The Rise and Fall of John Redmond in the Irish World

Chapter Six Political Cartoons as Visual Opinion Discourse: The Rise and Fall of John Redmond in the Irish World Ú na N í Bhroim é il In a series of publications entitled “Coming Men and Coming Questions,” reprinted in the Irish World on June 24, 1905, W. T. Stead stated that John Redmond “is the fighting chief . his readiness in debate, his self-control, his keen appreciation of the vital points in parliamentary strategy speedily made him a power in the House of Commons.” 1 The Irish World concurred. Placing the Stead article on the front page alongside a three-column-sized image of Redmond gaz- ing into the distance surrounded by a wreath of shamrocks and titled “the Irish Leader,” the paper marked the fact that while Stead had been critical of Redmond in the past, he now recognized him as the leader of a united, organized, and disciplined party and complimented him on his astute ability, stating that he was “a politician first, a politician second and a politician third.” 2 This was a fulsome tribute, the leader writer suggested, from “one of the foremost English critics of men and events . who perhaps beyond any other writer of his time in England has the faculty of dissecting character and presenting the strong and weak points of public men in cameo-like sentences.” 3 In this article, the Irish World encapsulated the power and significance of Stead, especially the condensed style of the New Journalism that he espoused, and a justification of its own support for Redmond and his party. The impact and influence of Stead’s New Journalism on the changing representation of Redmond in the Irish World , and on the nature of that representation, is the focus of this chapter. The New Journalism of the late nineteenth century was regarded as having its apotheosis in America, where the impact of mass journalism was allied to a vision of the democratization of the press and an emphasis on “sensation as opposed to reason.” 4 One of the key ways in which news could be condensed and represented was through K. Steele et al. (eds.), Ireland and the New Journalism © Karen Steele and Michael de Nie 2014 120 Úna Ní Bhroiméil political cartoons. Long a staple of American newspapers, illustrations commanded attention from the reader and conferred “a self- authenticating truthfulness upon a news story.” 5 Pulitzer, for example, believed strongly in visual journalism, publishing illustrations, political caricatures, and cartoons on the front page of the World , aim- ing to “entrap the eye by making pictures a complement to text.” 6 As a method of maintaining what W. T. Stead termed “touch with the public,” political cartoons were an innovative practice of political display, “more enterprising, more energetic, more extravagant” than columns of newsprint. 7 This was particularly critical given that, as Joel Wiener suggests, editorials often remained unread in America. 8 As a time-based form of visual opinion discourse, political cartoons both reflected and shaped the climate of public opinion and revealed, according to Michael DeSousa and Martin Medhurst, “the interre- lationships of people, events, and power.” 9 Viewed as a “tool in the editorial arsenal,” these cartoons had the ability and power to propa- gate opinion and to punish wrongdoing. 10 This was decisively demon- strated by the undoing of William Tweed by the cartoonist Thomas Nast in the 1870s, a process that marked “the genesis of ‘visual think- ing about political power’ in American journalism.” 11 The Irish World and American Industrial Liberator set itself apart from other Irish American newspapers by consistently publishing on its front page a one-panel political cartoon. Edited by Patrick Ford from its foundation in 1871 until his death in 1913 and subsequently by his son Robert Ford, the Irish World was published weekly in New York and was the most widely circulating Irish American newspaper in the early twentieth century, having a readership of 125,000 in 1904, although this had shrunk to 60,000 by 1914. 12 The paper also had a broad audience in Ireland. 13 The main function of the Irish American press was, according to Ford, to provide interpretative editorial con- tent and information on Ireland and so was suited to a weekly edition rather than a daily. 14 As well as endorsing and advancing Irish causes, its editorial line was pro-labor and anti-imperialist, and it championed American ideals of independence and liberty. As their newspapers did for Stead and T. P. O’Connor, the Irish World provided a forum for the Fords to publicize pro-Irish and anti-British views and indeed was banned from the US mail in 1917 because of its trenchant anti-British stance. 