several photographs by william fee mckinney feature a miss annie baird. one photograph features her in 1902 in a large group at a social function at sentry hill, then two much later photographs feature her sat upon a chair in front of a doorway at sentry hill, posed with a copy of the satirical british magazine punch in her hands, one looking at the camera with the magazine on her lap, in the other she looks at the magazine.

we can likely date these two later photographs to sometime around 1912-17- as the sitter’s wedding or engagement ring is visible, and her wedding date was 2 january 1914. further visual research may be able to indicate the exact date of the magazine, which features very much as a prop within one of these two photographs, as a representation of a literate woman on an ornate dining chair at the doorway of a subtantial home, looking over an issue of one of the most influential, and characteristic, british magazines of the era.

there is some contrast across this 1912-17 period in how political affairs from ulster or ireland are featured or characterised visually in cartoons or reports in punch magazine. across the first half of ww1, 1914-16, when the events of the war had become by far the predominant subject material, there are very few cartoons on political affairs from ulster or ireland. this is in stark contrast to the period just before the war – by 1914 across the period of the home-rule crisis, the ulster volunteer force, larne gun-running and the ulster covenant, the magazine was running half of its cartoons on irish political themes (i). and of course, in the period immediately after the easter rising affairs from ulster or ireland are prominently featured.

some examples from the issues of punch from 1916 in the months before the easter rising: small cartoons on irish figures feature within the magazine’s house of commons political sketch ‘essence of parliament’ column  of 5 april 1916, with carson characterised as a skilled and shrewd political operator, indeed within the common stereotype (of him) as of the stern, unyielding Ulsterman (ii) featured in the magazine in this period,

and in issues from 26 january 26th and some weeks earlier on 12 january 26th the same ‘essence of parliament’ columns had featured respectively the cartoons “i’ll not have conscription” which featured carson characterised as shrewd and forceful, while john redmond is featured in the magazine’s characteristic register for him through a demeaning caricature as a rather buffoonish figure, as either hopelessly unprofessional or a self-important fool or positively ridiculous (iii), or even as a stupid, bloated and feckless gombeen man, often with a pig in tow (iv)

and although punch magazine at this time was no longer featuring what had been its common victorian era cartoon portrayals of the irish as simian-like brutes,  nonetheless in this later period english cartoonists were losing their appetite for simianised paddies, and they returned to such traditional symbols as … the inevitable irish pig (iv),  and this 12 january 26th issue of punch also characterised irish nationalist opposition to conscription with a repetition of its standard register of the demeaning irish stereotype at that time – as a ragged, filthy, uneducated, oppugnant, easily-duped peasant, a creature at home in the sty daring to address the affairs of state.

one other point is worth noting here, indicating the discourse of punch magazine across this period . if this were the 26 april 1916 issue of the magazine punch being browsed through by miss annie baird, as she sits perhaps posed by the photographer william mckinley and as she is gazed upon, photographed and documented as she in turn considers the visual representation of punch magazine itself, then in this browsing miss annie baird will see through the magazine a telling visual commentary upon the new social function of women from the period, what is known as the ‘new woman’ of ww1, now being called upon and identified by government as agents of a new and now essential industrial, social, political and military function, as punch nevertheless continues to ridicule both (women in) their new jobs and the women who did nothing, but vacillated greatly between condoning female workers and deriding them…(and) found the changing role of women an easy target, but the fact that this subject was constantly employed for comedy throughout the war suggests that the paper was regrettably accurate in portraying themes the public found amusing.  this is a very obvious way in which comedy was used to displace fear of change. … despite the changing demographics of britain during the war, patriarchal values still dominated the modes of cultural production. women were supposed to be unthreatening; they had little influence in the popular press and therefore punch was free to enforce more familiar attitudes of domesticity and male dominance. cartoons and articles satirising women dominated most issues. (vi)

notes:

(i) throwing a punch in ireland’s direction, patrick smyth, the irish times, april 25, 2012, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/throwing-a-punch-in-ireland-s-direction-1.508445, accessed 9/12/17

(ii) & (iii) punch’s portrayal of redmond, carson and the irish question, 1910-18 author(s): joseph p. finnan. source: irish historical studies, vol. 33, no. 132 (nov., 2003), pp. 424-451 published by: cambridge university press. stable url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30006911 – accessed: 11-12-2017 12:39 utc

(iv) throwing a punch in ireland’s direction, patrick smyth, the irish times, april 25, 2012, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/throwing-a-punch-in-ireland-s-direction-1.508445, accessed 9/12/17

(v)  apes and angels: the irishman in victorian caricature first published in 1971, l. perry curtis, quoted in  joseph p. finnan above.

