writing_sample Documentation Release Joshua Whitehurst Feb 14, 2018 Contents 1 Project Description 1 2 Table of Contents 3 3 Indices and tables 13 i ii CHAPTER 1 Project Description This is my writing sample for graduate school applications. I focus on Irish revolutionary history, particularly the way that Patrick Pearse utilized cultural images and memory to motivate his compatriots and justify his actions against the English in the Easter Rising of 1916. Please follow the links to the What Is This? section and learn more about the project and the document itself, including contact information for the author and a warning to those interested in citations. The Body of the Essay take you to separate sections of the document itself; it is kept separate to preserve the integrity of the footnotes and to make it more agreeable on more devices and browsers since the manuscript is over 15 pages long. 1 writing_sample Documentation, Release 2 Chapter 1. Project Description CHAPTER 2 Table of Contents 2.1 What Is This? 2.1.1 The Site Itself This website hosts the paper I wrote for Matt Knight’s Irish Rebels and Revolutionaries seminar. It’s my best work so far, and so I am putting it out onto the internet as an example of my academic work and as an exercise in my developing computer skills. I used GitHub and Atom for the under-the-hood work, Read the Docs for hosting, and Sphinx for formatting (with a little Python 3.6 thrown in). I want to be able to put my own links and webpages down on applications and resumes, and so this is a first step in that direction. 2.1.2 Requests If you would like to know more about the process I used, my notes, or my sources, please feel free to send me an email at [email protected] or a message on GitHub. 2.1.3 Is this a historical resource? Perhaps you are a student looking for sources for your paper. If so, welcome! This is not the droid you’re looking for. You should treat this paper like a wikipedia article; I used real, published resources to write this essay, and so you can utilize my sources to make similar points in your own work. If you do want to just snag my exact words, beware this: since Google knows where to find these words, Google will lead your plagiarism checker or instructor straight to my doorstep. You’re much better off accessing the same sources and drawing your own conclusions. If, however, you think you need to quote me, your instructor needs to know what you’re doing and the quality of the sources you’re using. If your instructor approves of this paper as a quotable resource, please attribute my work appropriately; depending on your style guide, you may need to take special care to avoid citing me as a published resource (perhaps as an interview or blog post would be best). 3 writing_sample Documentation, Release 2.1.4 Support Since this isn’t much of a coding project or tool, you shouldn’t have any issues, per se. However, if you find that something is not working correctly, please reach out to me at [email protected] with any questions, and I may be able to help you resolve your issue. If you notice issues from an editing perspective or something else you could fix yourself, please utilize GitHub’s functionality for collaborative projects (fork the source, push your edits). If you simply take issue with my conclusions, I encourage you to reach out to me or publish your response. 2.1.5 License The project is licensed under the MIT license. 2.1.6 Where To Go From Here Check out this table of contents to jump right in to the documents. Introduction Patrick Pearse was a bad revolutionary. He was a commander in chief with no military experience. He seemed aloof when tasked with logistical errands during the shelling of Dublin. He trudged ahead with his plans to rise despite enormous public backlash from his allies in the Irish Volunteers, particularly Eoin MacNeill, who sent a countermanding order to stop the Rising before it even began. Pearse and his comrades were executed by the British, leaving Dublin in ruins. And one hundred years later in the Republic of Ireland, a nation constituting twenty-six counties joined together in total independence from English rule, the people commemorated the Rising with the largest military parade in the history of the Republic.1 There was a long and bloody path from Patrick Pearse’s doorstep to that huge military parade. While that path still requires the detailed and careful study of historians to understand so fresh a memory, it is useful to step back into the path Pearse himself took to Easter 1916, and how he brought any men along with him to so grim a martyrdom, so triumphant a failure. When Patrick