15 Throughout the period 1900–1914, however, the paper was a keen and strong supporter of John Redmond and of Home Rule. During this period, Redmond personified Irish constitutional nation- alism, and the front-page cartoons of the Irish World presented him to its readers as the central and crucial figure in Ireland’s efforts to Political Cartoons as Visual Opinion Discourse 121 achieve political self-determination and autonomy. This visual representation made Redmond a familiar and iconic figure. By examining the changing representation of John Redmond in these graphic texts, it will be possible to bring to light the attitudes and understandings that were current among Irish Americans about Ireland and about their own role in its future. 16 As the leader of the reunified Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) in 1900, John Redmond embodied the hope of the Irish people that a unified party could complete Parnell’s mission of achieving Home Rule for Ireland. Having visited America in 1886, 1895, and 1899, he was well known to Irish American supporters, but it was his 1904 visit to the United Irish League (UIL) convention that spurred the strong and consistent support of the Irish World . 17 He was coming, declared the paper, to tell the friends of Ireland in this country that for any and all the ills of Ireland—educational, financial, industrial—there is but one remedy and one only, namely national self government: to give the Irish people full control over their own country and its affairs and thereby enable them to make laws to suit themselves and their interests, and to use their own capital in their own way for their own industrial and com- mercial welfare. 18 Both the Irish World and Redmond linked the prospect of a revived Home Rule bid to the IPP regaining the balance of power at Westminster. This, they believed, would be achieved with the mon- etary support of the Irish Americans who would enable the IPP to “carry the next General Election in Great Britain.” 19 Most impor- tantly, however, the Irish World linked Redmond to Parnell and placed its expectations and hope with the new IPP leader, stating that “Charles Stewart Parnell in his prime did not have a reception more warm, more unaffected or more affectionate than that which greeted this resourceful, calm, plain-speaking leader.” 20 The paper’s promotion of Redmond and Home Rule coincided with the regular publication on its front page of a political cartoon. While the Irish World had published political cartoons before 1904, the first by cartoonist T. Fleming was published on October 1, 1904; apart from the odd occasion, he contributed a weekly cartoon to the paper throughout the period 1904–1918. 21 During that period, there were 57 cartoons featuring John Redmond and many more on the issue of Home Rule. 22 The significance of placing the editorial cartoon on the front page cannot be underestimated. Some of the key innova- tions of New Journalism were the creative use of large typeface, cross 122 Úna Ní Bhroiméil heads, and illustrations. Of all these aspects of visual design, however, Medhurst and DeSousa argue that it is image placement that is the most important aspect of the editorial voice. 23 Because placement commands attention, they argue, situating the cartoon on page one directly under the letterhead attracts the eye and has the power to become an immediate source of attention. 24 As T. P. O’Connor put it, condensing the central editorial opinion into a front-page graphic was the essence of the New Journalism’s ability “to tell the story of each day in the briefest, the most picturesque, the most graphic fashion.” 25 The initial cartoons grew out of the editorial text and compressed the central tenets of the editor’s message to his readers. In the very first political cartoon featuring Redmond published by the Irish World in April 1905, a dapper Redmond observes Balfour and Chamberlain fight each other in a duel. Both Balfour and Chamberlain wear medi- eval costumes of doublet and hose and fight with rapiers, signaling that they are men of the past, whereas Redmond, in his twentieth- century attire, stands disinterestedly as the up-and-coming man, biding his time. 26 Using a literary allusion to Shakespeare’s Othello, the cartoonist casts Redmond as Iago, who sets Casio and Rodrigo against each other, little caring which one succeeds in killing the other as “everyway makes my gain” 27 (see figure 6.1 ). As one of Shakespeare’s more malign and sinister characters, Iago is hardly a heroic figure Figure 6.1 Irish World , April 8, 1905. Political Cartoons as Visual Opinion Discourse 123 with which to compare Redmond. But for sheer Machiavellian cun- ning and political flair, Iago is an apt comparison. It was, the Irish World believed, only a matter of time before Balfour’s government assailed by Chamberlain would fall, and then Redmond’s political opportunity would come.

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