Advertising, literature, and print culture in Ireland, 1891-1922

This is the first study of the cultural meanings of advertising in the Irish Revival period. John Strachan and Claire Nally shed new light on advanced nationalism in Ireland before and immediately after the Easter Rising of 1916, while also addressing how the wider politics of Ireland, from the Irish Parliamentary Party to anti-Home Rule unionism, resonated through contemporary advertising copy. The book examines the manner in which some of the key authors of the Revival, notably Oscar Wilde and W. B. Yeats, reacted to advertising and to the consumer culture around them. Illustrated with over 60 fascinating contemporary advertising images, this book addresses a diverse and intriguing range of Irish advertising: the pages of An Claidheamh Soluis under Patrick Pearse's editorship, the selling of the Ulster Volunteer Force, the advertising columns of The Lady of the House, the marketing of the sports of the Gaelic Athletic Association, the use of Irish Party politicians in First World War recruitment campaigns, the commemorative paraphernalia surrounding the centenary of the 1798 United Irishmen uprising, and the relationship of Murphy's stout with the British military, Sinn Féin and the Irish Free State. A study of Irish advertising's cultural, literary and ideological resonance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is the first study of the cultural meanings of advertising in the Irish Revival period. John Strachan and Claire Nally shed new light on advanced nationalism in Ireland before and immediately after the Easter Rising of 1916, while also addressing how the wider politics of Ireland, from the Irish Parliamentary Party to anti-Home Rule unionism, resonated through contemporary advertising copy. The book examines the manner in which some of the key authors of the Revival, notably Oscar Wilde and W. B. Yeats, reacted to advertising and to the consumer culture around them. Illustrated with over 60 fascinating contemporary advertising images, this book addresses a diverse and intriguing range of Irish advertising: the pages of An Claidheamh Soluis under Patrick Pearse's editorship, the selling of the Ulster Volunteer Force, the advertising columns of The Lady of the House, the marketing of the sports of the Gaelic Athletic Association, the use of Irish Party politicians in First World War recruitment campaigns, the commemorative paraphernalia surrounding the centenary of the 1798 United Irishmen uprising, and the relationship of Murphy's stout with the British military, Sinn Fein and the Irish Free State Review: 'This adventurous study of literary-mercantile relations in pre-independence Ireland makes a fresh and distinctive contribution to our understanding of Revival-era culture. The authors' skilful explication of the structural mechanics, cultural meanings and political resonances of advertising invites us to reconsider the interrelations between history, literature and consumer culture from a street-level perspective. Thoroughly researched and splendidly documented, this book will be a valuable resource for students, teachers and researchers alike.' - Liam Harte, University of Manchester, UK 'A must read. The book offers an authoritative account of the ways in which commercial information came to resonate with cultural meanings in the context of the Literary Revival, and will inspire Irish Studies scholars to think more fully about the connections between literary artefacts, print culture, visuality and economics. Fresh and compelling.' - Claire Connolly, University College Cork, Ireland Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-15 Front Matter....Pages 17-17 Prologue — The Irish Advertising Scene from the 1850s to the 1880s....Pages 19-36 Advertising and the Nation in the Irish Revival....Pages 37-58 Front Matter....Pages 59-59 The Shan Van Vocht (1896–1899) and The Leader (1900–1936): National Identity in Advertising....Pages 61-87 The Sinn Féin Depot and the Selling of Irish Sport....Pages 88-107 The Lady of the House (1890–1921): Gender, Fashion and Domesticity....Pages 108-136 Unionism, Advertising and the Third Home Rule Bill 1911–1914....Pages 137-155 Front Matter....Pages 157-157 Oscar Wilde as Editor and Writer: Aesthetic Interventions in Fashion and Material Culture....Pages 159-177 Consumerism and Anti-Commercialism: The Yeatses, Print Culture and Home Industry....Pages 178-202 Front Matter....Pages 203-203 Advertising, Ireland and the Great War....Pages 205-236 Coda — From the Armistice to the Saorstát....Pages 237-244 Back Matter....Pages 245-310