SotA Anthology 2015-16
of Ireland Bill. Erin, in has
let her harp remain on the
ground, and in ‘flirting’ with
politics she has forgotten
her true calling of harp
playing. Politics is for the
men (and beasts) here, and
harp playing is what Erin
should be concentrating on.
She is a “distressful damsel”
in the clutches of Sinn
Fein, and the British have
come in shining armour to
save her. Punch’s place
as firmly within the British
establishment is plain to
see here: the regular Irish
Sinn Feiners are trying to
corrupt the folk-ideal of
Ireland, and Britain is the
noble knight who will save
and depoliticise her. This
“interrupted flirtation” should
be nothing more than a ‘blip’
in her upholding of untainted
folk traditions.
This was all to change,
however, when, following
the 1921 Anglo-Irish treaty,
the newly formed Irish Free
State decided to adopt the
harp as its symbol, and the
symbol on its ‘Great Seal’,
echoing the flag used by
the rebels of 1916. Now the
harp was an official insignia
for the Irish Free State, it
was thus politicised, which
utterly transformed the
way in which it was used in
Punch’s cartoons.
No longer must the harp
player be an idealistic
figure in the form of Erin,
but he could be a man who,
in ‘Farewell to the Union’
(1922), is dressed in clothes
more akin to that of someone
from the wealthy middle or
upper classes. In his suit,
this man could just as easily
be a politician as a singer.
Gone are the folk traditions
of the harp and harpist, as
now the instrument had
become politicised and was
itself a target in the eyes of
the Punch cartoonists. Its
political status is carved onto
the harp itself; the words
‘Irish Free State’ replacing
the primordial ‘Hibernia’ or
‘Erin’, erasing the romantic
status the harp once held.
When performing, the soloist
and accompanist form what
could be described as a
union, and it is this analogy
that Punch is employing
here; the harp symbolising
Free State Ireland with
the accompanist possibly
loyalist Ulster. Whilst the
pianist proudly proclaims
“anyhow, I’m sticking to the
notes all right”, the harpist
in doing the opposite is
unmistakably singled out
as being foolish; his playing
is damaging the strings of
his instrument and causing
the pianist not to know
“how this piece is going”.
The opinion of the Punch
cartoonists, and ergo the
British establishment, is that
the creation of the Irish Free
State is a misguided act, and
the deplorable breaking of
the Union is mirrored in the
breaking of the harp itself.
Conservative notions of
unionist retention are clearly
the order of the day here,
a notion which was rooted
in the conservation of the
British Empire as a whole,
and fears that the Irish
break away would inspire
other nations to follow suit.
This is clear in the Oath of
Allegiance that Irish MP’s
and senators had to swear,
a portion of which was
devoted to empire: “I will be
faithful to H.M. King George
V… and her adherence
to and membership of the
group of nations forming
the British Commonwealth
of nations”. The mouthpiece
of the British establishment
was using the harp to make
a profoundly political and
hitherto unseen statement;
the breaking of the Union
was wrong, and those
“sticking to the notes” were
doing the honourable thing.
Another shift in portrayal
of the harp was that of
associating it with a political
party, Sinn Fein. In the
second cartoon analysed, it
was made plain that the harp
was in total opposition to the
brass playing politics of Sinn
Fein, but in a later cartoon,
‘Good
Accommodation’
(1921), Punch uses the
harp in a light-hearted way,
to poke fun at the conflicting
symbolism of the crown and
the harp. This cartoon is
not as opinionated as the
previous example, but does
show that the image of the
harp and Sinn Fein, the
party at the helm of the Free
State, were now entwined
in the minds of the Punch
cartoonists. The image of a
crown atop the harp could
be construed as being
deliberately provocative; in
amalgamating two symbolic
images of Britain and
Ireland it was harking back
to earlier days and may
be badly received by Irish
readers, but the cartoon
itself is more jovial in nature.
The final cartoon (right)
shows the nadir of the harp;