| All Dressed Up: Modern Irish Historical Pageantry Subjects: English drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism; English drama -- Irish authors -- History and criticism; Irish drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Historical drama English -- History and criticism; Pageants -- Ireland -- History -- 20; In the early twentieth century, publicly staged productions of significant historical, political, and religious events became increasingly popular--and increasingly grand--in Ireland. These public pageants, a sort of precursor to today's opening ceremonies at the Olympic games, mobilized huge numbers of citizens to present elaborately staged versions of Irish identity based on both history and myth. Complete with marching bands, costumes, fireworks, and mock battles, these spectacles were suffused with political and national significance. Joan FitzPatrick Dean is Curators Professor of English at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She is the author of Riot and Great Anger: Stage Censorship in Twentieth-Century Ireland. |