The 1916 Easter Rising envisioned an Ireland, "not free merely, but Gaelic as well; not Gaelic merely, but free as well". The Rising is seen as the radicalized outcome of the Gaelic language revival of the 1890s, following a general tendency in national movements to develop from cultural ideals into armed separatism.
But the relationship between the Gaelic language and Irish nationalism is anything but straightforward. The language’s social distribution, its cultural allure and its political mobilizing power of will be recalibrated with reference to other national revival movements in Europe at the time (Catalan, Flemish, Lithuanian).
Professor Joep Leerssen Professor of European Studies at the University of Amsterdam
Chaired by Professor Marianne Elliott OBE, FBA, University of Liverpool
About the speaker:
Joep Leerssen, comparatist and cultural historian, is Professor of European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He has published on the history of Irish national identities, and on the comparative history of national thought and national movements in Europe.