Illustration and the Irish Cultural Revival
From the late 18th century onwards, many books were illustrated with images of Irish people and places. In the later 19th century the attention paid to Irish history and culture increasingly reflected a national consciousness. Ancient Irish architecture and antiquarian objects were frequently illustrated. Artists also found inspiration in legends or in the landscape abounding in historically and culturally significant sites as well as in the life and customs of contemporary rural Ireland.
Margaret Stokes recorded the ruins of ecclesiastical buildings, whereas Beatrice Elvery visualised the heroism of ancient Irish warriors in bold and descriptive images. Jack B. Yeats produced distinctive but stylised images to accompany literary texts such as those for the series of Broadsheets. Yeats’s illustrations accompanying John Millington Synge’s The Aran Islands and other accounts of life in the west of Ireland are more fluid and naturalistic, being based on his observations from life.
Commissioners of National Education in Ireland Sixth reading book for the use of schools
Illustrated by Alfred Grey
Dublin, 1879
OLS POL S 29
The Commissioners of National Education were established in 1831 to oversee the education of the poor in Ireland. The Commissioners issued illustrated primers for use in teaching children to read, the combination of text and image facilitating the promotion of literacy. Throughout the text, numerous illustrations of significant Irish historical locations, both rural and urban, are included. The image reproduced here is of the Early Christian monastic site of Monasterboice, Co. Louth.
Margaret Stokes Early Christian architecture in Ireland
Illustrated by Margaret Stokes and others
London, 1878
Gall.BB.20.48
Margaret Stokes played an important role in the intellectual life of nineteenth century Ireland as an author, editor, translator and artist. The expertise she developed, working in discreet collaboration with male researchers, was given independent expression in this book. The page shows a woodcut after Stokes’s drawing of St Brendan’s oratory on the remote island of Inishglora off the north Mayo coast. It is signed with her monogram in the bottom left corner.
Samuel Carter Hall and Anna Maria Hall Ireland: its scenery, character, &c.
Illustrated by Andrew Nicholl and others
London, 1841-3
T.h.45
Written in three volumes, each chapter is dedicated to a different county, and is illustrated with scenes from the Irish landscape and depictions of various aspects of Irish life and customs. As the editor of a pioneering and influential periodical, the Art-Union, later the Art Journal, S.C. Hall would have been keen to ensure the high quality of the illustrations and overall appearance of this publication. The need to commission hundreds of new illustrations was an opportunity for Hall to promote living British and Irish artists.
Frank James Mathew Ireland
Illustrated by Francis S. Walker
London, [1905]
62.d.122
Ireland ecomprises an anecdotal account of the scenery and characters of Ireland, accompanied by pencil and painted sketches of figurative and landscape subjects. This publication was one of a number of successful, Irish-themed books that Walker was invited to illustrate. Given the date, Walker’s style is arguably somewhat outdated. However, his painterly and rather romantic treatment of his subjects is in keeping with the subjective and descriptive tone of the text.