illustration / On the Dissecting Table Again - Perhaps, 1886

Political Cartoon, supplement to 'Weekly Freeman', 31 July 1886. Titled 'On the Dissecting Table Again - Perhaps'. Gavin Duffy, in his farewell address when leaving Ireland, 1855, having described in moving language the disastrous events of six preceding years said 'A change might come, and that it might he fondly prayed, but unless, and until the existing conditions altered there was no more hope for Ireland than for a corpse upon the dissecting-table." The above gives an idea of what might take place if the Ireland of '86 were like the Ireland of '55. But "a change has come," and our cartoon is but a picture of what might have been. The reality is very different.' Depicts a female figure representing the Tory Government on a dissecting table, to be carved by four male figures - Whig Jobbery', Radicla Fraud', 'Tory Policy', 'Orange...'.;