An Amalgamation of Incompatibles': Sydney Owenson, Gaelic Ireland and the National Tale

This dissertation argues for a new interpretation of Sydney Owenson's national identity and her national tale novels. Almost invariably classified as an Anglo-Irish writer with liberal unionist views, Owenson's most famous novel, The Wild Irish Girl (1806), has become the faulty prototype for most scholarly definitions of the national tale genre. Giving due attention to her later works, including Florence Macarthy (1818), Manor Sackville (1833) and The Princess (1835), I explore how Owenson's identity is far more complex when taking into account her Gaelic-speaking Catholic father, her nearly native, Gaelic approach to Irish history and her move away from using any kind of allegorical marriage plot, unionist or otherwise, in her later writings. I argue that her father's connections to the world of the Irish theatre and to the Volunteer movement had a major impact on her novels. I also argue that Owenson's writings have important implications for the unresolved issues relating to the contemporary political relationships between Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain.