Ireland.Pdf
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Ireland.
In 1983, The Cambridge University Press published The Invention of Tradition written by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger.
In it, they purported that certain societies and nations invented customs and 'traditions' to lend an air of continuity to their endeavours.
One of the examples they quote is the Scottish custom of Highland dress. Hugh Trevor Roper, a contributor to the book, gives evidence that the wearing of the kilt originated in Ireland and was imported to Scotland by Ulster Gaelic speaking invaders who used the many islands which separate Northern Ireland from Scotland as stepping stones*. The Ulster Irish wore kilts as did their compatriots, but the Picts, the other inhabitants of Scotland, did not.
It was not until the eighteenth century that the nation of Scotland pretended that the Highlanders were indigenous Caledonians who fought the Romans.
It was merely a step which took Scotland into the wearing of kilts, tartan, pipes and other badges so a fictitious tradition was born.
First, let us examine the political steps in the struggle for an Irish Republic
Ireland had been labouring under the yoke of the invader since the Anglo-Normans in the eleventh century. Anglo-Irish Protestant land owners, had, for centuries exploited their Catholic tenants with rent rises and evictions. In the nineteenth century, Daniel O'Connell sought to give Catholics the same civil rights as Protestants with the Catholic Emancipation Act, which became law in 1829. O'Connell, however had higher aims, in particular the repeal of the Act of Union by political means. He organised mass meetings, some with over 500,000 people, at carefully chosen venues like the Hill of Tara, the legendary meeting place of the ancient kings of Ireland.
However, all nationalistic movements were halted during the great famine (1845-51).
Over a million Irish families migrated to the United States of America or parts of the British Empire.* Daniel O'Connell died in 1847, and...
In 1983, The Cambridge University Press published The Invention of Tradition written by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger.
In it, they purported that certain societies and nations invented customs and 'traditions' to lend an air of continuity to their endeavours.
One of the examples they quote is the Scottish custom of Highland dress. Hugh Trevor Roper, a contributor to the book, gives evidence that the wearing of the kilt originated in Ireland and was imported to Scotland by Ulster Gaelic speaking invaders who used the many islands which separate Northern Ireland from Scotland as stepping stones*. The Ulster Irish wore kilts as did their compatriots, but the Picts, the other inhabitants of Scotland, did not.
It was not until the eighteenth century that the nation of Scotland pretended that the Highlanders were indigenous Caledonians who fought the Romans.
It was merely a step which took Scotland into the wearing of kilts, tartan, pipes and other badges so a fictitious tradition was born.
First, let us examine the political steps in the struggle for an Irish Republic
Ireland had been labouring under the yoke of the invader since the Anglo-Normans in the eleventh century. Anglo-Irish Protestant land owners, had, for centuries exploited their Catholic tenants with rent rises and evictions. In the nineteenth century, Daniel O'Connell sought to give Catholics the same civil rights as Protestants with the Catholic Emancipation Act, which became law in 1829. O'Connell, however had higher aims, in particular the repeal of the Act of Union by political means. He organised mass meetings, some with over 500,000 people, at carefully chosen venues like the Hill of Tara, the legendary meeting place of the ancient kings of Ireland.
However, all nationalistic movements were halted during the great famine (1845-51).
Over a million Irish families migrated to the United States of America or parts of the British Empire.* Daniel O'Connell died in 1847, and...