Perspectives on Irish Nationalism

169 Pages·1988·16.777 MB·English

by  Thomas E. Hachey, Lawrence J. McCaffrey

PERSPECTIVES ON
Irish Nationalism
This page intentionally left blank
PERSPECTIVES ON
Irish Nationalism
EDITED BY
THOMAS E. HACHEY &
J.
LAWRENCE McCAFFREY
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY
Publicationofthisvolumewasmadepossibleinpart
byagrantfromtheNationalEndowmentfortheHumanities.
Copyright©1989byTheUniversityPressofKentucky
TheUniversityPressofKentucky
ScholarlypublisherfortheCommonwealth,
servingBellarmineUniversity,BereaCollege,Centre
CollegeofKentucky,EasternKentuckyUniversity,
TheFilsonHistoricalSociety,GeorgetownCollege,
KentuckyHistoricalSociety,KentuckyStateUniversity,
MoreheadStateUniversity,MurrayStateUniversity,
NorthernKentuckyUniversity,TransylvaniaUniversity,
UniversityofKentucky,UniversityofLouisville,
andWesternKentuckyUniversity.
Allrightsreserved.
EditorialandSalesOffices:TheUniversityPressofKentucky
663SouthLimestoneStreet,Lexington,Kentucky40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
TheLibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData:
PerspectivesonIrishnationalism/editedbyThomasE. Hachey&
LawrenceJ. McCaffrey.
p. em.
Bibliography:p.
Includesindex.
Contents:ComponentsofIrishnationalism/LawrenceJ.McCaffrey- Nation,
nationalism,andtheIrishlanguage/R.\ZComerford- ThefolkloreofIrish
nationalism/MaryHelenThuente- Nationalism/ThomasFlanagan- Theland
questioninnationalistpolitics/JamesS.Donnelly,Jr.- TheIrishpoliticaltradition/
EmmetLarkin- IrishnationalismandtheBritishconnection/ThomasE.Hachey.
ISBN0-8131-1665-1(alk.paper). ISBN0-8131-0188-3(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Irishquestion. 2.Nationalism-Ireland. 3.Ireland-Politicsandgovernment
19thcentury. 4.Ireland-Politicsandgovernment-20thcentury. I.Hachey,Thomas
E. II.McCaffrey,LawrenceJohn,1925- III.Title:Irishnationalism.
DA950.P47 1988
941.508-dc19 88-20818
Thisbookisprintedonacid-freerecycledpapermeeting
therequirementsoftheAmericanNationalStandard
forPermanenceinPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials.
€ge
ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
~.y.~.~ MemberoftheAssociationof
~~ _ AmericanUniversityPresses
CONTENTS
Preface vii
LawrenceJ. McCaffrey
Components ofIrish Nationalism 1
R.V Comerford
Nation, Nationalism, and the Irish Language 20
Mary Helen Thuente
The Folklore ofIrish Nationalism 42
Thomas Flanagan
Nationalism: The Literary Tradition 61
James S. Donnelly, Jr:
The Land Question in Nationalist Politics 79
Emmet Larkin
The Irish Political Tradition 99
Thomas E. Hachey
Irish Nationalism and the British Connection 121
Notes 139
Contributors 153
Index 155
To our fellow members in the
American Conference for Irish Studies
PREFACE
IRISH NATIONALISM exhibits a composite of the Irish historical
experience. TherhetoricoftheIrishdemandforsovereigntyanditsliberal
democratic ethos represent the English impact on Ireland, conveyed
through Old English Catholicand Anglo-Irish Protestantpatriotisms, and
the values of British radicalism and Whiggery that Daniel O'Connell
injectedintotheIrishfreedommovement. ModernIrishnationalismfound
its structure and popular force in the agitation for Catholic emancipation
when a religious identity became a national self-consciousness. In post
Famine Ireland, the struggle to transfer the land ofIreland to its people
gave Irish nationalism thepassionandcohesivenessprovidedbytheCath
olicissueearlierinthecentury. EmigrationaddedAmericanegalitarianism
to Irish nationalism, strengthening its democratic and republican dimen
sions. Journalism and literary genius, influenced by European roman
ticism, and Gaelic scholarship contributed a cultural ideology to Irish
nationalism. Innocountryhaveliteratureandfolklore playedmoresignifi
cant roles in shaping, reflecting, and explaining the desire for national
independence in both political and cultural forms.
In October 1986, supported by a Loyola-Mellon grant, the Midwest
regional meeting ofthe American Conference for Irish Studies invited a
number ofdistinguished scholars to the campus of Loyola University of
Chicago to discuss various aspects of Irish nationalism. Perspectives on
Irish Nationalism is the result oftheir efforts.
Thomas E. Hachey
Lawrence J. McCaffrey
This page intentionally left blank
Lawrence J. McCaffrey
COMPONENTS OF
IRISH NATIONALISM
EXCELLENT LITERATURE and stirring patriotic ballads have ex
tended the appealofIrish nationalism beyondthosewithheritages rooted
inIreland. Inpayinghomagetothelongstruggleagainstcolonialism, Irish
nationalistliteratureandmusichaveneglectedtoshowthepositiveBritish
impact on Irish political values.
When the Norman English arrived in late twelfth-century Ireland,
they encountered a Gaelic nation united in language and tradition with a
clan social structure, a system ofBrehon laws, and a Catholicism that was
more monastic than diocesan and remotefrom Rome inbothdistance and
loyalty. But politically Ireland was in chaos. The ard-ri was high king in
nameonly. Feudsandjealousiesstartedandperpetuatedconflictbetween
kingdoms andclans. ItwasacivilwarthatbroughtRichardfitz Gilbertde
Clare, EarlofPembroke, knownas Strongbow, toIrelandtoassist Dermot
MacMurrough in the recovery ofhis lost Leinster throne.
The Normans initiated the anglicization of Irish political, social,
cultural, andeconomiclifeandadvancedtheromanizationofIrishCatholi
cism. From the fourteenth to the late sixteenth century, however, the
Englishholdon Irelandoutside Leinster(the Pale)was tenuous. Still, the
Norman political administration and Parliament that claimed authority
over the complete island represented at least a facade of political na
tionhood.
Descendantsofthe original Englishcolonizers rejected Protestantism
as a religious-cultural dimension of sixteenth-century Tudor conquest.
Twice in the next century theyjoined with Gaels to reverse the property
and power results of Elizabethan and Cromwellian victories and Tudor,
Stuart, andCrolllwellianplantations. IIowever, the goalsoftheallieswere