De Valera's Irelands (36 page)
Read De Valera's Irelands Online
Authors: Dermot Keogh,Keogh Doherty,Dermot Keogh
Tags: #General, #Europe, #Ireland, #Political Science, #History, #Political, #Biography & Autobiography, #Revolutionaries, #Statesmen
Yet, it is remarkable how little fundamental re-thinking of the basic assumptions of the language revival project â the corner-stone of the proÂject of cultural decolonisation â took place within the revival moveÂment in the early decades of the state. The basic ideology of the Gaelic League continued to be articulated in much the same terms as those of the foundÂers. The two most prominent figures addressing these philoÂsophical quesÂtions in the twenty years after the foundation of the Irish Free State were Daniel Corkery, whose
Philosophy of the Gaelic League
was published in 1943, and Fr Donnchadh à Floinn of Maynooth College. Both were able men of impressive intellectual calibre; but neither added anything original or made any significant revision of the ideas and assÂumptions of Hyde, MacNéill and the founders of the Gaelic League.
47
Indeed, as late as 1964, a group of eminent scholars and leaders of the language reÂvival movement, in the report of a special government commission estabÂlished to review the âprogress' of the Irish revival project to date, stated the raison d'être of the revival in terms almost identical to the terms used by Hyde and MacNéill.
48
But by the early 1960s, the landscape of Irish politics and indeed of every facet of Irish life was radically changing. The 1950s had all but buried the last remnants of the revolutionary rhetoric and optimism. Social and economic failure on a grand scale, leading to an emigration haemorrhage of almost 420,000 people in one decade, made the belief of the revolutionary generation in the creative possibilities of political soveÂreignty seem cruelly misplaced. The continuing viability of the society, no less than the state, was being questioned, in the face of such massive emigration and the resultant social and economic anaemia. The old poliÂtical guard moved on and with them much of the old rhetoric. EconÂomic protectionism, the nationalist route to self-sufficiency, was abandÂoned, and free trade for a competitive small open economy was annÂounced as the road to salvation. That road was to lead, all going well, to memberÂship of the European âCommon Market' (as the EU was then known). The language of cultural protectionism became an embarrassÂment; the future prospects for the Irish language would lie in a bilingual pluralist Ireland, where the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of Europe would provide just the setting and the stimulus needed to enable the Irish to become confident of their identity in the larger European family, when they had found difficulty in the more claustrophobic Anglo-American grid. Optimists saw this final renunciation of the deeply âprotectionist' nationalism of de Valera as a welcome opening of the shutters and a breath of fresh air. Others were not so sure; there were some voices who analysed the failures of the Free State in standard neo-colonialist terms.
49
Few, if any, of those in Ireland who participated in the debate in the early 1960s, facilitated by the arrival of television in Ireland, could have anticipated the seismic nature of the changes that would in the decades that followed utterly transform the terms of that debate. The pace of European economic integration and the issues which the creation of a single market raised for cultural diversity in Europe; more fundÂamenÂtally, the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe and the triumph of liberal capitalism; coinciding with the globalÂisation of trade and technology and the emergence of the phenomenon of global media consortia of the Murdoch type; all have changed the parameters of the discussion of culture, identity and democracy itself across the world. The explosion of long-festering conflict in Northern Ireland brought back to the centre of political debate in Ireland and in Britain issues of ethniÂcity, dignity, identity and rights, individual and communal, which had seemed exhausted or âresolved' in the Irish state. Elsewhere in Europe these same issues were also re-emerging; with their own dynamic in the Iberian peninsula in the post-Franco era, and furÂther east, in parts of eastÂern and south-eastern Europe, with a shudderÂing insistence and brutaÂlity. Indeed, far beyond the European world â in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and elsewhere â these same fundamental issues were mocking Fukyama's complacent announcement of the end of serious ideological conflict. The Irish condition and debate at the end of the twentieth cenÂtury remained, as it had been a century before, during the last spasm of European imperialist expansion, a recognisably representative detail of a larger canvas.
