W2A-002 Broadside ballads-0.txt
Broadside Ballads and Irish Society: An Examination of the Themes of Religion and Love
Colin Neilands

The cultural contextualisation of broadside ballads, certainly within Ireland, has received relatively little, and only selective, attention to date. Such treatment as there is has focused for the most part on political or historical themes. Since these are the major themes of Irish broadside output (see Table One), they obviously merit examination, but what of the broadsides with other themes?

This article seeks to interweave social history as portrayed in the ballads, with that presented by more "conventional" historical sources, i.e. historical textbooks. This is not in itself a novel approach, as it has been employed, for example, in the many works of Roy Palmer, and was also attempted with an Irish context in Mulcahy and Fitzgibbons'The Voice of the People. However, the difficulty with this approach is that often authors have taken history as their starting-point and simply used the ballads to illustrate or exemplify; with the vast range in ballad material available, it is not difficult to find suitable examples. But what of the opposite direction - i.e. taking the ballads as the starting point and then turning to history to give them points of reference? If the ballads are "the voice of the people", as in Mulcahy and Fitzgibbons'book, surely they must be the first point of reference. In this approach, we are able to see which issues, events, or figures were judged important by "the people" (however they are to be defined) and then relate these to the mainstream perception of history to draw out points of comparison.

Ballads, perhaps particularly broadside ballads, having an origin and audience primarily from a very different part of society from that producing scholarly historical works, obviously present a different perspective on a country's history. With increasing awareness of the narrowness of a conventional historical perspective, a wider variety of alternative sources has come to be employed in an attempt to perceive life from the point of view of the majority, rather than a minority. The use of such sources not only reveals a different conception of the importance of events and people, but places political history in a broader context, where it is much less dominant. With this alternative approach, history is not solely about political happenings at home and abroad, but presents a much wider picture encompassing many more aspects of life of more constant and immediate concern to the majority of the population - economic problems, the family, love relationships, entertainment, etc.

The use of broadside ballads as such a source for examining nineteenth-century Ireland reveals that while political history may be the largest overall theme, it still accounts for only one in four out of the total (see Table One below). This article examines two of the other broadside themes - religion and love - which focus on issues which are central to the life of any nation or community.

Table 1: Thematic Distribution - Occurrences and Percentages

Ballads on Religion and Belief

The nineteenth century is usually viewed as the period when the Catholic Church really came to the fore as a dominant, shaping force in Irish life, especially after the Emancipation Act of 1829. The Church increasingly sought to exercise its control over the lives of the people, as well as identifying still further with nationalist politics. This was a period of great growth for the Church when many of the practices and institutions which are now an intrinsic part of the faith were first introduced. Because of all this activity and the increasing pervasiveness of the Church throughout the island, and in all aspects of life, religious history has much to say on this period. For the broadsides, however, the Church, and matters relating, appear to have evoked less of an interest.

That broadside ballads on religion and belief have received little attention then, may not be altogether surprising as they seem to form only about seven percent of the total broadside output. This figure appears to indicate a popular interest somewhat at odds with what has been termed "the devotional revolution" which occurred in Ireland in the nineteenth century. However, the fact that such ballads occurred at all, particularly in a medium generally held in low esteem, is perhaps an indication of the strength of religious fervour in Ireland during the last century, such that it penetrated all strata of society and utilised all manner of media of expression. These religious ballads fall into four main categories - on Churches (i.e. buildings), on the Clergy, on Faith, and on the Supernatural - and these categories have been used for the statistical analysis presented in Table Two (see following page).

For the purposes of this article the material in these broadsides will be discussed under two general categories - the Church, and Belief - each accounting for roughly half of the total number of 179 broadsides on the general theme.

The two main areas of interest of the broadsides with regard to the Church as an institution were the construction or renovation of church buildings, and the clergy. The first of these inspired only nine broadsides, despite appearing to graphically illustrate the changing fortunes of the Church and surely evoking pride on the part of the parishioners involved. The building programme was quite extensive and would have had a marked effect on the worship of a large number of Catholics throughout Ireland. The change in the appearance of church buildings was often quite dramatic, with parishes formerly worshipping in a low, thatched construction, similar to ordinary dwellings, now blessed with architecturally designed dressed-stone buildings, often in a Gothic style. The ballads themselves enthuse as to the beauties of these new edifices and the related glory of the clergy, the Church, and God (see "A New Song in Praise of the Catholic Church of Kanturk"). But the low number of broadsides suggests that other issues were of greater interest to the people.

