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Abstract
‘Life
in the Argentine is not all shooting, polo and sport’:
Masculine Imperial Mementos in John Macnie’s Work and
Play in the Argentine (1925)
Murray, Edmundo (University of
Zurich, Switzerland)
According to Dublin-born John Macnie, ‘for the sportsman in
the true sense … [Argentina] is the best life in the world.
It has, of course, its drawbacks, and a man may be leagues
away from a neighbour and hundreds of leagues from another
Englishman.’ He claimed that for a young British or Irish
man, a working stage in the pampas was the ideal arena to
learn the manly duties of hard working and sociable
entertainment. Macnie’s attitudes were shaped by the social
school of British imperial values, including the imposition
of rules inspired by religious faith, self-perception of
superiority towards other ethnic groups, a patronising
relation towards others, camaraderie among men, and a spirit
of adventure and athletic performance influenced by
‘muscular Christianity’. Born in 1872 into a family with
Church of Ireland background, John Macnie studied in Dublin,
Hanover and at Trinity College Dublin. He joined the 2/1st
squadron of the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, and the in the Royal
Fleet Auxiliary, and in 1899 arrived in Argentina. Macnie’s
memoirs of the Argentine period are depicted in the blend of
‘work and play’, with a particular emphasis in rural
management and landowning, and horse-racing and polo
playing. It is the world view of an Anglo-Irish ethic,
anxious to assert an individualistic and masculine posture.
The paper analyses key passages of the book in comparison to
the Irish nationalistic stance in Argentina in the same
period.
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