John Bull’s Other Island, George Bernard Shaw (1904)

Journalist Megan Kenyon explores imperial relations between Britain and Ireland, through George Bernard Shaw’s 1904 play, John Bull’s Other Island. Ireland was England’s first colony, and the first colonial state to become independent from imperial rule. Yet, with its cutting depiction of Anglo-Irish relations, John Bull’s Other Island famously made the observing English King Edward VII break off the arm of his chair with laughter. George Bernard Shaw depicts Ireland on the precipice of its emergence from conventional British imperial rule, and glimpses at the new forms of commercial imperialism to come. PRESENTER: Megan Kenyon, journalist. ART: John Bull’s Other Island, George Bernard Shaw (1904). IMAGE: ‘George Bernard Shaw’. SOUNDS: Audio Library. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines