“The Island without Peace” Reporting the Irish War of Independence in Corriere della Sera and La Domenica del Corriere

Abstract

The article investigates the coverage of the War of Independence in the visual and textual materials of Corriere della Sera and La Domenica del Corriere to show why these publications kept a mildly pro-British stance on the conflict while voicing their concerns. These leading publications gave extensive coverage to the Irish struggle for national self-determination, in which members of the Sinn Féin party were depicted as a dangerous minority and Ireland was called “troubled” or “the island without peace”. My contention is that such representations were infl uenced by the editorial staff ’s fears about the contemporary Italian socio-political situation, nationally and internationally. Therefore, the articles and illustrations on the confl ict should be read not only within the framework of the periodicals’ usual concern for international politics, but also by considering the anxieties haunting the Italian intellectual elite at the time.