'Guest Post' by Copernicus
Like the French placard which, Roger Chartier has observed, has been 'long neglected by a history interested only in more noble objects', the broadside is the Cinderella publication of early modern Ireland.1
Broadside, n, a sheet of paper printed on one side only, forming one large page.
The relationship of blogging to what is termed by some the ‘MSM’ (mainstream media) is a matter of current debate around the ‘Irish blogosphere’, as elsewhere, and no doubt will be for some time to come.
It has been stated more than once that the information age has produced in bloggers the heirs to the pamphleteers who took advantage of the greater availability of printing by
Gallows speeches (the true and gothic subject of this post) coincided with "the emergence of the newspaper as a popular print form, with the development of the pamphlet as a vehicle of individual and collective opinion…in short, 'last speeches' were a feature of the striking consolidation in print culture that took place during the first half of the eighteenth century".2
The rise of blogging seems to have coincided, to a great extent, with the increasing availability of broadband and in concert with the consolidation of news media online, especially through RSS (on which one suspects much blogging is reliant) and the commercial syndication services provided by the likes of Bloomberg and Thompson Financial to investment and other banks. While some of the more hysterical commentators appear to be of the opinion that blogging offers an alternative to, and eventual replacement for, the MSM, it is more likely the case that bloggers are the latterday pamphleteers to the corporate media’s 17th century newspaper publishers.
Among the ranks of the pamphleteers, of course, were such eminent and illustrious figures as John Milton, Thomas Paine, and our own Jonathan Swift, and it is certainly the case that the blogosphere is home to many excellent and interesting writers (on myriad subjects) whose voices we might otherwise have never had the chance to hear. Certainly, blogs are a feature of the striking consolidation in print culture which is taking place on our computer screens today, if not the Cinderella publications of postmodern Ireland.
Which brings me full circle to the intended subject of today’s guest contribution to fustar.info, James Kelly’s Gallows Speeches from Eighteenth Century Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts, 2001), a collection of ‘last speeches’, the publication of which was, contends Mr. Kelly, a feature of early modern (particularly urban) popular culture, transmitted to Ireland from England.
…public execution, in the words of Pieter Spierenburg…"served as a stage on which the drama of justice was enacted in its most visible and conspicuous form before the people".3
If public execution was the Theatre of the Scaffold (doesn’t that put the degradations of reality television in perspective?), the broadsides were its librettos, distributed to the audience in advance of the performance. The operatic themes in the speeches of those brought to the sorry pass of a public death include the ignoring of the guidance (and example) of poor but honest parents, the catastrophe of a changed environment (moving to Dublin brought many low), the neglect of religion and the dangers of embracing swearing, profanity, drinking and gambling. Lewd women put in regular appearances in the text as the locus of blame, blast them.
It is no small irony that the testimonies of those condemned to die should serve to bring the period so vividly to life (I will never walk down Capel St. again without thinking of poor John MacGurran). These tales, told variously by gentlemen, women, beggars, and children (the youngest author of a last speech in the collection was 14 years old; indeed children were prime targets of such pedagogical literature), also represent a cornucopia of plot and thematic material for any aspiring novelist or scriptwriter.
While it is sad to see so useful, insightful, illuminating and moving a book consigned to the remainder stacks, Dublin readers (jackeens and culchies both) would do well to take advantage and buy (in Chapters of Abbey St.) this handsomely produced hardback at a knock-down price. It is a fine addition to any library.
What follows is a sample from the book, the last speech of a man who wouldn’t be out of place in a Redemption Studio’s nunsploitation flick. Ladies and gentlemen, the final words of James Geoghegan, priest of the Order of St. Francis, executed on the tenth day of February 1693:
Being lately called to an Account for my manifold Misdemeanours, and my Crimes having justly render’d me undeserving the Society of Men, I am now to end a Scandalous Life, by a deserved Ignominious Death. My Capital Crime, (out of which all my Iniquities have Sprung) is Disobedience: For as Obedience is the Golden Basis and Foundation of all Laws, Humane and Divine…Disobedience, being directly opposite, is the Source of all Evil, and renders a Man incapable, whilst in that State, of the Protection of the Eternal Being (on which all things depend, and which can Annihilate as well as Create this World, and all things therein) as likewise of the Temporal Laws which rules us here. Into this great Gulf I have (dear Christians) unfortunately plunged my self; and when once I relished of the Evils of a Voluptuous Life, one Mischief ushered in another, Abyssus abyssum invocat; and I no longer acted like a Loyal Subject to my Redeemer, but became an Apostate and perfect Child of Belial.
