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The Celtspart 7Celtic Identity Gearoid O Tuathaigh
The once popular concept of an archetypal Celtic temperament - in effect an ethnic stereotype - has now been widely discredited; but while it is questionable if any group in Ireland can claim to be 'pure Celtic', it seems likely that there are some essentially Celtic traits evident in all sections of the Irish populace. To many readers of this chapter it may seem a relatively straightforward matter identifying and assessing the specifically Celtic element in the history of modern Ireland, that is, in the Irish experience over the past four centuries. After all, when due account is taken of the abundant evidence of pre-Celtic settlement in Ireland, of the rich contributions of Vikings, Normans and English throughout the medieval centuries, indeed of the general patterns of cultural exchange which have been a feature of the Irish experience throughout history, historians have little difficulty or hesitation in talking about the institutions and ideas which characterised Gaelic/ Celtic society in Ireland up to the sixteenth century. The ideas and institutions of Gaelic society, its social and political structures, its Weltanschauung, are all discussed overwhelmingly in terms of the Celtic continuum in Ireland. Why, then, should there be any difficulty in pursuing and continuing to explore this distinctive Celtic element into the modern period? Can we not agree on a set of criteria for tracing the Gaelic or Celtic strain in the fabric of Irish society in the centuries since the sixteenth century? Can we not satisfy ourselves with a concise and coherent narrative of what happened to the rich and recognisable Gaelic society of the late medieval period in the centuries after, say, 1534? For example, should we not settle on the elemental fact of language as the key to the continuity of the Celtic consciousness, and simply follow the history and the fortunes (or, more frequently, the misfortunes) of Irish-speaking Ireland in the past four centuries? There would be nothing eccentric about going about our task in this way. For many theorists of Irish nationality the Irish language is the indisputable and unbroken link with the entire Celtic past in Ireland in the modern period; it is, in short, the essence of the Celtic presence in Ireland, as in earlier centuries. This, no doubt, was the point of view which prompted Douglas Hyde (scholar son-of-the-rectory and first President of Ireland) to hail the language revivalists of the Gaelic League as the only group in Ireland whose work sought 'to render the present a rational continuation of the past'. There is, I would contend, a perfectly logical and intellectually respectable case for considering the Celtic consciousness or mentalite in recent Irish history as being essentially language-bound. Certainly a language-bound understanding of the Celtic continuum is less open to objection than many other criteria which have been used in defining and describing the 'Irish Celt', his culture, his temperament and his genius. The concept of race, in particular, is singularly inappropriate to a discussion of continuities in Celtic culture in recent centuries. Given the waves of migrations and invasions in the Irish past, and the incidence of intermarriage over the centuries, it would be pointless as well as perverse to search for purity of blood or pedigree in pursuit of the Celtic strain in the story of modern Ireland.
Click here for part 8, or here for part 6.
From the Appletree Press title: The People of Ireland (currently out of print). |
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