The Big House

that developed from the 1820s onward. The fabrication of O’Connell was essentially an exercise in morale-building and self-affirmation on a vast scale. Millions of his followers caught reflections of themselves and their aspirations in his various images and, in so doing, could not help but gain a new self-awareness as well as a collective self-respect. That was by no means an insignificant accomplishment. VONA GROARKE THE BIG HOUSE I took it for another ancient ruin with gaping windows and the roof all in. But as we drove up underneath its bulk, I saw that what was darkening our truck was not the shadow of a burnt-out pile, but a stack of tightly-packed hay-bales built up like bricks, its façade high and monumental, latticed to the sky. SELF-FASHIONING AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF DANIEL O’CONNELL 130 ...