The SSNCI Essay Prize 2021 has been awarded to Dr Kathryn Milligan for her article ‘Social Smoking and French Fancies: The Dublin Art(s) Club, 1886-98’ which was published in the Journal of Victorian Culture in 2020.
The article explores the role of the Dublin Art(s) Club and the ways members of the club demonstrated ‘the participation of arts in Ireland with a broader British and European artistic world’, thus exhibiting a thoroughly cosmopolitan outlook. This history complicates existing narratives that have focused on Irish art that built on themes of national identity and cultural revival. The committee was impressed by the article’s persuasive argument, as well as the way Katy weaves together a variety of sources to recover a hitherto overlooked aspect of cultural and social life.
The SSNCI Committee also wish to acknowledge for special commendation two other submissions:
Dr Edward Molloy for his article ‘Democracy, Disestablishment, and Repeal: John Cornelius O’Callaghan and Irish Nationalist Periodical Culture from the Comet (1831) to the Nation (1842)’, published in Victorian Periodicals Review in 2020.
Catherine Healy for her essay ‘Ethnic Jokes: Making Fun of the Working Irish Woman’.