Intro Lecture: History

Question 1

Time period of focus?

Answer 1

• late 19th century, when all of Ireland is still under UK rule but Europe is shifting
• Eurocentrism is a main focus

Question 2

“Nations and Nationalism”

Answer 2

• 1983, by Ernest Gellner
• claims that nationality is invented, and is a political principal
• development of high and low culture, creates an overarching narrative of what the nation is (state and nation in a cycle)

Question 3

“Imagined Communities”

Answer 3

• Benedict Anderson
• imagination is the first step in nationalism
• key terms: “limited, sovereign, imagined, community”
• cultural phenomenon derived by dead white guys

Question 4

What is a nation?

Answer 4

• it is an imagined political community
• limited in scope, political in nature
• other components: geographical territory, culture, mother tongues, regional/national literatures, connection to a national past (facts and fiction mix)

Question 5

19th Century Europe setting

Answer 5

• period of change, starting with French Revolution
• other colonial countries were inspired to seek independence
• political, cultural, and ethno- nationalism
• political: identity expression in politics
• cultural: through sphere of culture
• ethno: nation tends to have a particular ethnicity

Question 6

Ethno-fascism

Answer 6

• nation collapsing into one idea of the correct ethnicity, connected to racism
• under the GUISE of nationalism

Question 7

Spiritualism and Culture

Answer 7

• Ireland in the 19th century: spiritual life of a people subsists in its culture
• language helps to understand national identity, supplies a “living link” between race and spirituality, and past/present

Question 8

Eamon de Valera

Answer 8

• had a narrow vision of Ireland
• frugal comfort, cozy homesteads… an ideal, not a reality
• socially conservative (fitting in with fascist Europe)

Question 9

Anglo-Irish vs. Hiberno-English

Answer 9

• Anglo-Irish = social class, Hiberno-English = language
• using/speaking English in a distinctive way (different vocabulary, construction, idioms, etc)
• reflects history of Ireland and England
• “Hibernia”: name given to Ireland by Romans
• “Anglo”: social class with English background

Question 10

1893-1922: some key events

Answer 10

• Gaelic Revival, Celtic Twilight, Revival Period
• French Rebellion and Irish Rebellion (late 18th century) attempt (prior to this time period)
• Famine (1845-1851)
• GAA founding (1884), Society for Preservation of Irish Language (1876)
• Easter Rising (1916), founding of Irish Free State and Northern Ireland (1922)

Question 11

National school system

Answer 11

• 1831 founded
• applied to children between the ages of 4-13
• meant to both get children into school AND discourage the learning/speaking of Irish
• English was language of instruction
• children were chastised and punished for speaking Irish

Question 12

Moving away from the Irish language

Answer 12

• education system
• famine (impacted the poor regions heavily)
• Catholic Church, which viewed Irish as delegitimate
• emigration: parents encouraged their children to speak English as they left for other countries

Question 13

Douglas Hyde

Answer 13

• “Necessity for De-Anglicizing Ireland”
• Gaelic League
• wanted to keep culture and political nationalism separate
• ideas of race and culture, wanted to cultivate modern Irish literature
• going back to original artistic history, like the Book of Kells

Question 14

Gaelic League

Answer 14

• supported the Irish language, literature, art, GAA, etc.
• evolved into a tool for independence
• attracted Anglo-Irish class (more educated/with money)
• key players: Yeats, Lady Gregory, John Synge, George Moore, George Russell

Question 15

After famine…

Answer 15

• … there was a rise in political nationalism
• Parnell was the uncrowned king of Ireland
• when he died, falling in 1890, shift into cultural nationalism

Question 16

Cultural Nationalism

Answer 16

• cultural and political binaries: Ireland/England, oral/written, rural/urban, tradition/modernity, femininity/masculinity, Irish/English, etc.
• 20th century (recuperating and salvaging death of the culture), and 21st century (modernity and politics of translation/identity/dwelling)

Question 17

Revivals

Answer 17

• complex of different movements intersecting
• imagination
• what it means to be Irish was being reinvented, in an oppositional way (we DON’T do these things)

Question 18

DP Moran

Answer 18

• journalist, ideologue, “Irish Ireland” movement
• Ireland is just for the Irish (racial superiority, Catholics, Gaelic speakers, the rural peoples_
• viewed the west of Ireland as the archetype/ideal