All that is airy solidifies: The prolonged agony of Romantic Ireland1

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between spirit and matter in the Irish self-representations. The much clichéd 'spiritual Ireland' - the land of 'Celtic Twilight', the realm of the supernatural, the stage of 'spiritual heroics' - has been such an irritant to the Irish intellectual elite that they made it their mission to banish it once and for all. Romantic Ireland, it is claimed, has been an obstacle to the process of modernization and de-colonization. This paper argues that, contrary to received interpretations, the images of 'spiritual Ireland' had an underlying anti-colonial dimension that has been overlooked or obscured by modern critics. Further, there are many indications that the new national self-representations which flaunt a 'solidified' self-image of Ireland as a 'land of healthy profit' hardly mark the end of the ancient Irish mystique.