Irish Riot 1867 Print - St Patrick s Day - Whiskey - Thomas Nast - Shillelaghs Brickbats - 19th Century Irish-American Stereotypes

Treasures from the Irish-American Collection at The Willing Mind. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review.

Print size 24 x 16, and consciously formatted to work with a 24 x 16 size frame, or custom framed as you see fit.
Wow!

There are so many reactions to this print, and I'd like to step right into their midst and discuss them.

I get both the immediacy of the knee jerk response and the more scholarly, contemplative response, and both of them have an equal seat at the table. Note for the record that I am not somehow unaware of how appalling this image is, both in the act it is recording and in the way it is being represented.

For the scholars this opens up for discussion and illustrates in a grandly grotesque manner the whole history of mid to late 19th century Irish immigration, the fallacies and the realities, the stereotypes of drinking and alcohol driven riots, at times true, the anti Roman Catholic furor and the violence accompanying what was the old version of the hysterical "We want our country back!" you hear today, hurled as a battle cry towards the Irish by the more established groups of yesteryear.

Look up Thomas Nast and Irish together on line and you will get both considered critique that puts much into context in a calm manner and those who are ready to toss Nast into the dustbin with frothing vitriol.

All that said, let me return to my personal experience of showing this print in public.

With a large collection of our prints together at once, folks stroll through and are drawn to whatever compels them. They ask questions and I am always ready to roar into the back story because I love being the storyteller and revealing more about the history of whatever has grabbed their attention. Irish-Americans don't wear a sign that declares their heritage unless it happens to be a 'Kiss me I'm Irish' T shirt, and will stroll through enjoying, hopefully, what we've put together, but the people who stop suddenly and really get nose to nose with this print, then spend real time drinking it all in usually go on to identify themselves as Irish-American. They become a little wide eyed and I've watched rather closely, staying tuned for anger and seeing big smiles instead. The keen eyed viewers seem to be carried away with a bit of incredulous wonder, and then as often as not they purchase a copy. I've seen it again and again and knew, instinctively, that was the reaction we'd get when we first acquired the ragged original.

• Handmade item
• Materials: Art stock enhanced matte paper, archival ink
• Made to order
• Only ships within United States.

SHIPPING

All prints are shipped in a sturdy mailing tube for $8, which covers postage, tube and S & H.

BUYING MORE THAN ONE PRINT? Add a second print or any number thereafter of this or any other prints in our catalog and shipping is still just $8, total!!!

International shipping is available and reasonable. Please contact us for details.

A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS, OUR CHOICES AND THE QUALITY OF THE GRAPHIC CRAFTSMANSHIP THAT GOES INTO OUR PRINTS.

Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps. The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands. That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here. See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”

There is a real sense of excitement involved, and a great many smiles and knowing grins when we make that deal and bring that ancient print, that battered photo, that scrap of ephemera that contains some scrap of genius from an unknown commercial artist home with us, knowing already how we mean to approach its restoration.

There is the heady promise of a further hunt just as real as what drags a weekend fisherman out of bed at 3AM to work a favorite brook as we start our research, looking for that great backstory, and both ready and willing to tumble down as many rabbit holes as are revealed to us to get that story.

Then there is a meticulous digital restoration that is as often as much fun as riding a vintage Moto Guzzi on a winding coastal road. I don’t care if that sounds crazy, it really is like jumping in the saddle! So many choices, so many chances to take to subtly or spectacularly give new life to otherwise permanently obscure images.

This dedication and the ongoing rush of joy in the accomplishment of it, and the opportunity to share the results in our studio and here on Etsy, is the fire of passion that keeps these engines roaring. We make every effort to ensure our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled, and we happily stand 100% behind our work.