Shelley's adventure in Irish politics

THE GREAT lyrical poet Percy Bysshe Shelley seems destined to be forever linked to clouds and skylarks – but he was far more than that. Shelley was a republican, an atheist, a feminist, and an egalitarian; he was a poet of the revolution. He was despised when he was alive and patronised when he was safely dead.

For Shelley, born in 1792 in Sussex, the revolutionary upheavals towards the end of the 18th century in France and Ireland were a tradition rather than a personal experience. But he was formed by these events, just as the first generation of Romantics – Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey – were transformed by the reality of those great revolutionary upheavals. Shelley experienced them second-hand through the books of William Godwin and Tom Paine. But his radicalism grew out of a living contact with the brutality of war and imperialism at the beginning of the 19th century, and Ireland was central to that experience. His friend, Thomas Hogg, suggested that Shelley’s interest in Irish politics was fired by Irish revolutionaries who frequented the coffee-shops of London.

In 1811, while at Oxford University, Shelley had published a “poetical essay” in support of the Irish journalist Peter Finnerty, then in Lincoln jail for libelling Lord Castlereagh. Shelley’s essay was highly critical of the British government and this may have influenced the decision to expel him from Oxford shortly afterwards.

Shelley had just put together a collection of poems, and Ireland seemed the obvious place to have them published and start his career as a political activist. Shelley came to Ireland in 1812 because he believed the general crisis affecting British society found its most militant expression in Ireland, and in particular in the fight for Catholic emancipation. He believed that the struggle in Ireland could ignite a movement that would revive the ideals of the French Revolution, not just in Ireland, but for all humanity.

Shelley and his wife Harriet arrived in Dublin on February 3rd, 1812, and took lodgings at 7 Lower Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street). In the months before his arrival Shelley had immersed himself in Irish history. The resulting pamphlet, An Address to the Irish People – 1,500 copies printed and distributed in Dublin – is a significant statement of his political views and was intended to stir up the Irish people to take action on their own behalf.

Shortly after his arrival he made the acquaintance of Catherine Nugent, probably through Daniel Healy, who had helped Shelley distribute his pamphlets around the meeting places and coffee houses in Dublin. During the 1798 rebellion, Nugent was an active member of the United Irishmen. It was on her account that they moved to rooms at 17 Grafton Street (now Marks and Spencer) opposite the shop where she worked as a seamstress.

Shelley and Harriet met Nugent almost every evening and from her Shelley must have derived a more detailed appraisal of the situation in Ireland. Most likely it was Nugent who pointed out the political problems with An Address to the Irish People and persuaded him to write a second and more direct pamphlet, Proposals for an Association. In addition, Shelley published a 32-point Declaration of Rights to be pasted around Dublin. His hopes for success were now pinned on the scattered remnants of the United Irishmen and the radical intelligentsia coming together to form an association on a platform of Catholic emancipation and repeal of the Union. Shelley was adamant the proposed association should renounce violence and secrecy, and agitate among the masses for its programme.

His pamphlet aroused some interest among the political classes. Shelley tried to interest John Philpot Curran and Archibald Hamilton Rowan, but they had long traded in their green coats and made their peace with the British establishment.

But all was not lost: John Lawless, a member of the Catholic Association and an associate of Daniel O’Connell, made contact with Shelley. Lawless was a colourful if controversial figure in Irish politics, and was most likely the author of a complimentary article on Shelley that appeared in the Dublin Weekly Messenger on March 7th. Despite their differences regarding the prospects for Shelley’s proposals, they agreed to work together on a number of projects. They made plans to launch a new radical newspaper and to prepare for publication a book outlining the course of Irish history. We don’t know if Shelley made any editorial contribution, but the Compendium of Irish History was eventually published in 1814. Through his connection with Lawless, Shelley was invited to speak at a public meeting of the Catholic Association in the Fishamble Street Theatre alongside Daniel O’Connell and Lord Kenmare. Shelley’s speech was well received and almost all of the national newspapers reported his contribution.

Shelley was a great admirer of Robert Emmet, and in March he made a political pilgrimage to St Michan’s Church, where Emmet was believed to be buried. His poems On Robert Emmet’s Tomb and The Tombs pay homage to Emmet and the United Irishmen.

Shelley achieved little of political consequence in Ireland and departed at the end of April. His impatience and inexperience worked against him. With people such as Catherine Nugent, Daniel Healy and John Lawless, given time and hard work, a small but significant movement could have been built. But the few months he spent in Ireland provided him with the most “intensive period of practical political education that he had experienced in his life”, and this was to have a lasting effect on his life, poetry, and prose.

Shelley returned to Ireland the following year and, after spending a few weeks in Dublin, departed for Killarney where he stayed in a cottage on Ross Island, most likely at the invitation of Lord Kenmare. He used the visit to complete his first great poem, Queen Mab.

Despite the fact that nearly all the major biographers of Shelley dismiss or diminish the Irish adventure as of little importance, Irish freedom was not a passing fad for the young poet – he retained an interest in Irish politics up to the time of his death in 1822 at the age of 29. Italy was a favourite haunt for Irish revolutionaries and radicals. Shelley’s circle in Italy included Lady Mount Cashell, George Tighe, John Taafe and Amelia Curran, who painted the only known portrait of Shelley made during his lifetime.

Two hundred years ago in Dublin, the 19-year-old Shelley sat down to write his poem, To Liberty And a Paradise on Earth: “From your fall shall date its birth/ And human life shall seem/ Like a short and happy dream/ Ere we wake in the daybeam of the skies.”

Shelley’s “paradise on earth” has not yet come about, but he did well to dream it.

Paul O’Brien is a writer and critic and the author of Shelley and Revolutionary Ireland (Bookmarks, London)