“From Cork […] to St. Peter’s Cupola”: The Idea of Italy in the Writings of Francis Sylvester Mahony

Abstract

This article reconsiders the comparativist aesthetic of Francis Sylvester
Mahony’s “Prout Papers” in relation to the direct crosscomparisons
of Irish and Italian circumstances in his later Roman
journalism, emphasising the importance of Italy to the two works
he published in book form. It traces the development of Mahony’s
thoughts on Catholic identity and nationalist politics in his Italian
writings. The decentred perspective on contemporary Ireland provided
by his commentaries on Italian affairs is used to discuss Mahony’s
interest in ‘doubleness’, focussing especially on his sometimes
provocative efforts to arrive at political understanding through the
dialectical examination of opposed viewpoints.