For those concerned with the complex and multiple realities of idenÂtity-formation and culture in the many post-colonial states estabÂlished during the past half-century, and indeed for those concerned with the historical experience of colonialism and neo-colonialism at any place or time, there may be some lessons in the Irish experience. In particular, it may be useful to draw attention to one central fact of the Irish experÂience which may have wider relevance. When the cultural deposit of the coloÂnial experience has been protracted, pervasive and deeply peneÂtrative, as was the case with the long period of English cultural hegeÂmony in IreÂland; and when, whatever the pain, the trauma or the hurt involved, key modalities of that culture have become widely appropÂriated by the peoÂple at large (as was the case with the English language in Ireland), the task of identity-formation in a post-colonial situation must then take account of the total historical experience of âthe people' who are to be liberated and empowered.
For the Irish people of Hyde's day, âthe past' to which they were heirs was not only the Gaelic past, with all its rich matrix of meaning, but also the more recent past in which English had taken up residence in the Irish mind. There were many ways of responding creatively to this hisÂtorical legacy â as the very different strategies of Yeats and of Joyce were to demonstrate. But what was not a viable strategy was an ahistorical or counter-historical impulse for erasing or expunging the settled deposit of a long historical experience. In the circumstances of twentieth century Ireland, the project for the ârestoration' of the Irish language was never likely to succeed in terms of the simple âreplacement' of English by Irish; not only because of the enormous power of English as a dominant world language (a function of British and later American world power, not least in global communications, in information and entertainment), nor because the Irish diaspora was itself a crucial element in the dispersal and world dominance of English. It was, rather, that English had already become so embedded in the social and cultural fabric of the majority of the people that any sustained attempt at replacement would itself have involved rupture and a new form of cultural coercion. The only terms in which ârestoration' could hope to gather support and popular endorseÂment in an open democratic society was by its being offered as an invitaÂtion to a privileged register of Irishness, likely to enrich the full experiÂence of living a creative and confident life at ease in time and place with one's cultural habitat. The prospect of a viable bilingual society in twenÂtieth century Ireland required, as a prerequisite to enlightened and effecÂtive state language policy, an acceptance of the long cohabitation of the Irish mind by the two languages, and the determination, intellectual rigÂour, courage and constancy of purpose to ensure that while both were fully acknowledged as having the right of permanent settlement, the duty of an independent Irish state was to ensure that in their cohabÂitation the weaker, unique to its Irish habitat, was not smothered by the stronger, thriving in many climes across the globe.
A well-disposed critic, Breandán S. Mac Aodha, writing in 1972 had this to say of the Gaelic League: â⦠the greatest indictment one may make against the League ⦠is that it did not succeed in effectively moulding the state which it more than any other body had helped to bring into being'.
50
In the context of this verdict, when we come to conÂsider the exÂperiment in decolonisation proposed by the Irish-Ireland movement and by some of its idealists who came to positions of political power within the independent Irish state, and before we rush to fix the political leaders of de Valera's Ireland with our condescension or our condemnation, we may be well-advised to ask a few questions as to how the intellectuals (including academics) in Ireland discharged their resÂponsibilities during these decades.
1
Barry, Kevin, et al (eds),
The Irish Review
, no. 12, 1992; Deane, Seamus (ed.),
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, 3 vols, Faber/Field Day, London/Derry, 1991; Eagleton, Terry,
Heathcliffe and the Great Hunger, Studies in Irish Culture
, Verso, London, 1995; FosÂter, John Wilson,
Colonial Consequences
, Lilliput, Dublin, 1991; Gibbons, Luke,
TransÂformations in Irish Culture
, Cork University Press, Cork, 1991; Howe, Stephen,
Ireland and Empire: Colonial Legacies in Irish History and Culture
, Oxford University Press, OxÂford, 2000; Longley, Edna,
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, Blackstaff, Belfast, 1986; Lloyd, David,
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, Lilliput, Dublin, 1993; Lloyd, David,
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, Cork University Press, Cork, 1999; Kiberd, Declan,
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, Jonathan Cape, London, 1995; Brady, Ciarán (ed.),
Interpreting Irish History: The Debate on Historical Revisionism
, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1994.
