ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which the Irish Historic Pageant remembered Ireland's past. It presents the pageant in the context of the new pageantry that emerged in America at the turn of the twentieth century. The chapter also explores the ways in which the pageant was influenced by the Gaelic Revival, particularly as practised by the pageant's art director, the Belfast-born artist and actor, John P. Campbell. The pageant was therefore intended not only to educate and induce national pride for Ireland's heritage in its Irish-American audience, but also to show a wider American public Ireland's civilised past. The pageant united warring elements from the Irish-American community in New York. N. G. Bowe gives several examples of Irish pageants that involve the 'literati' and the 'castle-set' of the Celtic Revival. Furthermore, three annual events started in the eighteenth century – Independence Day, Evacuation Day and St. Patrick's Day.
