Irish Nationalism, Colonization, and Failure Theme Analysis

“A Mother” takes place during the time of the late-19th- and early-20th-century Irish Revival, a movement to uplift Ireland’s precolonial Gaelic and Celtic language and culture. While the Irish Nationalist movement was intended to help the Irish people to resist their English oppressors and celebrate their own culture, the Kearneys only take part in the Irish Nationalist movement to benefit themselves, since the movement is both fashionable and lucrative for them. In addition to the movement’s self-interested members, its leaders lack vision and competence. Joyce demonstrates these qualities with the fictional Eire Abu Society, which catastrophically fails to organize a successful four-night concert series celebrating Ireland’s culture—and its leaders don’t seem to be that disappointed by their failure. In this way, “A Mother” critiques the Irish Nationalist movement of Joyce’s time for its disorganization, apathy, inexperience, and corruption.

While the Irish Nationalist movement is a political centerpiece of “A Mother,” rather than reflect the actual politics of Irish Nationalism, it appears to be a social outlet for the Kearneys. The Kearneys only get involved in Irish Nationalism when the Irish Revival becomes “appreciable.” Once Mrs Kearney notices the Irish Revival becoming more popular, she has Kathleen learn Irish, not because she actually seems invested in the Irish language and Irish independence, but because she sees an opportunity for Kathleen to make a name for herself: Kathleen shares a name with a traditional Irish figure, Kathleen ni Houlihan, which would help boost her notoriety. Furthermore, rather than discuss anything about Irish political independence from England, the Kearneys mostly exchange gossip with their Nationalist friends. Their opportunistic and shallow involvement in Nationalism demonstrates that for them (and perhaps for many upper-class Nationalists), the movement is only appealing as a means of social advancement.

Even the members of the Eire Abu Society, a fictional Irish Nationalist group whose name translates to “Ireland to Victory,” don’t take much care in planning the concerts or ensuring their success, suggesting that they’re actually not all that invested in the issues surrounding Ireland’s colonial subjugation, either. Mr Holohan seems completely inexperienced in event-planning, to the point that he relies on Mrs Kearney’s advice on nearly everything, and when the first concert goes awry, he is nonchalant about letting the first three concerts fail without intervention. When the first concert seems bound to fail, the Committee Secretary, Mr Fitzpatrick, doesn’t seem to be that disappointed—or surprised—and he takes advantage of the rowdy atmosphere at the second concert to talk loudly with his friends during the performances, suggesting he’s indifferent to the concerts’ success. Miss Beirne, a Society Committee member, can’t seem to get ahold of any of the other Committee members, and seems fairly resigned to the fact that the Society did their “best” in planning the concerts. When she gets together with all the Committee members at the fourth concert, they seem disorganized as a group and caught off guard by Mrs Kearney’s demands. And although the Committee invites reporters from a Nationalist newspaper to report on the concerts, even the reporters, Mr Hendrick and Mr O’Madden Burke, don’t seem interested in the performances or in the politics of Irish Nationalism in general. From Joyce’s descriptions, the Eire Abu Society seems ironically named: they are completely unprepared to bring Ireland to victory in any sense, and by implication, their disorganization and apathy illuminate part of the reason why Ireland’s Nationalist movements have yet to secure freedom for the Irish people.

Like Mrs Kearney, the Committee members and other Nationalists seem to take advantage of the concerts for their own personal gain. But, unlike Mrs Kearney, they don’t take its failures personally. Mr Fitzpatrick, Mr Holohan, Mr Hendrick, and Mr O’Madden Burke each use the concerts they attend to drink, socialize, and flirt, and none of them even seem to pay attention to the performances that are supposed to celebrate Ireland’s culture. The concerts’ publicity failures seem to strike the reporters and committee members as commonplace, as well as their hesitancy to pay Kathleen, given the low numbers at the box office. Indeed, what they find “scandalous” is Mrs Kearney’s reaction to their disorganization and apathy—suggesting that they don’t see the cause as worth getting worked up about. Overall, Joyce suggests that the Committee members’ failure reflects the overall history of failed Irish Nationalist rebellions and the stagnation of the movement after it was co-opted by the wealthy and by people more interested in their own success than in Irish independence.