The Major presiding at the Communion of Saints

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The Major presiding at the Communion of Saints
[Dublin] : [publisher not identified], [1811]
Peel 1821
Published: 
[Dublin] : [publisher not identified], [1811]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Title from item.
Etched illustration from Irish Catholic magazine and monthly asylum for neglected biography (Volume IV, June, 1811).
Library's copy closely trimmed within plate mark.
Not in George.

Summary: 

Print shows Major Sirr, seated on a cannon "as Chairman" presiding at the Communion of "the British army of Saints". Their mission is to confiscate the engines of sedition and popery, pikes and crucifixes. This is done with the help of a special machine which detects pikes buried by the seditious Irish "for future massacres". Sirr is perched on several oversized books, presumably bibles, and peacefully resting against a flogging triangle, the two crossed lashes above his head and on the standard parodying crucifixes. In the foreground, Gribbins is kneeling in rapturous prayer, while one figure is busy digging up a buried pike.

Classification: 
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