1864

Something For Paddy. Punch, Volume 47, August 20, 1864, p. 75

Tenniel here invokes the spirit of Irish independence leader Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), long regarded as a voice for reform in the British Parliament and outspoken champion of poor Irish Catholics, particularly during the years of the Great Famine in the 1840s. The artist opines that O'Connell would have been appalled at the numbers of destitute Irish immigrants, some fresh off the ships that had brought them to America in search of a better life, forced by their poverty to enlist in the Union army. A companion poem laments the fate of "Poor Paddy," dying before Richmond on behalf of a country not his own, in a cause he scarcely understands.

The scene is set near the docks of an Irish port city, in several of which Northern agents reportedly were offering to "hire" and pay the trans-Atlantic passage of desperate men unable to find work, tricking the illiterate emigrants into signing contracts to join the Federal army upon their arrival in New York. The importuning figure on the left at first glance resembles Lincoln; a closer inspection reveals it to be an animated skeleton leering from behind a mask. Seizing his victim by the arm, this spectral recruiter invites him to join in a "Dance of Death" reminiscent of Holbein's famous sixteenth-century woodcut illustrations.

The unfortunate fellow he waylays by night, identified in the caption as a spalpeen [Irish = unskilled hired laborer], is clad in the garb characteristic of the stage Irishman: ill-fitting jacket out at the elbows, old-fashioned knee breeches, high collar, worn hat, and neckcloth. With his unkempt hair, unshaven appearance, and heavy prognathous jaw, the dim-witted Irishman is an object of Tenniel's pity and scorn alike. Stereotypically, he carries his worldly possessions in a bundle, and even wields a shillelagh. A New York newspaper advertising "hiring men -- high wages" falls from his hands as he realizes with dismay how he has been cozened. At the same time, the ghost of O'Connell rails at him for betraying his loyalty to Repeal (Irish independence from the Act of Union with Great Britain), only to end up fighting for another "Union." The dead leader uses the word spalpeen in its pejorative sense, condemning the would-be emigrant as a rogue and rascal for abandoning "Mother Ireland."

Hans Holbein. The Dance of Death: The Pedlar. ca. 1525. Woodcut.