2
In this essay, discussion of the Irish experience is situated in the wider context of the deÂbate on colonialism and post-colonialism addressed in the following works amongst others: Anderson, Benedict,
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism
, Verso, London, 1983; Ashcroft, Bill, et al (eds),
The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures
, Methuen, London, 1989; Bhabha, Homi K. (ed.),
Nation and Narration
, Routledge, London, 1990; Fishman, Joshua,
Language and Nationalism
, Newbury House Inc., Rowley, Mass, 1972; Said, Edward,
Yeats and Decolonisation
(Field Day Pamphlet no 15), Lawrence Hill/Field Day, London, 1988; Said, Edward W.,
Culture and Imperialism
, Vintage, London, 1994; Said, Edward W.,
Representations of the Intellectual
, Vintage, London, 1994; Smith, Anthony D.,
The Ethnic Origins of Nations
, Blackwell, Oxford, 1986; Williams, Patrick & Chrisman, Laura (eds),
Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory
, Columbia University Press, New York, 1994; Woolf, Stuart (ed.),
Nationalism in Europe: 1815 to the present: a Reader
, Routledge, London and New York, 1996.
3
Some of the issues explored in this essay were identified in an earlier essay of mine on decolonisation and identity in González, Rosa (ed.),
Culture and Power: Institutions
, Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias, Barcelona, 1996, pp. 27â44.
4
à CuÃv, Brian (ed.),
A View of the Irish Language
, Rialtas na hÃireann, Dublin, 1969.
5
Leerssen, Joep,
Remembrance and Imagination
, Cork University Press, Cork, 1996; Murray, Damien,
Romanticism, Nationalism and Irish Antiquarian Societies, 1840â80
, NUI MayÂnooth, Maynooth, 2000.
6
à Tuathaigh, M. A. G. (ed.),
Community, Culture, and Conflict
, Officina Typographica/ Galway University Press, Galway, 1986; Nà Dhonnchadha, MáirÃn (ed.),
Nua-Léamha: Gnéithe de Chultúr, Stair agus PolaitÃocht na hÃireann c.1600âc.1900
, An Clóchomhar, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1996.
7
Hutchinson, John,
The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism
, Allen and Unwin, London, 1987; à Tuama, Seán (ed.),
The Gaelic League Idea
, Mercier Press, Cork, 1972; Ã Cuiv, Brian,
A View of the Irish Language
; Ã Tuathaigh, M. A. G., âThe Irish Ireland Idea: Rationale and Relevance' in Longley, Edna (ed.),
Culture in Ireland: Division or Diversity?
, InÂstitute of Irish Studies, Belfast, 1991.
8
à Cuiv, Brian,
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.
9
Maume, Patrick,
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, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1999; Garvin, Tom,
Nationalist Revolutionaries in Ireland 1858â1928
, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987.
10
Daly, Dominic,
The Young Douglas Hyde
, Irish University Press, Dublin, 1974; Dunleavy, Janet Egleson & Dunleavy, Gareth W.,
Douglas Hyde: A Maker of Modern Ireland
, UniÂversity of California Press, Berkeley, 1991; à Conaire, Breandán (ed.),
Language, Lore and Lyrics: Essays and Lectures â Douglas Hyde
, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1986.
11
All quotations from Hyde, unless otherwise indicated, are from the edited collection of his essays, à Conaire, Breandán (ed.),
Language, Lore and Lyrics: Essays and Lectures â Douglas Hyde
.
12
à Cuiv, Brian,
A View of the Irish Language
; Mac Aonghusa, Proinsias,
Ar Son na Gaeilge: Conradh na Gaeilge 1893â1993
, Conradh na Gaeilge, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1993.
13
Blanning, T. C. W. (ed.),
The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe
, Oxford UniverÂsity Press, Oxford, 1996, p. 140.
