James Gillray – Consequences of a successful French Invasion
Irish history manifests itself in many forms among them political cartoons. The political cartoon collection of Jeffrey Archer which Sotheby’s will offer in London on March 14 includes a James Gillray cartoon titled: ‘Consequences of a successful French invasion .. or… we fly on the wings of the wind to save the Irish catholics from persecution”.
It relates to the aftermath of the French Revolution, during which the Catholic church as a large landowner suffered greatly. Many priests were executed or deported during The Terror, churches and religious images were destroyed. By early 1798, the leaders of the French Directory had secured the occupation of Switzerland, Piedmont and the Papal States. In response to fear of an impending invasion in Britain the Scottish lawyer and historian Sir John Dalrymple (1726-1810) approached James Gillray to produce a series of loyalist, anti-Jacobin prints that ‘might rouse all the People to an active Union against that Invasion. This cartoon represents what the French might do to the catholics of England and Ireland. It is estimated at £20,000-30,000.