Nationalism in Irish History:

History in Irish Nationalism

Exosocialization

• Gellner and the economic and demographic changes that make culture primary

• Gellner uses the term “visible”-what makes culture “visible” is the need to socialize subjects who are no longer living in intimate social units (villages and towns)

• Nationalism and the city

• A problem that we encounter often in this discipline is fairly obvious: nationalism is both a historical phenomenon and a mechanism of mediation for other historical phenomenon

• So, we can quite easily outline the history of modern Irish nationalism, and even discuss how certain figures treat nationalism, but…

• We also have to consider how a belief in the political rightness of the nation is itself modifying the way history gets told

• For example: much agrarian violence is seen by contemporary historians as nationalist or proto-nationalist, when it was neither: it was strictly economical

• Ribbonmen (early 1800s), Oakboys (mid 1800s), Whiteboys (1760s), peep o’ day boys (1780s)

• Agrarian secret societies founded on the premise of protecting farmers from landlords

• Not really interested in constitutional independence from England

The Act of Union, 1800

• Piece of legislation that abolished the Irish Parliament and made Ireland “a sister country” of England

• Irish landlords, growing increasingly worried about agrarian unrest, trade some of their rights and economic interests for enhanced security from an invincible defender: England and the Crown

• Document, which secures the primacy of the Protestant Church of Ireland and the political privilege of Unionists, is a direct response to two historical phenomena:

• 1) The French Revolution

• 2) Insurgent Irish nationalism (especially Ribbonism)

• As Oliver MacDonagh notes, as long as the Act was maintained “it was more or less threatened by the forces which had provoked its inception” (Union and Aftermath, 14).

• The Act of Union and the forces that necessitate it are the starting points of modern Irish history

Constitutional Independence and the Nation

• Young Ireland, Thomas Davis, and the urban strands of Irish nationalism

• O’Connell and the rural strands• Davitt, the Land War (1879-82), and the

Three “F”s– Fixed tenure– Fair rent– Free sale

Parnell

• Irish Parliamentarian and landlord, Parnell, sought to have the Act of Union repealed

• Was able to successfully join the two distinct, and even contradictory, impulses of Irish rural and urban nationalism

• On the verge of this political success, Parnell was accused of committing adultery with Kitty O’Shea

• Divorce was legal for Protestants in Ireland, but no nationalist leader would seriously contemplate marrying a divorced woman

• By custom, then, O’Shea had split from her husband and had maintained a separate life

• Lived with Parnell in London (but kept separate residences in Dublin)

• They had three children together, and their “marriage” was well known

• Still, this did not prevent the accusation of adultery from destroying his political career

• The Catholic church was especially vicious with Parnell

• Many Parnellite’s (like Joyce) responded by suggesting the Church focus on issues of spirituality rather than politics, but this did not help

Cultural Nationalism

• “The Fall of Parnell” (note the biblical and epic overtones) left a void in Irish politics

• This void was addressed by cultural figures rather than political ones for the next two decades

• 1892- The Gaelic League

• 1880s-90s Irish Education Act

JOYCE