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