Ireland's OWN: History

 

The Gaelic Revival's Influence on the Making of the Nationalist Movement —by Máirtín Pilib de Longbhuel The Gaelic revival refers to the last quarter of the nineteenth century when a cultural revival occurred in Ireland. The changes that took place at the time were facilitated by several organizations, the most prominent of these were the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the Gaelic League (also Conradh na Gaeilge) and Sinn Fein. [See also: Croke Parke: Bloody Sunday 1921] The founding of the GAA in 1884 was the first landmark incident in the Gaelic revival as it constructed a "powerful rural network", according to Roy Foster. The association was set up with the intention of supporting and encouraging the native sports of football and hurling. Douglas Hyde and W.B. Yeats founded the National Literary Society in 1892 to which Hyde delivered a paper called "The Necessity for De-Anglicizing the Irish People". The National Literary Society was concerned for the most part with Anglo-Irish literature, whereas Hyde's principle concern was Gaelic literature, culture, etc., Hyde and Eoin MacNeill founded the Gaelic League in 1893. Throughout the nineteenth century the Irish language had been in decline. It was seen as backward, while English was seen as the language of progress and modernization. The League's objectives were specifically to revive the Irish language and introduce it into the national education curriculum at all levels. Hyde's conception of the League was that it would be non-sectarian and non-political. The functions of the League, Hyde explained, would be to preserve and extend the daily use of the Irish language, to create favourable conditions for the study and publications of existing Gaelic literature, and to create new works in Irish. The Gaelic League was a cultural organization, not a political organization. The League argued that language revival came before politics. Language revival, they believed, would inevitably bring political autonomy. D.P. Moran rejected this idea, claiming that all we can do "is remain Irish in spite of her [Britain], and work out our own destiny in the very many fields in which we are free to do so". This the Irish people did, through fields such as sport, language and culture until a time of fulfillment. It was then the League's assertion of political change following cultural change came to light. The League was still considered small in 1899. Only in the following years had it flourished. And it was not until then, a time when considerable language and cultural revival had occurred, that the revival took on a political dimension. With a rebirth in Gaelic culture came a rebirth in Irish nationalism. There had always been a republican element, albeit insignificant, within the GAA and Gaelic League. The realization of a cultural and language revival through these organizations provided for a political presentiment. The first decade of the twentieth century saw the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) penetrate the GAA and Gaelic League to positions of prominence within the respective organizations, and saw the creation of a republican political party. Arthur Griffith founded Sinn F�in in 1905. Griffith was in favour of all Irish MPs withdrawing from Westminster and founding an independent assembly in Dublin. The foundation of Sinn Fein provided a broad front that could incorporate several nationalist organizations and adherents of the Gaelic League and GAA. The revival happened when it did for a number of reasons: there was a Tory government in power in Britain and, according to F.S.L. Lyons, Parnell's death meant that "nationalist energies were seeking new outlets and new modes of expression". The development of the Gaelic League also owed a good deal to the activity of returned emigrants, more prepared to confront established pieties than those reared at home. Ultimately the cultural revival played a significant role in the emergence of Sinn Fein. The Nationalist movement of the early twentieth century was born out of the Gaelic revival of the late nineteenth century. Sources: Foster, R.F., Modern Ireland 1600-1972, Penguin Press, London (1988) Lyons, F. S. L., Ireland Since the Famine, MacMillan, London (1971) Page updated 30 Mar 2008 Ireland's OWN Logo by Eamann Website Design and Celtic Background by Míchealín Daugherty Copyright © 2008 Ireland's OWN All Rights Reserved.