Abstract
This article investigates the popular periodicals for juveniles Our Boys, Fianna, Young Ireland, and St. Enda’s, which were cherished by Irish nationalists as home-grown substitutes for the alienating British story papers in the Ireland of the early twentieth century. With Ireland still under British rule, these periodicals were concerned about the role of youths in the context of nation-building and my contention is that the people involved in such editorial enterprises viewed them as potentially transformative forces of society, which not only harnessed the power of the idea of political upheaval, but also forged the agents who were to build the envisioned free Irelands. Contributing to the definition of an appropriate ‘post-independence’ national identity, they thus offered to the young visions of the future nation that predicated its legitimacy upon an appeal to the past and the appreciation of traditions. At the same time, young readers were presented with exemplary models of Irish citizenship drawn from Irish heritage of myths and histories. Hence, through the close scrutiny of primary texts from the crucial 1914–23 years, my objective is to show how the future Irelands first imagined and narrated in the periodicals would find their roots in the past and draw energies and strength from the nation’s cultural heritage.
Highlights
The turn of the twentieth century in Ireland was a period of both unprecedented cultural production and political upheaval
With Ireland still under British rule, these periodicals were concerned about the role of youths in the context of nation-building and my contention is that the people involved in such editorial enterprises viewed them as potentially transformative forces of society, which harnessed the power of the idea of political upheaval, and forged the agents who were to build the envisioned free Irelands
This was the era of the Irish Revival, the movement involving Standish O’Grady, Lady Augusta Gregory, and William Butler Yeats, which profoundly shaped the development, and global prominence, of Irish culture.The Easter Rising in 1916 and the War of Independence led, to the end of British rule and the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922.1 In this period of transition from subjugation to British rule to independence, politics and culture did not act as two distinct realms
Summary
To cite this article: Elena Ogliari, ‘The Past Contains a Promise of Regeneration: Narratives of Ireland’s Future in Early-twentieth-century Juvenile Periodicals’, Journal of European Periodical Studies, 6.2 (Winter 2021), 36–54. The Past Contains a Promise of Regeneration: Narratives of Ireland’s Future in Earlytwentieth-century Juvenile Periodicals
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.