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The Last of the Milesians: The 1801 Anglo‐Irish Marriage Contract and The Wild Irish Girl
Author(s) -
DOUGHERTY JANE ELIZABETH
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal for eighteenth‐century studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.129
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1754-0208
pISSN - 1754-0194
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-0208.2011.00421.x
Subject(s) - irish , girl , context (archaeology) , northern ireland , political science , gender studies , law , genealogy , history , sociology , ethnology , psychology , archaeology , philosophy , linguistics , developmental psychology
Sydney Owenson wrote The Wild Irish Girl hoping to effect in reality a union between Britain and Ireland that was already irrevocably enshrined in law. The passage of the Union in 1801 was itself marked by a discourse of national marriage between Britain and Ireland, with Britain the groom and Ireland the bride, revealing the Union to have shared almost all the characteristics of the classic marriage contract. It is this discursive context that shapes Owenson's text and is responsible for the failure of the text's desired resolution, an allegorical marriage between Britain and Ireland.