Nationalism, patriotism and the Stage Irish on the early nineteenth century Dublin stage

The violent reactions to the Stage Irishman visible in Dublin during 1907 riots resulting from the premiere of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World prompted the further investigation of two important questions: What were the earlier stage depictions of the Irish that the Dubliners were so vehemently reacting against? And, more importantly, if the Stage Irishman of the past could cause such marked anxiety about Irish identity at the beginning of the twentieth century, what were the effects on the Dublin audiences who viewed the Stage Irishmen a hundred years earlier? This dissertation explores the performance of the Stage Irish stereotype on the Dublin stage during the seldom-studied early nineteenth century, specifically focusing on the theatrical seasons from 1799 to 1811.;At the beginning of the nineteenth century, complex negotiations were occurring between the three major segments of Ireland's population---the British aristocracy ruling from Dublin Castle, the dominant minority of the Protestant Ascendancy and the Irish Catholic majority of the populace---as efforts were made to determine the final configuration of Ireland's relationship to the British Empire. In first years of a legislative union with Britain, the country thought of itself as a "sister kingdom", yet the majority of its population was yet to be awarded full suffrage. Still experiencing the civil unrest of a troublesome colony, Ireland was also a major provider of men and materiel for Britain's efforts against Napoleon. This was a country that was in the process of integrating into the larger Empire with its messages of British patriotism, yet was also asserting cultural and political distinctiveness through a form of Irish nationalism. The performance of the Stage Irish stereotype, then, was the embodiment of the period's ideas of Irishness, and through comparison, Britishness. This study uses the Dublin audience's response to the stage depictions of the Irish as a means to further understanding the formation and circulation of ideas of national character, of the ideologies of Irish nationalism and British patriotism.