Nationalism and religion in Ireland: the apocalyptic rhetoric of John Mitchel

Abstract

ABSTRACT While the role of religion in the production of nationalism has been subjected to uneven forms of scrutiny, most of these approaches rely on an implicit or explicit identification between sectarian affiliation and the dominant social group articulating a particular form of nationalism. This article will create a more nuanced picture by demonstrating the influence of a rhetoric of religiosity originating from a social group that generally resisted incorporation into a nationalist movement. It will do this by locating nineteenth century Irish nationalist John Mitchel firmly within a tradition of Presbyterianism at a time that his co-religionists were dominated by unionism and nationalism was taking on an increasingly Catholic orientation. This will show the difficulties of applying classic accounts of religion and nationalism to the Irish context. The ability of John Mitchel to intervene within the discursive space of nineteenth century Ireland is provocative in this context because of the implication that Mitchel’s intervention would imply the existence of a non-sectarian social space through which confessional motifs could be exchanged and circulate with a regularity that is not often granted to Ireland due to the dominant tendency to view political and social conflict through a sectarian lens.