history. One such episode involves the clandestine world of the Fenian movement, as that underground extended beyond Ireland to achieve global dimensions of conspiracy in the 1880s. In 1884, the eyes of the English-speaking world turned toward the Sudan, where Mohammed Ahmad ibn ’Abdullah, known as the Mahdi,1 was leading a rebellion against British-backed Egyptian forces. The British involvement in this conflict led to the infamous killing of General Charles Gordon in Khartoum the following year. And the Irish brothers Aloysius and James J. O’Kelly were among the chief dramatis personae in the melodrama surrounding these dramatic events. From their secret London address in 1884, James J. O’Kelly—the exsoldier , Fenian, world-renowned journalist, and member of Parliament— and his brother Aloysius O’Kelly—the painter and “Special Artist”—were drawn to the news of the phenomenal victories of the Mahdi: James to work as war correspondent for the Daily News and Aloysius to illustrate the increasingly alarming events in the Sudan for the Pictorial World. Their presence in the Nubian Desert also reveals previously uncharted depths to the relationship between Irish cultural and political nationalists and French socialists that developed during Aloysius O’Kelly’s 1870s sojourn at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Employed by the Illustrated London News (ILN) in Ireland, Aloysius O’Kelly, unlike his colleagues, rarely condescended to illustrate local events, anecdotal subjects, or any war—other than the Land War in Ireland for the ILN and the War of the Mahdi in the Sudan for the LINES OF RESISTANCE: THE O’KELLY BROTHERS IN THE SUDAN 131 1 The Mahdi, or Guided One, is in Islamic theology “chosen by God at the end of time to fill the earth with justice and equity.” Pictorial World.2 Conferred with the highly coveted title of Special Artist by the ILN, O’Kelly applied himself sparingly to causes rather than events. The pertinence of his attention in the Sudan, therefore, merits investigation. THE WAR ARTISTS Having cut their teeth in the Crimea, the illustrated newspapers organized teams of artists who increasingly specialized in different aspects of foreign work—naval or land battles, travel illustrations, or the coverage of explorations . But the War Artists were the most prized of these specialists. They had their bags packed and were ready to go at a moment’s notice, working in dangerous situations—frequently under direct attack. Some traveled in carts that they had fitted out as “studios”; most journeyed armed. Mason Jackson notes that the special artist has to encounter the perils of earth, air, fire and water. Now he is up in a balloon, now down in a coal-mine; now shooting tigers in India, now deer-stalking in the Highlands . . . Now he is at the bombardment of Alexandria, and now facing the savage warriors of the Soudan . . .3 In contrast to the bland diet of pictures of local interest, the vigorous illustrations of the Specials brought the excitement of war into Victorian drawing-rooms. The “foreignness” of assignments was important to the standing of newspapers priding themselves both on the speed with which they could dispatch their Special Artists to the more intractable and exotic trouble-spots, and the corresponding speed with which the Specials could generate material and dispatch it back to London. Large bonuses were paid to artists whose presence was pertinent, whose execution was rapid, and whose command of communications was effective. These professional war artists tended to attach themselves to the British Army, which granted them credentials to watch battles, survey the battlefield , and live under its protection. The artists quickly learned that favorable depictions of military gallantry and bravery gained them privileges as well as access to senior officers and army intelligence. The more clubbable the Special, the better he fared. Melton Prior’s oleaginous autobiography describes how he smarmed British officers with offers of Irish stew and champagne in return for the...