Constituting the Diasporic Collective: Irish-Americans at the Dawn of The
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154 McCue-Enser Iowa Journal of Communication Volume 47, Number 1, Fall 2015, pp. 154-176 McCue-Enser 155 Constituting the Diasporic Collective: Irish-Americans at transcended time. Yet what is significant, as will be shown, is how a the Dawn of the Twentieth Century century later and a continent removed, Irish-American civic and religious leaders used the figure of Robert Emmet, marshaled into the Margret McCue-Enser ideographs of land and liberty, to constitute Irish-Americans as not only full-fledged American citizens but as an exceptional race able to Through close examination of speeches dedicated to Robert Emmet, the Irish protect and extend American interests of land acquisition and liberty Nationalist, Republican, and rebel leader, on the centennial of his death, I at home and abroad. reveal how Irish-American civic and religious leaders marshaled his memory One of America’s most accomplished Irish-American into the ideographs of land and liberty, and in doing so mitigated diaspora history scholars, Charles Fanning (2004), sums up the impact of and constituted Irish-Americans as not only a decent but also an exceptional Robert Emmet on the Irish-American consciousness: part of the burgeoning American socio-political landscape. First, I examine No other Irish historical figure had so powerful and lasting the state of Irish-American diaspora in early twentieth century America and an effect on the consciousness of Irish America in the the role epideictic speeches celebrating the legacy of Robert Emmet played in constructing the Irish Americans as a collective. Next, I delve into the nineteenth century as Robert Emmet …. In the home, one unique challenges faced by second and third-generation Irish-Americans could gaze upon the image of Emmet on the parlor wall. A who found themselves at a time in which claiming any identity other than solemn familial gesture was possible in the giving of full-fledged American rendered them suspect and insubordinate. Finally, I Emmet’s name to a child. In the wider world, one could demonstrate how the ideographs of land and liberty provided a way for belong to an organization named for Robert Emmet where Irish-Americans to leverage their dedication to land and their devout fight parish, social, or Irish nationalist business was conducted. against tyranny with the American Frontier Myth, producing a people who One could gather to bear witness to the speech and the story were not only full-fledged but actually superior Americans. in dramatic fashion at a range of venues—from school halls to amateur theatricals to professional productions. And one n September 19th, 1803, Irish Nationalist, Republican, and rebel could participate in formal observances celebrating the dates O leader Robert Emmet was tried and found guilty of high treason of Emmet’s birth or death. (p. 53) with the punishment of death. Following his sentencing, Emmet Robert Emmet, in ritual and word, is a fundamental part of delivered what is known as his “Speech from the Dock.” The most Irish-American identity passed down from generation to often quoted passage from this speech are its final lines: generation—often with no explanation of the actual events of Let no man write my epitaph: for as no man who knows my Emmet’s life or death. As Fanning goes on to expound on what he motives dare now vindicate them. Let not prejudice or refers to as “the power of Robert Emmet—or more accurately, the ignorance asperse them. Let them and me repose in power of the idea of Robert Emmet” (p. 59), we learn that the legend obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until of Emmet was a fundamental means through which nineteenth- other times, and other men, can do justice to my character; century Irish-Americans learned the values that provided them with a when my country takes her place among the nations of the past (p. 53). earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I 1 Commemorating Emmet, whether through family names, have done. speeches, or celebrations, provided Irish-Americans with an ideology While there are many details of Emmet’s life and death, the that was universal enough to span time and place, nineteenth century concluding words of his “Speech from the Dock” perhaps resound Ireland to twentieth century America, and yet specific enough to the loudest. Many interpret Emmet’s last words as a call to take up render clear and salient their present identity as second and third- the cause of freedom for Ireland. In one of the few rhetorical generation Irish-Americans. Carter (1992) argues that the “ritual analyses of Emmet’s speech, Post (1966) argues that the purpose of function of epideictic is the generation of a powerful sense of these very lasts words was to “stimulate his fellow countrymen [sic] community among the listeners” and that more than simply to continue their struggle for freedom from English tyranny” (p. 21). articulating values, “the discourse itself defines those values and thus It is no surprise that Emmet’s call for freedom from