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Transformations and the dynamics of memory: Gladstone and the Phoenix Park Murders

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSNChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Published
Publication date8/01/2025
Host publicationNews with an Attitude: Ideological perspectives in the historical press
EditorsClaudia Claridge
PublisherJohn Benjamins
Pages82-107
Number of pages26
ISBN (electronic)9789027246202
ISBN (print)9789027219183
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Publication series

NameDiscourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Volume105
ISSN (Print)1569-9463

Abstract

In this study, we explore how the Phoenix Park murders were written about in public and private discourse, utilising the Nineteenth Century Newspaper Corpus, personal diaries and historiography. With the use of social actor analysis (van Leeuwen, 2008), we examine how events underwent ‘transformations’ as they moved from reality to record, and how over time these records worked to shape the dynamics of memory, particularly in relation to notions of accountability. Gladstone was blamed by The Times for allowing the murders to take place but, by focussing on personal relationships, the Liberal press portrayed events far more sympathetically. Soon after Gladstone’s death, an influential biography by his friend, John Morley, worked to prove that Gladstone’s reputation was beyond reproach.