British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Giuseppe Mazzini and the Globalization of Democratic Nationalism 1805-2005
Abstract
Mazzini and Irish nationalism
Colin Barr, Ave Maria University, Florida
As elsewhere in Europe, the ideas, and example, of Giuseppe Mazzini and his vision of Italian nationalism were influential in Ireland. At least some Irish nationalists saw in Mazzini's description of Italy under, particularly, Austrian rule echoes of Ireland's own experience in the United Kingdom. In 1848, for example, a group calling itself Young Ireland attempted a rebellion against British rule. Despite this apparent similarity between Ireland and other parts of Europe that also experienced nationalist revolts more or less influenced by Mazzinian ideas and models, in Ireland Mazzini's influence took a radically different turn from 1848. From the Act of Union in 1800 it was clear that the only specifically Irish institution of any lasting importance was the Roman Catholic Church. The paradox was that the Church was both Irish and international; without Church support, such as that enjoyed by Daniel O'Connell and both his emancipation and Repeal campaigns, no independent Irish political grouping could gain traction. But the Catholic Church had direct experience of Mazzini and the consequences (for the Church) of Mazzinian ideas in Italy. More particularly, Paul Cullen, from 1850 Archbishop of Armagh and from 1852 of Dublin, had been resident in Rome during the period of the Roman Republic. His almost total dominance of the Irish Church from his arrival in Armagh until his death in 1878 assured that Irish nationalism was, by him, seen through a Mazzinian prism. No proposal for an independent parliamentary opposition, for Home Rule, or any constitutional form of nationalism could entirely escape from Cullen's fear of Mazzinian ideas taking root in Irish soil. Moreover, the depth of the Church's opposition to Fenianism from the late 1850s can only be understood with reference to Italian affairs and, in particular, to Cullen's own experience of Mazzini's Rome and the conclusions he drew from that experience. Although many Fenians did, from time to time, look to Italy and Mazzini for both intellectual and moral inspiration, even they were largely careful to avoid being too closely linked with a figure, and a form of nationalism, that could only engender Catholic hostility, and at levels such as the lower clergy that the Fenians hoped to court despite the opposition of Cullen and all but a handful of the Irish bishops. In a sense, the development of Irish nationalism, and the alienation of the Catholic Church from almost all manifestations of Irish nationalism (which it had supported in O'Connell's day) until not long before Cullen's death can be traced to the influence of Mazzini on the minds of Catholic bishops who saw Irish events in an Italian light. The proposed paper will seek to trace the impact of an image (or images) of Mazzini and his ideas of nation and people on an Irish audience and the ways in which those images were translated into conclusions about the nature and safety of Irish nationalism and the implications those conclusions had on the development of Irish nationalism in the mid-Victorian era.