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Colonization and Home Rule
Colonization is one of the key themes of James Joyce’s “An Encounter.” There are many moments in the text, some literal and some figurative, that highlight the tense relationship between the Irish people and the nation of Great Britain. Some notable examples include Father Butler’s rejection of the British-funded National Schools, the poor children insulting the narrator and Mahony by calling them Protestants, and the mock “cowboys and Indians” battles that serve to represent colonized people eventually overcoming their oppressors. The anti-colonization rhetoric is not simply contained within “An Encounter.” In fact, many short stories in Dubliners contain similar messaging such as “The Sisters,” “The Dead,” and “Two Gallants.”
The history of English imperialism in Ireland is long and complex, and many of the issues that continue to affect Irish politics and culture to this day began in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. For example, King Henry VIII planted the seeds of religious conflict in Ireland. After rejecting Catholicism and establishing the Anglican Church, Henry VIII dissolved many of Ireland’s renowned monasteries. This act upset many Irish, the majority of whom were Catholic. The resulting religious division deepened under Elizabeth I, a staunch Protestant who considered Catholicism a threat to her rule. Concerned that Catholic rivals in Europe might use Ireland as a base from which to invade England, Elizabeth launched increasingly violent campaigns to pacify the Irish and secure their territory. However, her forces met with ever-greater resistance and resulted in the bloody Desmond Rebellions (1569–1573) and the Nine Years’ War in Ireland (1593–1603).
These conflicts inspired centuries of Irish resistance and set the stage for Irish nationalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Irish political scene in the early twentieth century was uncertain and tumultuous but it was also hopeful as Ireland sought independence from Great Britain. It is no surprise, then, that Nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell, who first became active in the 1870s, rose to popularity at this time. He reinvigorated Irish politics with his proposed Home Rule Bill. If successful, the Home Rule Bill would have granted Ireland a greater voice in the British government. Parnell, dubbed the “Uncrowned King of Ireland,” was hugely popular in Ireland, both for his anti-English views and his support of land ownership for farmers. Unfortunately, a publicized affair with a married woman destroyed Parnell’s political career and dashed any hopes of a break from Britain. Within this historical context, “An Encounter”’s emphasis on oppressed people prevailing over foreign oppressors, as in the recurring victories by Indigenous peoples in the boys’ games of make-believe, begins to make sense; it’s possible Joyce felt the plight of the Irish was comparable to that of America’s Indigenous population.
