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The Gaelic League and the spatial logics of Irish nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2019

Aidan Beatty
Aidan Beatty*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
*
*Honors College, University of Pittsburgh, aib28@pitt.edu
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Abstract

The Gaelic League was founded in 1893 with the aim of reviving the Irish language, as well as promoting home-grown industries and social reform. By the turn of the century, it had become one of the most important cultural organisations in Ireland. This article studies a central element of the league's ideology and praxis, albeit one that has thus far received little attention: its promotion of a specifically nationalist understanding of Irish space. ‘Space’ was a key trope for the Gaelic League and was linked to a number of other dominant nationalist concerns: state sovereignty, race, gender and modernity. Moreover, this article argues that a focus on ‘space’ allows for a better comparative understanding of Irish nationalism, since similar spatial logics were at play in other late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century national movements both in Europe and in the (post)colonial world.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 163 , May 2019 , pp. 55 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2019 

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References

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22 ‘not polluted by the impact of English and Anglicisation’. Ríona Nic Congáil, Úna Ní Fhaircheallaigh agus an fhís útóipeach Ghaelach (Dublin, 2010), pp 74–5.

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58 McMahon, Grand opportunity, p. 132.

59 O'Conor-Eccles, Charlotte, Simple advice: to be followed by all who desire the good of Ireland, and especially by Gaelic Leaguers (2nd ed., Dublin, 1905)Google Scholar (copy in J.H.L., Stephen Barrett papers, G3/1189). Charlotte O'Conor-Eccles was also involved in Horace Plunkett's co-operative movement and in the teaching of home economics (McMahon, Grand opportunity, p. 153). Interestingly, the one piece of advice noticeable by its absence in this pamphlet is that Irish people should learn and speak Irish!

60 Timothy Mitchell's definition of colonialism (‘Colonising refers not simply to the establishing of a European presence but also to the spread of a political order that inscribes in the social world a new conception of space, new forms of personhood, and a new means of manufacturing the experience of the real.’) would certainly be an accurate description here. See Colonising Egypt (London, 1988), p. ix.

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75 Piterberg, The returns of Zionism, pp 128–9. This focus on absolute space is one of the elements that gave Zionism a distinct advantage over bi-nationalism and Diaspora Jewish nationalisms, which remained rooted in notions of relative space and thus were rooted in notions of Jewish difference, rather than the normalisation and rehabilitation which mainstream Zionism promised.

76 This is discussed further in Beatty, Masculinity and power, p. 96.

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83 Ibid., p. 93.

84 Coimisiún na Gaeltachta: report (Dublin, 1925), pp 42, 53.

85 Ibid., p. 67.

86 Johnson, Nuala C., ‘Building a nation: an examination of the Irish Gaeltacht Commission report of 1926’ in Journal of Historical Geography, xix, no. 2 (Apr. 1993) pp 158Google Scholar, 163, 166.

87 Note from Craobh na gCúig Cúigi (N.A.I., TSCH/S 7439). This note was in Irish, with a translation by a government official. See also, in the same file, the resolutions passed at a public meeting in Ballybofey on 6 January 1927 which stated ‘is i an Ghaedhealtacht an oighridheacht is fearr agus is luchmhaire ata ag muinntir na h-Eireann agus i t-ainm Thirchonnaill, taimid ag iarraidh indiu go gcaithfear gach uile rud a dheanamh, agus a dheanamh i n-aithghiorracht, leis an oighridheacht sin a shabhail [sic]’ (‘the Gaeltacht is the best and most heroic heritage of Ireland and in the name of Donegal, we are seeking today that every thing will be done, and done with haste, to save that heritage’).

88 McMahon, Grand opportunity, p. 12.

89 Beatty, Masculinity and power, chapter 4.

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