The Social and Historical Effects of Laughter in Revolutionary Ireland: The Case of Our Boys

This article examines the social and historical effects of laughter as stimulated by and depicted in Our Boys in the crucial years leading up to the Anglo-Irish War. Our Boys was a juvenile periodical edited by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, who aimed to teach Irish youth how to behave and articulate their interests within the terms of reference established by nationalist, Catholic discourse. Laughter was provoked and represented in Our Boys with this objective in mind and thus came to possess a formative and ideological dimension. The investigation focuses on how laughter in the periodical constructed both ideologies and subjectivities.