Celtic and Irish Revival

Abstract

The phrase Celtic Revival describes past movements in literature, the arts, and social practices in which legends, poetry, art, and spirituality of a distinctive kind were revived. Writers and artists identified these with the Celtic people in parts of pre-Christian and early Christian Europe. The most significant Celtic Revival took place in Ireland toward the end of the 19th century and into the first two decades of the 20th century. It is commonly referred to as the Irish Revival, though it has also been considered a Celtic revival in Ireland that had associations with revival movements in Scotland, Wales, the English regions, and Brittany. The Irish Revival was felt most strongly in literature, drama, and the Irish language. It was also evident in art, design, music, and sport. The political and economic features of the Irish Revival were complex. The influence of militant nationalism was strong, yet unionist, Home Rule nationalist, socialist, and feminist political views were held by different figures involved in the Irish Revival across a range of different groups and activities. Much academic scholarship concerned with Celtic Revival has focused on the literary and dramatic movement in Ireland, producing as it did three of the most important international literary figures of the 20th century—W. B. Yeats, J. M. Synge, and Sean O’Casey. The term Celtic Revival, however, was contested by some cultural activists in Ireland. During the Irish Revival, some regarded the notion of “Celtic” Revival as softening the national “Irish” nature of the movement, implying affinities with the ancient inheritances of England, Scotland, and Wales, its focus more among literary societies in London than among those engaged in “nation-building” activities in Dublin. For others, the Celtic aspect of the Irish Revival was precisely what distinguished it from the modern character of English urban society. Aside from this, the question arises as to how much Celtic Revival in Ireland and Britain grew out of inventions of the Celt as a cultural ideal from the 16th century in Europe. This article opens with a section covering studies of Celtic civilization in Ireland and Britain. Subsequent sections address scholarship on the literary and dramatic aspects of the Irish Revival from the late 19th century, its historical contexts, as well as the range of its political ideas, movements, and activists. Academic publications are also listed on a range of individual literary and language-revival figures associated with the Irish Revival. Later sections cover studies of Pan-Celticism and Celtic Revival in Britain. The final sections identify scholarship on the Irish Revival in the fields of art, design, music, and sport, addressing correspondences between activities in Celtic revival in Ireland and Scotland in the process.