page_title: The Nation (Irish newspaper)
section_title: The Prospectus of The Nation
hierarchical_section_title: The Nation (Irish newspaper) / The Prospectus of The Nation
caption_attribution_description: Contemporary portrait of Charles Gavan Duffy (1816 - 1903), Irish nationalist activist and later premier of Victoria, Australia.
context_page_description: The Nation was an Irish nationalist weekly newspaper, published in the 19th century. The Nation was printed first at 12 Trinity Street, Dublin from 15 October 1842 until 6 January 1844. The paper was afterwards published at 4 D'Olier Street from 13 July 1844, to 28 July 1848, when the issue for the following day was seized and the paper suppressed. It was published again in Middle Abbey Street on its revival in September 1849.
context_section_description: In the Prospectus, which was written by Davis with the exception of one sentence, it was stated,
  The projectors of the NATION have been told that there is no room in Ireland for another Liberal Journal; but they think differently. They believe that since the success of the long and gallant struggle which our fathers maintained against sectarian ascendancy, a NEW MIND has grown up amongst us, which longs to redress other wrongs and achieve other victories; and that this mind has found no adequate expression in the press.
  The Liberal Journals of Ireland were perhaps never more ably conducted than at this moment; but their tone and spirit are not of the present but the past;—their energies are shackled by old habits, old prejudices, and old divisions; and they do not and cannot keep in the van of the advancing people.
  The necessities of the country seem to demand a Journal able to aid and organise the new movements going on amongst us—to make their growth deeper, and their fruit 'more racy of the soil'— and, above all, to direct the popular mind and the sympathies of educated men of all parties to the great end of nationality. Such a Journal should be free from the quarrels, the interests, the wrongs, and even the gratitude of the past. It should be free to apply its strength where it deems best— free to praise—free to censure; unshackled by sect or party; able, Irish, and independent.
  Holding these views, the projectors of the Nation cannot think that a Journal, prepared to undertake this work, will be deemed superfluous; and as they labour, not for themselves but for their country, they are prepared, if they do not find a way open, to try if they cannot make one.
  Nationality is their first object—a nationality which will not only raise our people from their poverty, by securing to them the blessings of a domestic legislature, but inflame and purify them with a lofty and heroic love of country—a nationality of the spirit as well as the letter—a nationality which may come to be stamped upon our manners, our literature, and our deeds—a nationality which may embrace Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter, Milesian and Cromwellian, the Irishman of a hundred generations, and the stranger who is within our gates; not a nationality which would preclude civil war, but which would establish internal union and external independence—a nationality which would be recognised by the world, and sanctified by wisdom, virtue, and time.
  As could be seen from the prospectus, as political objectives went, the programme was certain to be of immense assistance to Daniel O'Connell in his efforts to revive the agitation for Repeal, but O'Connell also knew and felt that he was receiving, for the present, a powerful support from them; but he knew also, that they were outside of his influence, and did not implicitly believe that Repeal would be yielded to "agitation"; that they were continually seeking, by their writings, to arouse a military spirit among the people; showing plainly, that while they helped the Repeal Association, they fully expected that the liberties of the country must be fought for in the end: it was in appearance only that they worked in harmony.
  John Mitchel joined the staff of The Nation in the autumn of 1845. On Mitchel's frequent trips from Banbridge, Co Down to Dublin, he had come in contact with the Repeal members who gathered about The Nation office and in the spring of 1843 he became a member of the Repeal Association. For the next two years Mitchel wrote political and historical articles and reviews for The Nation. He covered a wide range of subjects, including the Irish Potato Famine, on which he contributed some influential articles which attracted significant attention.
  Mitchel resigned his position as leader writer on The Nation, he himself wrote years afterwards, because he came to regard as "absolutely necessary a more vigorous policy against the English Government than that which William Smith O'Brien, Charles Gavan Duffy and other Young Ireland leaders were willing to pursue". In 1847, when he severed his connection
caption: Charles Gavan Duffy
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