Thomas Carlyle, "Young Ireland" and the "Condition of Ireland Question"

Abstract

This article reconsiders Thomas Carlyle’s views on the crisis facing Ireland in the 1840s and British responses to it. It argues that while Carlyle saw this crisis as being related to difficulties facing contemporary ‘ English ’ society, he treated it as a distinctive manifestation of a malaise that afflicted all European societies. Carlyle’s views on Ireland reflected the illiberal and authoritarian attitudes which underwrote his social and political thought, but they were not, as has sometimes been suggested, premised on anti-Irish prejudices derived from racial stereotypes. An examination of Carlyle’s writings on Ireland demonstrate that he attributed the parlous state of that country in the 1840s to widespread failures in leadership and social morality that were not unique to the inhabitants of Ireland and were also to be found in England. Carlyle’s works were not only admired by leading members of ‘ Young Ireland ’, but also generated ideas that framed their response to the economic, social, and political challenges facing Ireland.