MUSI200
The Harp in Punch magazine
MUSI200: Researching Music is a second-year module that introduces students
to the skills and experience of managing a piece of independent research,
prior to embarking on a third-year dissertation. The module convenor, Dr Helen
Thomas, highlighted this submission from second-year BA Music and History
student Aidan Carroll, as an outstandingly original contribution.
solidarity over ‘petty’ national
quarrels. The harp is the
only material possession
Erin carries, and it is this
that is contributing to her
attractive folk-idealisation.
The harp and its carrier are
seen in a markedly positive
light in this first cartoon. This
wartime cartoon featuring
the harp’s image takes on
more significance when we
are reminded by Joseph
Finnan (2003, p. 425) of the
dearth of cartoons featuring
Ireland during this time: “No
Irish-themed cartoons, large
or small, appeared between
mid-August
1914
and
January 1916”, and during
the entire war only 2.3 per
cent of all cartoons dealt
with Ireland. The image of
the harp and Erin among
this 2.3 percent gives added
significance to the unifying
role it plays in this cartoon;
the cartoonists clearly felt
the image epitomised Irish
solidarity - something vital
in a time of war, where any
rifts could prove disastrous
for troop morale.
The positive portrayal is
continued and heightened in
‘The Real Music’, appearing
in 1920, a year prior to the
Anglo-Irish treaty in 1921.
Erin is portrayed as an even
more desirable character.
Gone are the bare feet
and ragged clothes, as
they are replaced with new
shoes and a lavish shawl.
The harp, too, seems to
be more extravagant and
larger. It takes centre stage
here, brought out of the
background and into the
fore. With the word “Erin”
carved onto the outer edge,
it is plainly supposed to be a
thing of beauty.
In contrast, the instruments
chosen to portray the
politics of Nationalism and
Unionism are trombones;
not
the
subtlest
of
instruments, to say that
least. The harshness of the
brass instruments chosen
is clearly metaphorical
for the harshness of the
politics advocated by both,
a battle which had seen
much bloodshed during the
Irish war of independence
that was raging at the time.
John Bull, the character
representing the Victorian
ideal of an upstanding
British man, implores the
two political sides to stop
playing, so they can let
him “hear the lady”. Erin’s
traditional harp playing
here is seen as “The real
music”; the soft timbre of
her instrument being the
antithesis to the brutal brass
tones of the trombones. In
this cartoon, Erin is not seen
as being just above politics,
but a real alternative to it.
According to John Bull, the
harp is the epitome of Irish
75
dignity: calm, traditional and
beautiful. Everything that
the belligerent politics of
Nationalism and Unionism
are not.
That Erin and politics
should remain two separate
entities was something that
Punch had advocated as
early as 1885, in a cartoon
called ‘The Irish Vampire’
that sees Erin under threat
from the violent actions of
the Land league. In it we
can see the ‘vampire’ of
Michael Davitt’s land league
attacking a defenceless
Erin. The harp is sprawled
out on the floor under such
an attack, but it is not the
harp that is being vilified
here. Rather, it is politics
that has caused such a
distressing scene to occur.
The harp is under threat;
this folk-ideal of Ireland
should remain outside the
political sphere.
Similarly, decades later,
Erin’s possible foray into
politics through Sinn Fein
is framed in a cartoon titled
‘The Interrupted Flirtation’
(1919), as something that
can be avoided by turning
away from that ‘dragon’
(as Sinn Fein is depicted)
and allowing David Lloyd
George to deal with
politics through his knightly
entrance on horseback
draped in the Government