Reading Realities: Carlyle, Young Ireland and the Affinity of the Radicals "without Theology"

describes Carlyle as an "accidental democrat" when assessing his influence on democracy in America during the nineteenth century.To be sure, it might well have been unexpected that Carlyle's influence should be felt and survived in the countries subordinate to England at that time, because he was notorious for being an inveterate pro-Unionist.But the fact is that Carlyle's thought had repercussions in other Anglophonic countries: Ireland and, across the Atlantic, America.That Carlyle's thought which attracted the young intellectuals took root and bore fruit not only in America but also in mid-nineteenth century Ireland has become increasingly clear, especially through the study of the intellectual affinity between Carlyle and the Young Ireland movement.Although their views about the political situation of Ireland proved eventually divergent from each other, the friendship between the core members of Young Ireland and Carlyle lasted until the latter's death.They shared a number of opinions despite their disagreements about matters of race, religion, and education.In the following discussion, I would like to examine Carlyle's use of the term "reality," one of the key words to the understanding of his thought and how Young Ireland utilized his philosophy in the Nation, a newspaper published from 1842, by way of casting a fresh eye on the conflict between Catholic Ireland and Protestant (Anglican) England in this period, which has too often been talked about in a simplified and fixed framework of ideas.R. F. Foster describes that modern Irish nationalism was developed by Irish radicalism promoted by the United Irishmen whose rebellion in 1798 was recorded as "the most concentrated episode of violence in Irish history"(280).