“Speed the Mahdi!” The Irish Press and Empire during the Sudan Conflict of 1883–1885

Abstract

T he writing of empire into the history of Ireland has produced a vibrant debate. For some years this debate focused primarily on the colonial status of the island. Always interesting and sometimes provocative, this particular discussion has perhaps run its course, and a consensus that Ireland’s relationship with Britain shared at least some features with those of the dominions and colonies has settled in across the disciplines of Irish studies. We have now entered the second wave of Irish imperial studies. Mainly concerned with Irish nationalists, these works reveal that different strands of nationalism engaged intellectually and politically with empire in a variety of complex ways. Scholars in this field have demonstrated that Irish engagements with empire were more extensive and vigorous than some have allowed and that they were frequently central to the elaboration of Irish nationalist understandings of Ireland’s place in the wider world. The result is a convincing and nuanced portrayal of anti-imperialism as a central thread of Irish nationalism from the 1840s through the 1880s. For example, Niamh Lynch demonstrates that a “coherent and ultimately revolutionary form