Pearse adopted the heroes of Ireland’s long and storied past, he brought into a new understanding and relevance figures such as Cú Chulainn and Gráinne Ní Mháille from the distant past. In eulogizing O’Donovan Rossa and Wolfe Tone, Pearse adopted the real heroes of old rebellions and made their voices work for his new rebellion. He painted a cruel picture of an English system of education and government which served explicitly to subjugate and humiliate the Irish, forming the perfect villain for his heroes to struggle against. He utilized widespread cultural memories to create his own liturgy, weaving culture and language into a nationalism which provided all the ingredients of zealous praxis. He showed his people an image of Ireland free and proud, and pointed them toward the bloody sacrifice they would need to make to achieve that Ireland once again. Patrick Pearse adopted and expanded upon the Gaelic Revival, images of Ireland’s heroes, and reductive images of Ireland’s enemies and problems to justify, support, and motivate his violent militant nationalism; and it is this work which contributed to the cultural success of 1916’s Easter Rising despite its military failure. 1 “Thousands Attend Easter Rising Parade.” BBC. 4 Chapter 2. Table of Contents writing_sample Documentation, Release How Pearse Adopted and Created Images of Ireland’s Cultural Heroes To Patrick Pearse1, one hero stood out from the populated cast of Ireland’s finest sons and daughters: Sétanta, known famously as Cú Chulainn2, which means the “Hound of Culann”. Cú Chulainn features prominently in the Ulster Cycle, and his strength and agility were unmatched among men. He adhered to a strict code of honor and exhibited fierce loyalty in every tale. He proved the ideal hero to Pearse and the boys at St Enda’s school. Pearse utilized Cú Chulainn’s image and his boyhood adventures to educate his young pupils at St Enda’s in what he considered the finest virtues of Irish manhood3. This understanding of manhood had a major effect on the boys at St. Enda’s, and on the movement for cultural nationalism. At St. Enda’s, Cú Chulainn featured prominently in the education of the boys. “The front hall in Cullenswood House was dominated by a fresco of the boy hero taking arms while around the mural was an inscription of [Cú Chulainn’s] famous choice between life and fame: “I care not though I live but one day and one night if only my name and deeds live after me.””4 Pearse utilized Cú Chulainn’s emotional power and powerful example “of learning, gallantry, heroism, bravery and artistic sensibility wrapped up within a concept of the Warrior Boy Poet”5 to create his own class of warrior-boy-poets. Pearse was at the time of founding St. Enda’s the editor of An Claidheamh Soluis, a newspaper run by the Gaelic League. His work at St. Enda’s was an extension of his interest in cultural nationalism and educating a generation of warrior-boy-poets to carry Ireland into independence.6 While not all his supporters at the Rising in 1916 were educated by Pearse or even by his students, “St. Enda’s boys were a regular fixture in Dublin’s social and cultural life in the early years of the twentieth century and were considered, without exception, as emblematic of the potential of Irish manhood.”7 Pearse was able to use St. Enda’s as a model for educating nationalists in a deeply pervasive manner; from the ground up. While it may seem sinister to some to focus efforts of cultural reform toward the education of children, there are real and pertinent reasons for doing so. For one thing, Pearse wanted to encourage bilingualism as a feature of the revivalist movement. On the topic of Cú Chulainn’s role, Pearse sought to create at St. Enda’s the sort of tutelage Cú Chulainn and the ancient Irish enjoyed in their education. Pearse spoke of fosterage, a system in which “to the Old Irish the teacher was ‘aite’, fosterer; the pupil, was ‘dalta’, foster-child; the system was ‘aiteachas’, fosterage.”8 He wanted to 1 2. It is with great consideration that Patrick Pearse is named so in this paper as opposed to his Gaelic name, Padraic Mac Piarais. This is because while Pearse so vigorously fought for a free Ireland with a unique and valuable cultural identity, he remained a British subject to his death (despite his best efforts) and the original language of this paper is English. It is the position of this author that Pearse’s military failure in Easter 1916 to secure an independent Ireland gives reason to use his English name so long as the work is published in English, though justifications for using his Gaelic name are well-reasoned and taken as such.