tyranny has defines the community” (p. 306-307). The legend of Robert Emmet, intersecting with the plight of Irish-Americans at the dawn of the Margret McCue-Enser (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Saint Catherine University. The author wishes to dedicate this piece to twentieth century, provided a means for Irish-Americans to cultivate Bruce Gronbeck for his support and guidance. Correspondence should be the ideological inheritance from their Irish immigrant grandparents sent to [email protected]. into the challenges of being native-born, though not quite full 156 McCue-Enser Iowa Journal of Communication Volume 47, Number 1, Fall 2015, pp. 154-176 McCue-Enser 157 American citizens. Scholars have focused on the role of ritual and people before his [sic] audience … [who] reacts with a desire to epideictic speeches play in constituting community. Sheard (1996) participate in that dramatic vision, to become ‘the people’ described explains that epideictic discourse “serves more exigent social and by the advocate” (p. 239-240). The audience identifies with the civic functions than simply celebrating, reinforcing, or reexamining vision of them constructed by the rhetor and, by enacting that vision, values” and that it is more accurately understood as “a rhetorical they become that very people. gesture that moves its audience toward a process of critical reflection Ideographs resonate with audiences because they articulate that goes beyond evaluation toward envisioning and actualizing that ideological material that lies at the intersections of the past and alternative realities, possible worlds” (p. 787). Via the ritual of present. McGee (1980) explains that ideographs “signify and contain commemorating Emmet, Irish-Americans were able to articulate a unique ideological commitment” and “exist in real discourse, values that not only were mutually salient to old Ireland and new functioning clearly and evidently as agents of political America but also provided them with a path that integrated and consciousness” (p. 7). Ideographs occur in the everyday discourse of elevated them as American citizens. a people and serve to represent and reify the ideologies that inform and guide that culture. Condit and Lucaites (1993) offer another definition of ideographs as a “culturally biased, abstract word or Constituting the Descendants of Diaspora phrase, drawn from ordinary language, which serves as a constitutional value for a historically situated collectivity” (p. xii). Like other immigrant communities, Irish-Americans faced the Ideographs take on an even greater importance when used to challenge of reconciling their homeland’s history with their adopted construct a diasporic collective. one. As Drzewiecka (2002) explains, immigrants face an even Ideographs provide a way for a diasporic collective to retain greater challenge in that “they must present themselves as authentic part of their ideological inheritance and graft it onto their new land. diasporic and national subjects by creatively connecting their politics Irish-Americans were particularly successful in rendering in both places so that they are not perceived as disloyal or inauthentic themselves, as Drzewiecka (2002) calls, “authentic diasporic and in either” (p. 4). Diaspora places the burden on minority national subjects” by rendering their past struggles against tyranny communities to construct narratives from which a collective and oppression not only relative but central to their new identity as conscious, derived from a common history and shared contemporary Irish-Americans (p. 4). The case of second and third generation moment, can emerge. In order to do that, diasporic subjects must Irish-Americans is particularly significant because their ideologies draw on the past as it had been passed down to them. According to were so firmly rooted in the very place from which they were Brighton (2009), who draws on Said, the “mentality of a diasporic geographically and chronologically displaced. Ideographs function collective is formed in large part from created memories and as a way for a displaced collective to create identity (Flores & “imaginative histories” (p. 19). Irish-Americans had to invent a past Hasian, 1997). Delgado (1995) found in his analysis of Chicana that would be salient to the present. culture that discourse resituated cultural frames and ideologies by Irish-American rhetors assembled the fragmented ideologies combining ideologies of native homeland with the new homeland. of historical Ireland and contemporary America and in doing so, The ideograph constitutes the people by way of using myths to constituted Irish-Americans as a unique people not entirely like their provide a means to ideologically navigate their adopted countries. A grandparents and other first-generation immigrants, nor like their significant part of constitutive rhetoric is the idea that a people are full-fledged American counterparts. McGee’s (1975) work on rendered into being not only with a shared ideology but, along with constitutive rhetoric reveals how diasporic collectives reconcile the that, a shared set of motives and directives.