Truly muscular Gaels? W.N. Kerr, physical culture and Irish masculinity in the early twentieth century

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 1908 W.N. Kerr, a tee-totalling, non-smoking, vegetarian athlete from Dublin took first place in a ‘Best Developed’ figure competition. Two years previously, Kerr had written to Vitality magazine, an English physical culture periodical, declaring his interest in building his physique. Kerr, like many other men in England and Ireland, had become enamoured with physical culture, a societal interest in the body as cultivated through diet and exercise. The intervening period between his letter and competition victory saw Kerr submit several letters and photographs to English physical culture magazines. In using Kerr's letters, photographs and interest in physical culture as a microcosm for wider societal trends, the following article argues that Kerr’s public interest in physical culture reflected a new kind of masculinity in Ireland understood primarily by the body. Unlike previous studies of Irish masculinity, which have tended to focus on those identities created in reaction or against English stereotypes, the form of masculinity embodied by Kerr was fostered primarily in Great Britain. Britain supplied Ireland with physical culture outlets, books, workout devices and figures to emulate. The kind of masculinity envisioned and embodied by Kerr thus spoke of a masculine archetype free from the nationalist sentiments previously studied by Irish historians.