(vi) joseph p. finnan as above

(vi) esther maccallum-stewart, satirical magazines of the first world war: punch and the wipers times, http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/satirical.htm, accessed 10/12/17

 

 

in this 1870s – 1880s period, while william fee mckinney in country antrim engaged in his antiquarian and photographic practices and enthusiasms – collecting farming, church and other records and artefacts (he had a deep interest in the history of presbyterianism in ireland) and in his participation as member of the belfast natural history and philosophical society and as member of the linen hall library – james glass (born 1847, died 1931) was establishing his skills and business as a professional photographer in the city of derry and also engaging within the broader presbyterian community in the city, becoming a respected member of his local presbyterian church – a superintendent of the sabbath school and senior elder at carlisle road presbyterian church, built in 1879 – to the extent of still being noted within his church community up to some twenty years after his death through a portrait and stained glass window gifted to the church by his wife and daughter and a bequest to the church in 1957 known as the ‘james glass bequest’.

james glass had arrived in derry around 1861 with his father alexander glass, who in 1858 was farming 16 acres in the townland of ballyboe glencar in conwal parish, county donegal, just to the north of letterkenny. in the city of derry james glass was first apprenticed to alexander ayton who had a photographic studio at kennedy place in the city, with glass later establishing his own studio in the city, firstly in partnership with young and then alone.

with the photographic practices of glass and mckinney as the key agents within our analysis, we are therefore equipped to interrogate the strategic function (i) for the medium of photography, the function of photography as a formation determining linkages between perception, meaning and the construction of identities, the function of photography as a perceptual apparatus with the capacity to capture, orient, determine, intercept, model, control, or secure the gestures, behaviors, opinions, or discourses of living beings, here across the discourses of the presbyterian communities within mid to late 19th and early 20th century ulster and their agency within that period, and across the antiquarian, archival, institutional and technological frameworks within which we now engage with these practices.

in “the confession of the flesh” foucault notes that “i understand by the term “apparatus” a sort of–shall we say–formation which has as its major function at a given historical moment that of responding to an urgent need” (ii)

to interrogate the urgent need which this apparatus answers we can explore how the  aesthetics, ethics, technologies, beliefs, economies, laws, customs, loyalties, affiliations of  the presbyterian communities of late 19th and early 20th century ulster are refracted through the prism of the photographic practices of glass and mckinney.

notes:

(i) & (ii)

foucault defined his use of the term dispositif (apparatus) in 1977:

what I’m trying to pick out with this term is, firstly, a thoroughly heterogenous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philanthropic propositions–in short, the said as much as the unsaid. Such are the elements of the apparatus. the apparatus itself is the system of relations that can be established between these elements.

secondly, what I am trying to identify in this apparatus is precisely the nature of the connection that can exist between these heterogenous elements… 

between these elements, whether discursive or non-discursive, there is a sort of interplay of shifts of position and modifications of function which can also vary very widely.

thirdly, I understand by the term “apparatus” a sort of–shall we say–formation which has as its major function at a given historical moment that of responding to an urgent need. the apparatus thus has a dominant strategic function. (“the confession of the flesh” (1977) interview. in power/knowledge selected interviews and other writings (ed colin gordon), 1980: pp. 194-228. this interview was conducted by a round-table of historians.)

 

the sentry hill that features as one part in this research was the home of eminent presbyterian gentleman-farming stock. its name given to it as it sits upon the geographic feature of sentry hill, which is just above glengormley and corr’s corner near carnmoney, co antrim, just to the north of the city of belfast.

the early 19th-century farmhouse onsite was the home of the mckinney family who were descended from scottish presbyterians who fled to ireland after the battle of sherrifmuir of 1716, with some of the family out with united irishmen of 1798. in the 1700s there was a thatched cottage onsite and then from the 1830s, once the mckinney family had purchased the land, a collection of larger house and farm buildings.

one family member at sentry hill from  was william fee mckinney (1835 – 1917),  a prosperous farmer and meticulous collector of farming, church and other records and artefacts, and a keen amateur photographer. he was a member of the linen hall library and the belfast natural history and philosophical society. he was secretary of carnmoney presbyterian church for 62 years.

what is a sentry hill? it is a fairly common name, there are probably at least half a dozen such named sites in ireland. each is likely a site which has at some point in its past seen the custom of posting a sentry watchman on its commanding height – to guard against the approach of some enemy force or threat.

so a sentry hill is a site that derives its identity from its function, from the primacy of the visual and named as such. the work here above perhaps illustrates a sentry hill in reverse, with those notional images seen from upon a height that identify the sentry hill being reversed to images on a height being seen and sketched within a quixotic re-imagining of one of the optical devices of proto-photography from the 19th century, the camera obscura.

the work illustrated above is obscura object, one of a series of works – copper engraving, object, and installation – by artist stephen beckman from 2008. for more on the work see the artist’s essay in photography beyond technique, tom persinger, focal press, 2014.