Pigs, Green Whiskers, and Drunken Widows: Irish Nationalists and the “Practical Censorship” ofMcFadden's Row of Flatsin 1902 and 1903

Abstract

Radical Irish nationalists attacked a musical farce, McFadden's Row of Flats, in 1902 and 1903, because of the green whiskers on the Irishman, the pigs in the Irish household, and the drunken, lascivious Irishwoman on stage. This play had been produced in Philadelphia, an Irish nationalist stronghold, for five years before Irish nationalists decided to stop the performances with direct confrontations in the theater. The timing of this decision and the style of the protest were based on competition among Irish nationalists, particularly the resurgence of Irish ethnocentrism and physical-force nationalism.