Ireland and Irish Studies: a Glossary of Terms Lance Pettitt, Vienna April 2016

1 Ireland and Irish Studies: A Glossary of Terms Lance Pettitt, Vienna April 2016 Coming to the field of Irish Studies with little or no prior knowledge of Irish history, politics and culture can be a bit daunting. In studying the Revival period in particular, a number of primary texts make references or use terms that might require some explanation. I’ve tried to restrict the scope to ‘modern Ireland’ by which I mean from 1800 onwards into the 20thC. though these notes do refer back to earlier historical periods. For you, reading secondary sources should be easier with this quick reference guide. It isn’t exhaustive or detailed, nor is it very nuanced and I have given some sources for further reading at the end. Although I have divided it into: Political, Political- Geographical, Socio-Cultural (to include Religion), you will see there is a degree of permeability between these categories. POLITICAL “Home Rule”. The principle that Ireland should have by constitutional means a degree of political autonomy within the United Kingdom and Empire. It is associated with Sir Isaac Butt M.P. who founded the Home Rule Association in 1870 after the Rev. Galbraith had coined the term. Carried on by C.S. Parnell, it became a popular idea and movement in the 1890s and on into the early 20thC. It was opposed by Irish and Ulster Unionists as a dangerous unpicking of the Union and opposed by Republicans as not being a radical enough departure from the British political system of ruling Ireland. Legislation (Home Rule Bills) were debated in London on three occasions 1886, 1893 and passing only in 1912 as a result of a coalition deal between John Redmond’s Home Rulers and the Conservative Prime Minister, Asquith. “The [Act of] Union”. The political linking of Ireland to Great Britain by legislation in 1801. Britain had been involved in Ireland since Henry II in the 12thC and through various ‘Plantations’ of settlers in Leinster and Ulster in the 16th and 17thCs. and Ireland was drawn into the political conflicts of European monarchies in the 18th and 19thC, notably in the late-1680s and in response to the French revolution of 1792. Many of these conflicts revolved around institutionalized religion, questions of theological difference, wealth, trade and power associated with royal family dynasties seeking to maintain their puissance. This was always going to be a difficult task across the territorial patch-work of the British Isles, an island fringe off the main, continental landmass of Europe. “Unionist”. Supporters in Ireland and Britain of the ‘Union’ between the two countries. Typically, of Protestant faith, often landed or titled, connected with the British aristocratic system, the military services, commerce and industry. As a response to ‘Home Rule’, unionists in Ulster began to define themselves and organize politically as ‘Ulster Unionists’. “Republican”. A person who subscribes to the idea of a political unit of people without an aristocracy or Monarch that is egalitarian and built on merit. In Ireland, republicans drew on ideas from the successful independence of the United States of America, socialist republicans (like Connolly) and on the secular Republican tradition of France. Republicans were either physical force/armed or constitutional. “Fenians” were a 19thC Irish republican group based in America with adherents in Ireland and Britain who supported the Rising in Easter 1916. Other republicans included the Irish Republican 2 Brotherhood – also involved in the Easter rising– who became the IRA (Army) in the Anglo-Irish war of 1919-21. “Irish Nationalist”. A nationalist is someone who sees a people-nation as a natural unit of political organisation that is linked to a bounded territory, the land. In Ireland’s case this was the island of Ireland. Irish nationalists believed that theirs was a distinct nation or people with its own language, culture and traditions that was separate from the English and British culture and its State formation. “British”. (‘Britons’, ‘Brits’). The four-nation, composite political identity forged from historical alliances between generations of royal dynasties, peers and Church hierarchies in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland (Colley 1992). In 1536 England and Wales joined in union; Scotland joined that union politically in 1707, Ireland in 1800 (the latter ended in 1921). “Britishness” has tended to be Anglo-centric as an patriotic allegiance, with “Englishness” itself often less forthright or coherent in presenting it essence compared to the other three nations that comprise the United Kingdom of Great Britain and (Northern) Ireland (Colls and Dodd, 1984). The Irish version of “Home Rule” prefigured a sort of federal union that in the early 21stC that might yet be seen in the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland Assemblies. “Britishness”- always a hybrid identity - has been refigured in the wake of Empire in racial-ethnic terms, and has added “European-ness” (politically in its membership of the EEC/now EU since 1973). These more recent framing notions are themselves under scrutiny now following the Scottish (2014) and European Referenda (2016). Nairn (1981) may have been right! “Old English/Irish”. Descendants of the Anglo-Norman settlers of 12thC supported and were sponsored by Henry II. The Norman French had themselves invaded southern England and their families had migrated to Wales and thence over to Ireland to help Henry II qwell internal conflicts between rival Irish lords. The Old English over the centuries became Gaelicised and intermarried. “Plantation” Settlers. The systematic and organized giving of lands and property to English and Scots settlers in the 17th and 18thC Ireland, displacing Irish and Old English from the favourable land to lesser quality farms. This was either as a reward or to encourage settlement of loyal subjects of the Crown and Church in Ireland who which was seen at the time to be wild, unruly and difficult to control. POLITICAL-GEOGRAPHICAL Even from my very cursory reading of Austrian history, I know that its political and human geography are pretty complicated. But here is Ireland’s. “The Republic of Ireland”. Proclaimed in April 1916, as a 32 county independent state separate from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under a president not a monarch, the Republic had a difficult birth. After WWI and despite an electoral mandate (1918) for Sinn Fein who stood for a popular Republic, a war of Independence was fought against the British (1919-21), Treaty was signed (1921), Partition was imposed (1920) and a Civil War ensued. Ireland achieved partial independence in the form of ‘Irish Free State status’ (IFS) from 1922 until 1948. “The Free State”. A short-form of the Irish Free State (IFS) this was politically like the Dominion status of Canada within the Empire, but with its own parliament in Dublin, but controlled of its ports and an oath of allegiance bound into the Treaty of 1921. The IFS 3 was also known in the 1922-48 period as Eire. ‘Eire’ remained neutral in WWII. In 1949 the Republic of Ireland was formally declared, took itself out of the British Empire – that had changed its name to British Commonwealth. Countries like India and Canada decided to remain in. “Northern Ireland”. Formed by the partition Act of 1920, it formally came into existence in 1921 and had its separate parliament in Belfast (well Hillsborough) though remained part of the UK. It comprised 6 of the 32 counties of Ireland, that is 6 of the 9 counties that made up the ancient province of Ulster. The North (see also the South) Colloquial term for Northern Ireland, though many parts of the northern areas of Ireland, like Donegal, are in the ‘south’, i.e. the Republic. “Norn Iron”. Contemporary slang for Northern Ireland, used mostly for fun from people from ‘Norn Iron’, which in pronunciation is supposed to imitate a Northern Irish accent. Try it. “The twenty-six-counties”. A term used by Republicans who refuse to recognize the IFS, the border partition that created Northern Ireland and indeed the current Republic as an incomplete project. “The six counties”. A term used by Republicans who refuse to recognize the IFS, the border partition that created Northern Ireland and indeed the current Republic which they see as an incomplete project. They won’t use ‘Ulster’ since that refers to the ancient nine county province of Ulster, not the six-county form. “Partition/the Border”. The British government partitioned Ireland due to the political and economic pressure of the Ulster Unionists in 1920, giving Unionists power over the new state of Northern Ireland. In the 1920 Act the border was not seen as a permanent solution, but the drawing of the line on the map was contentious. It created an internal, land-border. Britain repeated the same tactic in 1947 in Indian when it created India and Pakistan with similar bloody civil and sectarian conflict leading up to India’s independence in 1949. By popular mandate, the Republic in 1998 voted overwhelmingly to drop the clause in its Constitution (1937) claiming territorial rights over the six-counties. “The Rising” (Rebellion, Insurrection. Insurgency). The armed rebellion centered mainly on Dublin in Easter 1916 in which Irish republican, socialist and nationalist paramilitary forces took on the British authorities and army in Ireland. The Rising lasted a week, did not have an Irish popular mandate but achieved hugely symbolic importance and became the catalyst for political shifts and more political violence to achieve independence. “Ulster”. The name of an ancient province consisting of nine counties. Ireland itself consists of four historic provinces: Ulster in the north, Leinster in the east, Connaught in the west and Munster in the south-west. These provinces are sometimes popularly, allegorically referred to as the ‘Four Green Fields’, or personified as an old woman, Cathleen ni Houlihan (hence YEATS/GREGORY play on this theme).

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