THE LIBRARY OF Congress has digitised an enormous number of artefacts which are a resource for any amateur historian.
Among its huge print and photography collection is a series of British cartoons.
Ireland is referred to in more than 100 of the prints and, often, not in a pleasing or favourable manner. Many are downright insulting.
However, we couldn’t help but giggle at this one, depicting one Irish ‘peg’.
Printed on 29 May 1773, the cartoon depicts a macaroni (a handsomely dressed fellow) walking past a burly and irate old Irish vegetable seller.
She is angry because he upset her mug of beer on the pavement. On this, she seized him by the monstrous tail attached to his toupée, and threatens to cut it off.
“Make good the damage you dog, or I’ll cut away your parnsip,” she says.
PARSNIP.
Gas altogether Peg.
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