Table 2: Broadside Ballads on Religion and Belief - Occurrences and Percentages

If the broadsides are to be believed, the single most important manifestation of the Church was the parish priest, with ballads on the clergy (mostly at parish priest level, though occasionally rising to bishop) accounting for almost half the broadsides on this theme (eighty out of 179, as indicated in Table Two above). The predominance of the priest as a broadside subject is also reflective of nineteenth-century changes as a rise in the social standing of the priesthood and improved education facilities led to an increase in the number of priests available for service, so that parishes no longer had to go without, or make do with poorly-educated, perhaps even rather uninterested, clergy. These changes also led to greater centralised control over the activities and performance of parish priests even in far-flung corners of the country. Increasingly the priest became the focal point of the local community, acting as an important social as well as religious symbol for his parishioners. It is therefore not surprising that such a figure should have been the inspiration for popular song.

For the most part, the ballads on priests are praise songs, either eulogies or elegies, conforming to the stereotype images which were prevalent throughout various forms of popular literature at that time. The clergy were painted in terms placing them on the celestial scale only slightly lower than the saints or angels, as ideal(ised) servants of God on earth (see "An Elegy on the Death of the Much Lamented Doctor D.M. O'Brien"). The only incident inspiring broadside treatment which pours anything but the highest praise on the Catholic Clergy was the case of the turncoat bishop, when, in 1786, John Butler, the Bishop of Cork, abandoned the Catholic faith in order to inherit a title and estates denied him under the terms of the Penal Laws. This sensational incident appears to have remained in the folk mind for some time, in that the two broadsides based on this occurrence are clearly of nineteenth century origin.

Since the priests had such a high social standing and public image, it is not surprising that when unusual circumstances did occur, these should merit broadside attention - whether it was a murder, or a sensational trial, with sexual accusations. If based on actual events, as was probably the case, none of these would have been common occurrences, which only further explains the attention of the broadsides. After all, even in the secular times of our own age, it can still make headline news in the popular press if a member of the clergy is seen to, or is thought to, stray from the approved line. The broadsides, however, were always careful to emphasise the absolute innocence of the priests involved. While cashing in on the public desire for sensationalism, the broadside writers and printers had no wish, it seems, to actually discredit a member of the clergy. The shock of the scandal and the subsequent attention given to these unusual occurrences only serves to emphasise further the high level of interest in these public servants.

The Church, then, while perhaps not inspiring a quantity of broadsides equal to its growing importance in nineteenth-century Ireland, is seen to have attracted great loyalty and devotion, particularly for its priests. The broadsides probably bring the reality of the Church for the people down to a more immediate level, revealing the personal impact of parish priests, who frequently acted as vital supports for their communities. The more abstract power and symbolism of the Church, as represented here by the church buildings, seem to have stirred lesser feelings.

Turning to the second category of the broadsides - Belief - these ballads in turn divide in two: those covering aspects of the people's belief system approved by the Church, and those on practices and beliefs not approved by the Church.

Ballads on Church-approved matters of faith include stories based on the Bible, or on the lives of certain saints, declarations of faith, and denominational debates (the latter introducing the issue of interdenominational marriage). Some of the songs are very pious, almost prayers or hymns, rather out of keeping with the general tone and content of broadside ballads, and frequently of a higher than usual literary standard. The sensationalism of trails and murder, the topicality of praise songs and elegies, and the likely commercial popularity of attacks on Protestantism, all make obvious topics for broadsides, but ballads of purely religious content seem almost out of place in this medium.

Most of the ballads based on Biblical stories depict the life of Christ, particularly the details surrounding His birth and death. Little or no attention is given to the teachings of Christ and no mention is made of one of the central tenets of Christian faith, namely, the resurrection. This concentration on the Passion and crucifixion of Christ, often described in graphic and gory detail (see "On the Love of Jesus"), may be a reflection of one of the many innovations in religious worship during the nineteenth century which was to become one of the most popular: the devotion of the Passion of the Sacred Heart.
