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The Unkindest Cut: Linenhall’s political cartoons

The Unkindest Cut – Linenhall’s political cartoons Cartoonists have been telling their own history of events in Ireland. Historian and librarian John Killen talks to Emma Blee about the importance of having a sense of humour in politics.

“The cartoons reveal, as words never can, the prejudices, suspicions and sheer absurdities that the situation has engendered over the years,” remarks librarian John Killen.

Partition, the home rule crisis and the recent recession are all significant events in Ireland’s history. A cartoon exhibition entitled ‘The Unkindest Cut’ at the Linenhall library is attempting to look at the quirkier side of things.

He had been using the cartoons from magazines such as Punch, Nomads Weekly and Republican, for 20 to 30 years to answer queries from library members about various events throughout Ireland’s history and soon began to collect them.

“I realised that these cartoons are really impressive illustrations. I took an interest in them and began to copy them for no particular reason other than that they were historical documents,” he comments.

By 1998, Killen had acquired an extensive collection of cartoons which detailed Ireland’s history and spanned more than 100 years. He decided that it would be interesting to make the cartoons public as part of an exhibition in the library.

“I thought a century would be a good period to look at in history. The magazines all seemed to have cartoons that told a story. They are all from our own collections and I think the exhibition indicates the breadth and depth of the century’s history.”

However, with such a vast collection, it wasn’t easy for Killen to cut the exhibition back to just 170 cartoons: “It is always difficult to cut back research for an exhibition. It’s best to get as much information as possible on a subject and then sift through it. I picked the cartoons that stand out the most without needing an awful lot of explanation about the story.”

So far, the most interest has been in a cartoon from Punch magazine called ‘The Kindest Cut’ (pictured on page 104). Killen says: “This cartoon tells the rationale behind partition in Ireland. It basically sums up the situation in Northern Ireland for most of the 20th century.”The Unkindest Cut – Linenhall’s political cartoons

While there has been a lot of interest locally, the librarian says the exhibition has also attracted trans-Atlantic visitors. And it has made such an impression that it may now get the opportunity to travel to other countries: “There have been visitors from America and one visitor from Miami actually runs a museum that deals with politics. They were very interested in the cartoon exhibition as something that would travel. I think it’s something that could possibly happen; it will take a lot of organising but there’s every reason to do it.”

Some of Northern Ireland’s own politicians have also been along to take a look but Killen advises that they “need a sense of humour for it”.

He quips: “We’ve had a lot of the ministers in since the exhibition opened and they would have seen it. Sammy Wilson and Conor Murphy have been in and I think they were very enthused with what they saw. I think it’s something that all politicians would enjoy.”

The Unkindest Cut runs at the Linenhall library until 24 December 2011.

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