14
Leerssen, Joep,
Mere Irish and FÃor-Ghael
, Second edition, Cork University Press, Cork, 1996.
15
Maume, Patrick,
The Long Gestation: Irish Nationalist Life 1891â1918
.
16
Bartlett, Thomas,
The Fall and Rise of the Irish Nation: The Catholic Question 1690â1830
, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1992; Corish, Patrick,
The Irish Catholic Experience: a Historical Survey
, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1985; Ã Tuathaigh, M. A. G. (ed.),
Community, Culture, and Conflict
.
17
Curtis, L. P. Jr,
Anglo-Saxons and Celts
, Conference on British Studies, Bridgeport, 1968.
18
Martin, F. X. and Byrne, F. J. (eds),
The Scholar Revolutionary
, Irish University Press, Shannon, 1973; Tierney, Michael,
Eoin Mac Néill: Scholar and Man of Action 1867â1945
, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1980; Hutchinson, John,
The Dynamics of Cultural NaÂtionalism
.
19
Maume, Patrick,
D. P. Moran
, Historical Association of Ireland, Dundalk, 1995.
20
Garvin, Tom,
Nationalist Revolutionaries in Ireland 1858â1928
, p. 78.
21
McBride, Lawrence,
The Greening of Dublin Castle
, Catholic University of America, WashÂington, 1991; Paseta, Senia,
Before the Revolution: Nationalism, Social Change and Ireland's Catholic Elite 1879â1922
, Cork University Press, Cork, 1999.
22
O'Donoghue, Thomas A.,
Bilingual Education in Ireland, 1904â1922
, Murdoch University, Perth, 2000.
23
Farrell, Brian (ed.),
De Valera's Constitution and Ours
, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1988; à Máille, Tomás,
The Status of the Irish Language: A Legal Perspective
, Bord na Gaeilge, Dublin, 1990.
24
à Cuiv, Brian,
A View of the Irish Language
; Kelly, A.,
Compulsory Irish: Language and Education in Ireland 1870sâ1970s
, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 2002.
25
à Cuiv, Brian,
A View of the Irish Language
; Ã Tuathaigh, M. A. G.,
The Development of the Gaeltacht as a Bilingual Entity
, Institiúid TeangéolaÃochta Ãireann, Dublin, 1990; à Tuathaigh, Gearóid, et al (eds),
Pobal na Gaeltachta: A Scéal agus a Dhán
, Cló Iar ChonÂnachta, Indreabhán, 2000; Hindley, Reg,
The Death of the Irish Language
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Cois LÃfe,
Baile Ãtha Cliath, 2002.
26
Lee, J. J.,
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, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989; Girvin, Brian,
Between Two Worlds: Politics and Economy in Independent Ireland
, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1989; Regan, John M.,
The Irish Counter-Revolution 1921â1936
, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1999.
27
Whyte, John,
Church and State in Modern Ireland 1923â1970
, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1971; Keogh, Dermot,
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, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1994.
28
Manning, Maurice,
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, Wolfhound, Dublin, 1999; Corish, Patrick,
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.
29
Brown, Terence,
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, Fontana, London, 1981; Fallon, Brian,
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, Gill and Macmillan, DubÂlin, 1988; à Faoláin, Seán,
Vive Moi!
, Ruper Hart-Davis, London, 1965.
30
Moynihan, Maurice (ed.),
Speeches and Statements by Eamon De Valera 1917â1973
, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1980.
31
à Tuathaigh, M. A. G., âDe Valera and Sovereignty: a note on the pedigree of a political idea', in O'Carroll, J. P. and Murphy, John A. (eds),
De Valera and his Times
, Cork University Press, Cork, 1983.
32
Williams, Raymond,
The Country and the City
, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1973.
33
Whyte, John,
Church and State in Modern Ireland 1923â1970
.
34
Hickey, D. J. & Doherty, J. E.,
A Dictionary of Irish History since 1800
, Gill and Macmillan/ Barnes and Noble, Dublin and New Jersey, 1980.
