Reminds me of Voynich (nee Boole), her novel Gadfly galvanized opinion at the time of the Revolution and had considerable influence after. The Irish writer chose an Italian setting to inspire Revolutionary agitation in the Russian Empire.
Hi David, that certainly could be partly an inspiration for the illustration design. The catspaw itself is a now uncommon term for someone who is "pulling the puppet strings". In this case, the author was suggesting that the Bolsheviks were actually behind Irish independence.
The author of the book, Elizabeth Lazenby wrote:
"Difficult as it may be to believe, the Republican organization in Ireland, with its invisible army, many of whose members are sincere, all of whom are brave, is for me, beneath the mask of idealism and reform, the bridge-head for revolutionary activities outside Ireland, whose aim is the complete destruction and annihilation of the British Commonwealth. This organization, which has its counterpart in every British Colony overseas as well as in the United States, subsists in Ireland on money drawn largely from sources in the United States of America. To what extent the donors are aware of the uses to which their subscriptions are put, is as problematical as the extent to which the Irish themselves are conscious that they are the catspaw controlled by a brain or nucleus of brains, constantly infusing life and vigour into this movement"
The design is rather unique, but may also be inspired in the prominence of the colour black by broader caricatures of the Bolsheviks which drew on 19th century cartoons of Russian anarchists.
Cyril Bretherton's The Real Ireland published in 1925 is another example of the genre, as is Richard Dawson's Red Terror and Green (1921). The number of founding members of the first British Fascist organisations who had Irish connections is significant. Indeed Nesta Webster, the leading conspiracist of the day, not surprisingly thought the Jews and the Germans were behind the trouble in Ireland as well.
Reminds me of Voynich (nee Boole), her novel Gadfly galvanized opinion at the time of the Revolution and had considerable influence after. The Irish writer chose an Italian setting to inspire Revolutionary agitation in the Russian Empire.
Is the illustration of Ireland as a "catspaw" of particular significance?
Could it have come from the IWW's "sabo-cat" black cat (which symobolized wildcat strikes)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Workers_of_the_World#/media/File:Anarchist_black_cat.svg
Hi David, that certainly could be partly an inspiration for the illustration design. The catspaw itself is a now uncommon term for someone who is "pulling the puppet strings". In this case, the author was suggesting that the Bolsheviks were actually behind Irish independence.
The author of the book, Elizabeth Lazenby wrote:
"Difficult as it may be to believe, the Republican organization in Ireland, with its invisible army, many of whose members are sincere, all of whom are brave, is for me, beneath the mask of idealism and reform, the bridge-head for revolutionary activities outside Ireland, whose aim is the complete destruction and annihilation of the British Commonwealth. This organization, which has its counterpart in every British Colony overseas as well as in the United States, subsists in Ireland on money drawn largely from sources in the United States of America. To what extent the donors are aware of the uses to which their subscriptions are put, is as problematical as the extent to which the Irish themselves are conscious that they are the catspaw controlled by a brain or nucleus of brains, constantly infusing life and vigour into this movement"
The design is rather unique, but may also be inspired in the prominence of the colour black by broader caricatures of the Bolsheviks which drew on 19th century cartoons of Russian anarchists.
Cyril Bretherton's The Real Ireland published in 1925 is another example of the genre, as is Richard Dawson's Red Terror and Green (1921). The number of founding members of the first British Fascist organisations who had Irish connections is significant. Indeed Nesta Webster, the leading conspiracist of the day, not surprisingly thought the Jews and the Germans were behind the trouble in Ireland as well.