Harry Clarke’s War: Illustrations for Ireland’s Memorial Records,1914-1918

285 Pages·2016·43.7 MB·English

by  Marguerite Helmers, Myles Dungan, Nicola Gordon Bowe

HARRY
CLARKE’S
WAR
Dedication
To those who served
Harry
Clarke’s
War
Illustrations for
Ireland’s Memorial
Records 1914–1918
MARguERiTE HELMERS
Irish Academic Press
First published in 2016 by
irish Academic Press
8 Chapel Lane
Sallins
Co. Kildare
© 2016 Marguerite Helmers
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
978-07165-3308-5 (Cloth)
978-07165-3309-2 (PDF)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright
reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the
copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Foreword by Nicola gordon Bowe 1
introduction 8
CHapter I. Things Fall Apart: Art Emerges from Conflict 16
CHapter II. Art, Cinema, and War: Harry Clarke’s Dublin 56
CHapter III. Art at the Margins: illustrating
Ireland’s Memorial Records 98
CHapter IV. Spaces of Memory: Ireland’s Memorial
Records within the irish National War
Memorial gardens 191
Afterword by Myles Dungan 224
Appendix 233
Bibliography 237
List of Figures 247
List of Plates 255
index 257
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the encouragement
and support of many people. Librarians and archivists in America,
ireland, and England have helped me track down copies of Ireland’s
Memorial Records and related documents. Accordingly, the staffs of many
libraries deserve thanks: Peter Harrington, Anne S.K. Brown Military
Collection, Brown university Library; university College Dublin;
Royal irish Academy; National Library of ireland; Early Printed
Books, Trinity College Dublin; university of Reading; imperial War
Museum; British Library; Mary Evans Picture Library; and Victoria
and Albert Museum, including the archives of the Royal institute
for British Architecture. Maria Choules and Andrew Featherstone at
the Commonwealth War graves Commission offered me a table to
review files, and Maria took me under her wing and included tea in
the mix. A number of people in ireland guided me toward resources:
Andy Bielenberg, Nicola gordon Bowe, Tom Burke, James Cronin,
Brian Donovan, Catriona Crowe, Christy Cunniffe, gabriel Doherty,
Myles Dungan, Simon gregor, Fianna griffin, Angela griffith,
Richard Hearns, gavin Hughes, Michael Hughes, Roisin Kennedy,
Vera Kreilkamp, Angus Mitchell, Ellen Murphy, Stephen Regan and
David Rundle.
generous support from the university of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Faculty Development Program and College of Letters and Science
allowed me to spend one year as a fellow of the institute for the
Humanities at the university of Wisconsin Madison. Susan Stanford
Friedman’s expert guidance and the marvellous insights of the other
fellows shaped the early drafts of the book. Particular gratitude goes
to Richard Leson, university of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
At the university of Wisconsin Oshkosh, i thank Dean John Koker
Acknowledgements | vii
and Department Chair Roberta Maguire for the release time to pursue
research; Robert Wise, faculty head of the Faculty Development
Board; and Provost Lane Earns for support. About my kind colleagues
in the Department of English, i cannot say enough, but let me list
Paul Klemp, Ron Rindo, Pamela gemin, Douglas Haynes, Stewart
Cole, Pascale Manning, Margaret Hostetler, and Christine Roth for
listening. Joshua Ranger’s expertise as an archivist has helped me out
many times. My students at the university have been gracious enough
to listen to my thoughts about the significance of the First World
War in literary studies. Justus Poehls, in particular, deserves special
thanks for compiling the bibliography.
The Milwaukee irish Fest Foundation funded travel to ireland
for research. A thousand thanks to Patrick Boyle and Cathy Ward.
Bewley’s Dublin, where the lovely windows by Harry Clarke grace the
dining room and where i’ve enjoyed many cups of tea, contributed to
the acquisition of the illustrations. in addition, Castle Leslie, home of
my distant cousins Shane Leslie and Norman Beauchamp Leslie, who
was killed in the First World War, dedicated funds to acquire images
as well.
To Lisa Hyde at irish Academic Press, thank you for your patience.
Conor graham, thank you for your enthusiasm and sound advice. To
the copyeditors, artists, typesetters and printers without whom this
book and others could not exist: you are integral to the process and
deserve all readers’ gratitude for your skills.
This book would not have been possible without the patience and
support of my family, Bill, Emily, and Caitlin. Caitlin, in particular,
managed many of the details of the Harry Clarke images. gladys
Helmers provided the gift of travel. As i grew up, my parents Helen
and garry filled our house with art, culture and inspiration, and to
them i owe the greatest thanks of all.

Foreword
In context: Harry Clarke’s decorative borders for the Irish
National War Memorial Committee’s Books of the Dead, Ireland’s
Memorial Records, 1914–1918
n 1923, when these eight volumes were privately published by
i
george Roberts of Maunsel and Roberts, Harry Clarke (1889–1931)
was at the peak of his all-too-short artistic career. Aged thirty-four, he
had already published a series of critically acclaimed illustrated books
with george g. Harrap in London, issued in limited luxury editions
1
as well as regular editions. He had also drawn a series of illustrations
to Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, which would have been
his first published book with Maunsel & Company (as the firm was
2
originally known ), had not the blocks of the main illustrations, the
title page, and the head and tailpiece originals perished when the
Dublin publisher’s premises were destroyed by fire in the 1916 Easter
3
Rising.
The following year, 1917, Roberts and Clarke, acquainted through
mutual friends in Dublin’s literary and arts circles, collaborated on the
first purpose-designed and printed catalogue for the Arts & Crafts
Society of ireland’s Fifth Exhibition. Clarke’s striking cover for the
Foreword demonstrated his skill as a highly original graphic designer
whose intricately drawn framework embellishes the text which it
directly illustrates while idiosyncratically interrupting its inner and
outer linear boundaries with spirited ornamentation. Roberts’s skill as
a printer did full justice to Clarke’s exacting pen and ink work by using