Page 8 - The 16th Percy French Festival: Our Great Disconnect
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mostly at venues away from Dublin,                                                   with a rich vein of humorous content, with the newspaper often taking particular
           a move which was probably prompted                                                   delight in mocking the affected accents and effete mannerisms of some of the
           by disappoint ing sales in the capital.                                              men who attended these events. Illustrated reviews of opera performances and
           Reports in several news papers show that                                             art exhibitions–mostly in Dublin, but occa sionally in Belfast–were clearly pitched
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           these concerts were well received by audi -                                          at an elite readership.  The servants and other domestic staff who constituted an

           ences, and it is possible that they helped to                                        impor tant element of the domestic households of Irish polite society also featured
           increase its circulation outside of the                                              fre quently in the cartoons and comic written sketches of The Jarvey. It is not difficult
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           capital.  The concerts also served as                                                to see why contemporaries sometimes referred to The Jarvey as ‘The Irish Punch’,
           welcome topics for French to write about                                             a descriptive term that occasionally features in the pages of French’s newspaper.
           in The Jarvey, as he often struggled to find
           sufficient ‘copy’ to fill the news paper’s                                           The biggest difference between the two publications is that The Jarvey largely
           pages; indeed, French sometimes artfully                                             avoided contemporary politics in its pages. This was in stark contrast to Punch,
           used the theme of his writer’s block to fill                                         which not only published an ‘Essence of Parliament’ column (’Extracted from the
           a few additional column inches.                                                      Diary of Toby, M.P.’), which gave humorous summaries of each week’s pro ceedings
                                                                                                in both houses of the Westminster parliament, but regularly com mented on other
           The most important selling point of                                                  political events, including Irish topics. French spelled out The Jarvey’s political
           The Jarvey was undoubtedly its contents.                                             stance–or, more correctly, its lack of one–in the news paper’s very first issue. The
           French revealed himself to be an incred -                                            publication’s opening sentence stated: ‘As it is possible that we may be accused
           ibly talented and inven tive artist and hard-working editor when it came to filling   of a want of crispness and distinctness in our remarks on contemporary politics,
           The Jarvey’s pages, with most of the numerous and varied limericks, comical fiction   it is perhaps better that we should at once define that position which we shall for
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           and jokes, and some of the drawings, coming from his pen.  (Illus. 4) It is possible   ever occupy in the eyes of the world’. This was followed by a poem, ‘Political Creed’,
           that he modelled The Jarvey on the most famous British comic publication of the      which at first glance seemed to indicate that The Jarvey would have a Nationalist
           period, Punch, and that he hoped to replace it with The Jarvey as the entertainment   viewpoint. However, after readers read this poem they were then instructed
           newspaper of choice of Irish ‘polite society’. This is suggested by a joke which was
           published in the news paper on 27th April 1889: ‘Why should  The Jarvey be apprec -
           iated by all teeto tallers?–Because it is endeavouring to drive away Punch from every
           Irish home’. French’s admiration for Punch is indicated by the fact that in September
           and October 1890 he considered changing his newspaper’s title to The Irish Punch,
           but abandoned the idea when most correspondents expressed themselves satis -
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           fied with The Jarvey as the title.  Although French did not change the title of The
           Jarvey to The Irish Punch, nevertheless The Jarvey’s contents were very similar to
           those of the British comic newspaper. Robert Shail astutely writes about Punch that
           the target of many of its cartoons was ‘the foibles of polite Victorian society, from
           modes of dress and speech to domestic family life’. A similar point may be made
           that The Jarvey focused on ‘the foibles of polite Victorian [Irish] society, from modes
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           of dress and speech to domestic family life’.

           The Jarvey’s pages are replete with cartoons and drawings that are set in the draw -
           ing rooms, parlours and ballrooms of the Irish middle and upper classes. (Illus. 5)
           Other sketches have as their subject matter various outdoor social gatherings
           of polite society, such as fashionable lawn tennis meetings, dog shows, regattas
           and the Royal Dublin Society’s annual horse show. The conversations between                              top Illus. 4.  Percy French at work on The Jarvey. Source:  The Jarvey, 27th April 1889.
           atten dees at balls, ‘At Homes’ and other fashionable gatherings provided The Jarvey          above Illus. 5.  ’The Parlour Elocution Evil–Let it be Suppressed’. Cartoon in The Jarvey, 30th March 1889.



     •6•                                       THE P ERCY FRENCH FESTIVAL 2024                  OUR GREAT DISCON N EC T                                              •7•
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