Punch,  41 (1861), 245.

The Irish Yahoos

Anon

Genre:

Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Politics, War, Animal Behaviour, Human Species, Human Development, Mental Illness


    Discusses a meeting of the Irish 'Yahoos' at the 'Pope's Head' for celebrating England's likely involvement in the American Civil War. The savage nature of participants is represented by their collective description as 'Yahoos' (a reference to the savage humans in Swift 1726), by the abusive and inarticulate abuse that the chairman, O'Donoghyahoo, hurls at 'the Saxon', the 'frantic howling', 'convulsive laughter', and other animal noises made by the group, and by the fact that some of the Yahoos bear the names of simians, notably Mr O'Rangoutang and Mr G. O'Rilla. Describes how some of the Yahoos 'gloated on the calamities which they anticipated for England' and notes how, at the end of the meeting, the Yahoos shouted 'hurroos for the Pope and Captain Wilks' and abuse at Henry J Temple (3rd Viscount Palmerston) and John Bull, and left the meeting engaging in more animal behaviour. In conclusion, notes that the Yahoo is a 'creature between the mongrel and the baboon'.



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