In this State and condition I continued for several years falsely accusing the Innocent, Violating by my untrue Testimony both the Liberties and Properties of honest Men, and abusing the Sacred Order of which I was an unworthy member, and Several other Sacred Religious Orders, by pretending to be of their Confraternities, whilst an Apostate, the better to attain my wicked ends. Most dear Christians, there is nothing now left principally, but the Sacred Name of Christ, Christus satisfaction est sine qua nemo videbit faciem Dei: it is by Him and through the Merits of his Passion I expect Salvation; He is the Balsam that Cures and Removes the Iniquities of this frail Life: Sicut ligat Diabolus qui peccata connectit, ita solvit Christo qui debita demittit.
I do, dear Christians, to the World acknowledge my self guilty of the several grievous Crimes, as well as of that whereof I have been by the Law Convicted, tho’ not in the same manner as I have been Accused; the things alledged to be Stolen by me being Lent me and not Stolen; yet I now freely forgive my Accuser. To repeat my manifold Errors might require more time than the present Circumstances of a Penitent Criminal can well afford: But in particular I humbly beg Pardon of Mr. Peaton, my Lord Bussine, one Mr. Broughil, and Garret Nugent, being severally most Unjustly Accused by me of Crimes they never committed. For all which I am truly penitent and sorrowful; and do humbly implore all others which I have offended to forgive me; Acknowledging that I never knew any Man’s Crime either against State or Government of which I did accuse them. And wishing that the Infamous Death which justly I am to undergo, may be acceptable in the presence of the Lord and his People, as a Satisfaction for the Crimes I committed. And I do in the sight of God declare my self Innocent of the Blood of my Lord Primate Plunket, tho’ I have been Charged to have accused him wrongfully. Now trusting to Him whose Mercy is infinite, I humbly beg the Prayers of all Faithful Christians, and especially of that Order of which I was (tho’ most unworthy) a Member. Now confiding in the Mercy of God, I conclude with the Saying of St. Paul, Cupio dissolve, & esse cum Christo. Jamees (sic) Geoghegan.
DUBLIN, Printed by Samuel Lee in Skinner Row, near the Tholsel 1694.
Very interesting - I’m not overly familiar with gallows speeches, which never quite reached the popularity of ‘the speech from the dock’ in Irish nationalist hagiography - (just try scratching a few words in Emmet’s headstone).
Michel Foucault’s Discipline & Punish gives a fantastic account and assessment of the early modern development of judicial practices, esp. the role of awe and spectacle throughout the process - right up to the execution. The court itself, its officers, gallows etc. each and all represent the power of the prince - power literally stamped onto the body of the accused.
Well worth a read, particularly for a right wing liberal like me who is challenged to marry the malign/repressive origin of the legal system with the apparent fact that a reformed version of the same is to some extent the guarantor of freedom.
(Apropos of nothing, but to my mind a broad and economically independent middle class to use the courts are probably ultimately a far more effective force in keeping the boot from the collective neck - a thesis that sees real challenges in the shift from merchant/producer capitalism to a service sector elite).
Copernicus doesn’t say what James Geoghegan was found guilty of - it would certainly be interesting to know, esp given the unliklihood he was tried for being a bad Franciscan (something the Williamite courts would probably have considered a good thing) just 3 years after the second siege Limerick.
January 10th, 2006 at 10:36 amIf you’d like to read more, you can pick up a copy on amazon or (for a mere €7) from charliebyrne.com in Galway. The speeches are interesting not least for what they imply about the thriving publishing industry in Dublin and communal literacy.
Michel gets a shout out in the introduction where Discipline and Punish is quoted thus:
“..public execution is to be understood, not only as a judicial, but also as a political ritual. It belongs, even in minor cases, to the ceremonies by which power is manifested.”