35
Kennedy, Kieran A., Giblin, Thomas and McHugh, Deirdre (eds),
The Economic DevelopÂment of Ireland in the Twentieth Century
, Routledge, London, 1988; Ã Tuathaigh, M. A. G., âThe Land Question, Politics and Irish Society, 1922â1960' in Drudy, P. J. (ed.),
Ireland: Land, Politics and People
, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982.
36
Lee, J. J., âAspects of Corporatist Thought in Ireland: The Commission on Vocational OrÂganisation, 1939â43' in Cosgrove, Art and McCartney, Donal (eds),
Studies in Irish HisÂtory: Presented to R. Dudley Edwards
, University College Dublin, Dublin, 1979.
37
Miley, Jim (ed.),
A Voice for the Country: 50 Years of Macra na Feirme
, Macra na Feirme, Dublin, 1994.
38
à Tuama, Seán,
The Gaelic League Idea
; à CÃosáin, Ãamon,
An tÃireannach; 1934â1937
, An Clóchomhar, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1993; Kelly, A.,
Compulsory Irish: Language and EduÂcation in Ireland 1870sâ1970s
.
39
à hAnluain, Eoghan (ed.),
Léachtaà Uà Chadhain
, An Clóchomhar, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1989; à CÃosáin, Ãamon,
An tÃireannach; 1934â1937
.
40
à Riagáin, Pádraig (ed.),
International Journal of the Sociology of Language: Language PlanÂning in Ireland
, Mouton de Gruyter, Amsterdam, 1985; à Riagáin, Pádraig,
Language Policy and Social Reproduction. Ireland 1893â1993
, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997; à Riain, Seán,
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, Carbad/Bord na Gaeilge, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1994.
41
à hAnnracháin, Stiofán (ed.),
An Comhchaidreamh: Crann a Chraobhaigh
, An Clóchomhar, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1985.
42
à Súilleabháin, Donncha,
Scéal an Oireachtais 1897â1924
, An Clóchomhar, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1984; Mac Aonghusa, Proinsias,
Ar Son na Gaeilge: Conradh na Gaeilge 1893â1993: Stair Sheanchais
, Conradh na Gaeilge, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1993; à Cearúil, MÃcheál,
GnÃomhartha na mBráithre
, Coiscéim, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1996.
43
à Buachalla, Séamas,
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, Wolfhound Press, Dublin, 1988.
44
Lee, J. J. & Ã Tuathaigh, M. A. G.,
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, Ward River Press, Dublin, 1982; Lee, J. J.,
Ireland 1912â1985: Politics and Society
; Keogh, Dermot,
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.
45
à Conaire, Breandán,
Myles na Gaeilge
, An Clochomhar Tta, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1986.
46
à hAnluain, Eoghan (ed.),
Léachtaà Uà Chadhain
; à Cadhain, MáirtÃn,
An Ghaeltacht Bheo: Destined to Pass
, Coiscéim, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 2002.
47
à Tuama, Seán,
The Gaelic League Idea
; Maume, Patrick,
âLife that is Exile': Daniel Corkery and the Search for Irish Ireland
, Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, 1993.
48
An Coimisiún um Athbheochan na Gaeilge,
An Tuarascáil Dheiridh
, Oifig an tSoláthair, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1994, pp. xivâxv.
49
Crotty, Raymond,
Ireland in Crisis: a Study in Capitalist Colonial Underdevelopment
, BranÂdon, Dingle, 1986; Tobin, Fergal,
The Best of Decades: Ireland in the 1960s
, Gill and MacÂmillan, Dublin, 1984; Lee, J. J.,
Ireland 1912â1985: Politics and Society
; Kennedy, Kieran A.,
Ireland in Transition
, Mercier Press, Cork, 1986; Litton, Frank (ed.),
Unequal AchieveÂment: The Irish Experience 1957â1982
, Institute of Public Administration, Dublin, 1982; Ã CaollaÃ, Maolsheachlainn,
Tiarnas Cultúir: Craolachán in Ãirinn
, Conradh na Gaeilge, Baile Ãtha Cliath, 1980.
