Page 9 - The 16th Percy French Festival: Our Great Disconnect

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•