..which is what you say.
As a neophyte law student, I agree that the common law faces many challenges though it has survived in essence intact the shift from feudalism to mercantilism to a capitalist/keynsian society; I think because it embodies an ideal of fairness which has always placed it at odds with the surrounding political culture (at least in principle if very often not in practice).
I quite like being middle class myself, but I don’t think you can be complacent about the inability of the poor to access the civil law, especially in Ireland where even people on middling incomes would find it potentially ruinous to assert their rights in a court of law.
January 10th, 2006 at 11:16 amOh, and I don’t know what James was found guilty of. Presumably it was something to do with the death of Bishop Plunkett. No doubt the court had plenty of charges to choose from.
…actually, I have to be wrong about that. But it is interesting that Geogheghan was fingered generally as a responsible party in St. Oliver’s martyrdom.
January 10th, 2006 at 11:19 am“I do, dear Christians, to the World acknowledge my self guilty of the several grievous Crimes, as well as of that whereof I have been by the Law Convicted, tho’ not in the same manner as I have been Accused; the things alledged to be Stolen by me being Lent me and not Stolen”
Looks like he was done for thieving, plain and simple.
January 10th, 2006 at 1:15 pmHmm - too easy, the Bodlian Library features documentary evidence implicating one James Geoghegan in the Popish Plot for which Plunkett himself was martryed. Intruigingly a transcript appears to exist of Geoghegan’s ‘discourse to one G Nugent’ - (transcript of his pre trial examination exists at the same library) which no doubt would clear the whole issue up (with thanks to google).
Now I’m no conspiracy theorist but a Garret Nugent is named in the gallows speech as one falsely accussed by Geoghegan.
Oddly enough Nugents and Geoghegans occur in ‘nature’ as it were, in the same part of the midlands - Castle Nugent (better known to readers of Anglo-Irish Lit i think as Castle Rackrent) occupied lands near Geogheganstown in the W/Meath-Offally border. Conincidence?
There’s more to this than meets the eye.
January 10th, 2006 at 2:57 pmSo there we are: the pamphleteers covered the trial and exec of Geoghegan but tell us little about it.
Like Fox and the Iraq war, or moveon.org and the Lewinski affair.
The impact and power of the early modern pamphlet, of course, was in its presentation of a single perspective.
An authorial if not authoritative voice which would disregard superflous or incovenient information, where ‘views’ unrecorded were voices unheard.
The language of writing and essentially urban nature of the of the pamphlet - despite the name they were typically nailed (like so many theses) to doors/trees etc and read aloud by those who could to those who couldn’t - dictated its content.
A business like bloomberg thrives by providing aggregated news and information precisely because, blog or broadsheet, those essential flaws in the provision of news remain a constant. The displacement of Reuters - which made its name by claiming to be the authoritatve provider of news untainted by opinion - occured as finanial markets realised this simply couldn’t be true and opted to critically engage with information overload rather than place faith in any one publisher.
January 10th, 2006 at 3:40 pmAccording to the Catholic Encyclopedia, ahem, “Writs for the arrest of Dr. Plunket were repeatedly issued by the Government. At length he was seized and cast into prison in Dublin Castle, 6 Dec., 1679, and a whole host of perjured informers were at hand to swear his life away. In Ireland the character of those witnesses was well known and no jury would listen to their perjured tales, but in London it was not so, and accordingly his trial was transferred to London.”
As one who relished the Evils of a Voluptuous Life, can James Geoghegan have been among those perjurers, perhaps one who sold out his co-conspirators for 30 pieces of silver, which eventually ran out and led him to add thievery to his transgressions? Perhaps I do him an injustice, or perhaps he was always destined for the gallows one way or t’other.
January 10th, 2006 at 3:55 pmReally interesting post. You forgot Burke in your list of pamphleteers. BTW, you write beautifully.
January 20th, 2006 at 11:23 pmThanks for the compliment and for noting the contribution of Burke.
Barcelona is not unknown to people around here. Tis a grand town.
January 21st, 2006 at 12:16 am