A Study Of Cultural Associations Under The Background Of The Irish Cultural Revival

At the end of the 19th century,with the rapid development of worldwide national liberation and national independence movement,the Irish national consciousness began to awaken.In order to revolt against the British colonial rule,and to replace the dominant British culture with Irish national culture,there was an urgent necessity to rediscover and revive Irish national culture,and to rebuild Irish national identity.Hence,from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century a series of vigorous cultural revival movements were launched in Ireland,covering a wide range of cultural fields,including sports,language,literature,folk music,etc.The core issue of this study is the folk cultural associations under the background of the Irish cultural revival movement from the late 19th century to the 1930s,and to further explore the relationship between them and the construction of Irish identity."De-Anglicisation" and "self-construction" in the cultural field,and reconstructing and shaping Ireland’s national culture,national identity and national history are the important tasks of the Irish cultural revival movement from the end of the 19th century to the 1930s.The Irish Cultural Revival Movement,represented by sports,language,literature and other fields,plays an important role in shaping and strengthening Irish identity in the historical process of Ireland’s state-building.The premise of studying the origin of the Irish Cultural Revival Movement is to understand the historical complexity of the relationship between Ireland and Britain.The dissertation sorts out the historical context of British colonialism towards Ireland,especially the development of Anglo-Irish relations and the establishment of Ireland state in the middle and late 19th century.In the context of Anglo-Irish relations,it is precisely because of the long-term British cultural colonial policy towards Ireland that the strong British culture represented by English language occupied the central position,which made the national cultural tradition of Ireland decline.The mass loss of population caused by the famine in the 1840s further weakened the foundation of its national cultural tradition and made it tend to die out,which also made the national contradiction unprecedented intensified and the national independence issue more urgent.It is generally believed that folk cultural groups are important participants in the Irish Cultural Revival Movement,as well as the key media for popularizing common values of the nation.They objectively play the role of amplifiers.The formation of cultural groups is the product of the construction of identity.Some people spontaneously organize together to express the same or similar propositions and appeals based on a certain identity.As more and more people join the folk cultural groups,the social influence and appeals of the groups themselves are further enhanced.Their ideas and works are spread to other levels of society through the amplification of cultural groups,making the identity constructed in a small scope extended to the whole society and even the whole nation.However,it is worth noting that different cultural groups do not necessarily have the same identity,and differences between groups will inevitably lead to divergences and even conflicts.The construction of national identity and cultural identity are gradually formed in the interweaving of such diverse ideas.This study comprehensively uses a series of primary and secondary materials,especially the speeches and memoirs of Douglas Hyde,the leader of the Gaelic League,and of Yeats,the founder of Abbey Theatre;Irish and British parliamentary debates and other archives;government documents;historical archives of the cultural associations;newspapers,magazines and other historical media materials related to the Irish Cultural Revival Movement from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century,etc.This study adopts an interdisciplinary perspective,pays attention to the organic integration of cultural,historical and political studies,combines nationalism,identity and other theories.On the basis of fully combing the historical background of the Irish national liberation and independence movement,the dissertation selects the three most representative cultural realms in the Irish Cultural Revival Movement,i.e.,sports,language and literature,and then selects the most influential and leading folk cultural groups in the three cultural movements,i.e.,the Gaelic Athletic Association,Gaelic League and Abbey Theatre as cases to explore their main views,propositions and activities,and to explore how they interacted with the Irish nationalist movement,their role in the Irish Cultural Revival Movement and their impact on the construction of Irish identity.The dissertation makes a conclusion that from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 1930s,the rise and development of the Irish Cultural Revival Movement was closely related to the Irish political nationalist movement,and it was part of the Irish national independence movement in a broader sense.The Irish national consciousness and national identity established and strengthened under its influence have laid a cultural and ideological foundation for the continuous development of the Irish political movement.The Irish Cultural Revival Movement left an important cultural heritage for later generations.On the one hand,it broke the rule of British colonial culture,revived and reshaped Gaelic national cultural tradition,successfully achieved the tasks of "De-Anglicisation" and "self-construction" in the cultural field,and realized the "resistance culture" against British colonialism and its dominant culture.On the other hand,the diversified cultural expression and ideological contention during this period also provided more possibilities for defining Irish identity.The Gaelic Athletic Association,the Gaelic League and the Abbey Theatre not only resisted the influence of British cultural colonization by resorting to the revival of Irish national sports,language and literature,but also,as an important part of the Irish nationalist movement,cooperated with political nationalism,promoted the implementation of drama performance and language policy through the establishment of mechanisms,and even participated in political and military organizations such as the Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Brotherhood.It has become an important platform and actor of the Irish national independence movement.At the same time,after the Independence of Ireland and the establishment of Irish Free State,these cultural associations launched explorations and debates on the relationship between cultural tradition and internationalism,the purity of national culture of Irishness and the modernization of national politics,economy and society,which together promoted the development of the new cultural identity and even political identity of Ireland after the state established.The dissertation also noted the limitations of the Irish Cultural Revival Movement.Some cultural revivalists overemphasized the binary opposition of "Britain and Ireland",and fell into the error of "Gale centralism".Gaelic cultural tradition and Celtic descent gradually became the indicators used to define Irish identity,intensifying the division with other factions with different attitudes.With the political victory of conservative nationalists,Ireland became increasingly conservative in politics,economy,culture,religion,international communication and other aspects,and became less inclusive,gradually forming an official discourse with the core of "Irish language+Catholicism+Patriarchy".It not only denied the connection between Ireland and Britain,but also isolated Ireland from Europe and even other countries in the world,which to some extent led Ireland into cultural conservatism and isolation in the 1930s and 1940s.