Irish Avatar is an 1821 pamphlet by George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, known as Lord Byron.
Irish Avatar is an 1821 pamphlet by George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, known as Lord Byron.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the so-called "Irish Question", regarding the response of the British government to rising nationalistic sentiments in Ireland, began to once again emerge into the public consciousness. The "question" had been exacerbated by the ultimately unsuccessful uprising by the United Irishmen in 1798, inspired by the French Revolution.[ citation needed ]
As a result of pressure from the opposition as well as Ireland, the incumbent government administration was forced to repeal portions of the Penal laws and grant increased authority to the Irish parliament. However, on January 1, 1801, under the Acts of Union, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged into the United Kingdom; the Irish parliament was abolished, and Irish representatives received seats in the British parliament. The act increased Irish support for home rule in Ireland.[ citation needed ]
Lord Byron was impressed by Lines on the Entry of the Austrians into Naples, which was written by Irish writer Thomas Moore in 1821. Therefore, he conceived the Irish Avatar as a work in the same vein, attacking the "servile Irish" as Moore had attacked the capitulating Neapolitan soldiers. [1]
Byron wrote the pamphlet Irish Avatar after the royal visit by King George IV to Ireland. Byron criticised the attitudes displayed by the Irish people towards the Crown, an institution he perceived as oppressing them, and was dismayed by the positive reception George IV received during his visit. In the satirical pamphlet, Byron lambasted Irish unionists and voiced muted support towards Irish nationalism. [2] He describes King George IV having been received by a 'legion of crooks, and an army of slaves.' [3]
Thomas Moore expressed positive criticism for the Irish Avatar, and had written in his journal that he had "Received Lord Byron's tremendous verses against the King & the Irish for their late exhibition in Dublin – richly deserved by my servile & hollow-hearted countrymen". [4]
Byron had expressed concerns over the "Irish Question" in letters which dated back to the years he was a student at Cambridge University. In his second speech to the House of Lords, which he delivered on 21 April 1812, Byron spoke in defense of the civil rights of Irish Catholics. The formal reason for the speech was a proposal to set up a committee to investigate the complaints of Irish Catholics. However, from the outset, Byron made it clear that he perceived their complaints to be part of a larger nationalist movement. In the speech, Byron warned of the danger of favoring Irish Protestants over Catholics, warning that this would only increase the sectarian divide in the country. Byron also castigated several British politicians for their indifference to Irish affairs in the speech. [5]
George IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death in 1830. At the time of his accession to the throne, he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III, having done so since 5 February 1811 during his father's final mental illness.
Henry Grattan was an Irish politician and lawyer who campaigned for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century from Britain. He was a Member of the Irish Parliament (MP) from 1775 to 1801 and a Member of Parliament (MP) in Westminster from 1805 to 1820. He has been described as a superb orator and a romantic. With generous enthusiasm he demanded that Ireland should be granted its rightful status, that of an independent nation, though he always insisted that Ireland would remain linked to Great Britain by a common crown and by sharing a common political tradition.
Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry,, usually known as Lord Castlereagh, derived from the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh by which he was styled from 1796 to 1821, was a British statesman and politician. As secretary to the Viceroy in Ireland, he worked to suppress the Rebellion of 1798 and to secure passage in 1800 of the Irish Act of Union. As the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom from 1812, he was central to the management of the coalition that defeated Napoleon, and was British plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna. In the post-war government of Lord Liverpool, Castlereagh was seen to support harsh measures against agitation for reform, and he ended his life an isolated and unpopular figure.
Thomas Moore, also known as Tom Moore, was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his Irish Melodies. His setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish to English. Politically, Moore was recognised in England as a press, or "squib", writer for the aristocratic Whigs; in Ireland he was accounted a Catholic patriot.
George Augustus Moore was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra, County Mayo. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s. There, he befriended many of the leading French artists and writers of the day.
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was a British Whig politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. He was a descendant of the House of Grey and the namesake of Earl Grey tea. Grey was a long-time leader of multiple reform movements. During his time as prime minister, his government brought about two notable reforms. The Reform Act 1832 enacted parliamentary reform, greatly increasing the electorate of the House of Commons.
John Wilson Croker was an Anglo-Irish statesman and author.
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury PC, FRS, was an English statesman and peer. He held senior political office under both the Commonwealth of England and Charles II, serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1661 to 1672 and Lord Chancellor from 1672 to 1673. During the Exclusion Crisis, Shaftesbury headed the movement to bar the Catholic heir, James II, from the royal succession, which is often seen as the origin of the Whig party. He was also a patron of the political philosopher John Locke, with whom Shaftesbury collaborated with in writing the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina in 1669.
Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine, was a British Whig lawyer and politician. He served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain between 1806 and 1807 in the Ministry of All the Talents.
Edward Dowden was an Irish critic, professor, and poet.
Henry Flood was an Irish statesman and Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he became proficient in the classics. He was a leading Irish politician, and a friend of Henry Grattan, the leader of the Irish Patriot Party. He became an object of public interest in 1770, when he was put on trial for murder, after killing a political rival in a duel.
John Cam Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton,, known as Sir John Hobhouse, Bt, from 1831 to 1851, was an English politician and diarist.
John Philpot Curran was an Irish orator, politician, wit, and lawyer renowned for employing his skills in defence of civil and political liberty. He first won popular acclaim in 1780, as the only lawyer in his circuit willing to represent a Catholic priest horsewhipped by an Anglo-Irish lord. In the 1790s he was celebrated as a champion of Catholic emancipation and reform in the Irish Parliament and as defence counsel in court for United Irishmen facing charges of sedition and treason. He was vocal in his opposition to Britain’s incorporation of Ireland in a United Kingdom.
William Maziere Brady (1825–1894) was an Irish priest, ecclesiastical historian and journalist who converted to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism.
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, was an English poet and peer. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest of English poets. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narratives Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; much of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular.
The Honourable Douglas James William Kinnaird was an English banker, politician, friend of Lord Byron and amateur cricketer. He was a Managing Partner in the banking firm of Ransom & Co. He also briefly served as Member of Parliament for Bishop's Castle from 1819 to 1820.
Arthur Philip Perceval (1799–1853) was an English high church Anglican cleric, royal chaplain and theological writer.
The letters of Lord Byron, of which about 3,000 are known, range in date from 1798, when Byron was 10 years old, to 9 April 1824, a few days before he died. They have long received extraordinary critical praise for their wit, spontaneity and sincerity. Many rate Byron as the greatest letter-writer in English literature, and consider his letters comparable or superior to his poems as literary achievements. They have also been called "one of the three great informal autobiographies in English", alongside the diaries of Samuel Pepys and James Boswell. Their literary value is reflected in the huge prices collectors will pay for them; in 2009 a sequence of 15 letters to his friend Francis Hodgson was sold at auction for almost £280,000.
Charles George Beauclerk was an English politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Richmond from 1796 to 1798.
Nathaniel Jefferys was a London jeweller who was Member of Parliament for Coventry from 1796 to 1803.
Works related to Irish Avatar at Wikisource
