Cludach: Cover

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To prompt our readers to reflect on the degree to which Ireland has changed in the past two decades, the covers for the next four issues of New Hibernia Review will present stamps issued by An Post at the midpoint of the twentieth century. Many of our readers, especially those with relatives in Ireland, will immediately recognize these stamps and their talismanic power. The cover for this Spring, 2006, issue presents the 6d version in deep claret of the 1945 stamp commemorating Thomas Davis and the Young Ireland Movement.

In celebrating the political and literary accomplishments of Thomas Davis (1814–1845), leader of the Young Ireland movement and founder of the Nation, neutral Ireland at the close of World War II poignantly asserted the concept that liberal nationalism can rightly sow the seeds of freedom—of "Saoirse," as inscribed on the belly of the Sower's apron. Note, too, that the heroic, but generic male image is a peaceful one, a pastoral one—befitting both Ireland's actual economy and ethical stance. The frame of this image restates Ireland's constitutional claim to the whole Ireland, for the cornerstones of the stately border are the arms of the four provinces of Ireland. Gaelic type has been used, of course, and most interestingly in the text of frame's "pillars": "Gluaisceacht na nÉireannach Óg," the Young Ireland Movement. The other appeal of the image is, of course, Christian. The stamp alludes to images of the Sower that feature so prominently in nineteenth-century paintings by Millet, Tissot, and van Gogh. As every Irish person—Catholic or Protestant—would have recognized in 1945, this icon alludes directly to the parable of the Sower in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

In selecting this example for our cover, we are grateful for the kind assistance of James H. Marrinan of St. Paul, an appraiser and specialist in Irish philately and numismatics. The image appears here by kind permission of the An Post, Dublin©.