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Place and Exile: Imperialism, Development and Environment in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland

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Place and Exile: Imperialism, Development and Environment in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland Sustainability Research Institute SCHOOL OF EARTH AND ENVIRONMENT Place and Exile: Imperialism, Development and Environment in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland Joseph Murphy June, 2009 No. 17 SRI PAPERS SRI Papers (Online) ISSN 1753-1330 First published in 2009 by the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), School of Earth and Environment, The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)113 3436461 Fax: +44 (0)113 3436716 Email: [email protected] Web-site: http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/sri About the Sustainability Research Institute The SRI is a dedicated team of over 20 researchers working on different aspects of sustainability. Adapting to environmental change and governance for sustainability are the Institute’s overarching themes. SRI research explores these in interdisciplinary ways, drawing on geography, ecology, sociology, politics, planning, economics and management. Our specialist areas are: sustainable development and environmental change; environmental policy, planning and governance; ecological and environmental economics; business, environment and corporate responsibility; sustainable production and consumption. Disclaimer The opinions presented are those of the author(s) and should not be regarded as the views of SRI or The University of Leeds. 2 Place and Exile: Imperialism, Development and Environment in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland © Joseph Murphy 2009 Email: [email protected] Contents Contents………………………………………………………………………. 3 Abstract …………………………………………………………………......... 4 About the Authors …………………………………………………………… 4 Introduction …………………………………………………………………... 5 Gaeldom ........................................………............................................... 6 Place and Exile .....…………………………………………......................... 12 Place and Exile Today ………………………………………………………. 18 Understanding Place and Exile: Imperialism, Development and 23 Environment ............................................................................................. Conclusion: Reflections on ‘Sustainable Development’ ......……………... 31 Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………... 32 References ……………………………………………………………………. 32 3 Abstract This paper explores environment, development and sustainability from the perspective of Gaelic communities on the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland. The themes of place and exile are distilled from Gaelic history and culture and explored further through the Gaelic (Scottish and Irish) concepts of dùthchas and deoraíocht . Three contemporary environment and development case studies show that although exile and place emerged over hundreds of years they continue to be important today. Further discussion suggests that place and exile become particularly meaningful in the context of imperialism and analysis of the case studies implies three ways of linking imperialism and sustainability: (i) imperialism as a cause of unsustainable development; (ii) sustainable development as imperialism; (iii) the possibility of sustainability beyond imperialism or post-imperial sustainability. Land buy-outs by crofting communities in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland are discussed as an example of the third category. The paper draws on Postcolonial Studies research and illustrates how history and culture can inform an understanding of sustainable development. Key words: place, exile, dùthchas, deoraíocht’, imperialism, sustainability Submission date 20-05-2009; Publication date 01-06-2009 About the Author Joseph Murphy is RCUK Academic Fellow in Social Response to Environmental Change in the Sustainability Research Institute at the University of Leeds. He has published widely on environmental issues including Regulatory Realities: The Implementation and Impact of Industrial Environmental Regulation (Gouldson and Murphy, 1998), Exploring Sustainable Consumption (Cohen and Murphy (eds), 2001), Governing the Transatlantic Conflict over Agricultural Biotechnology (Murphy, 2006) and Governing Technology for Sustainability (Murphy (ed.), (2007). At the Edge: Walking the Atlantic Coast of Ireland and Scotland is his most recent book (2009). 4 A Note on Language Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) is an important part of this paper. Although the text is in English I try to give the language its rightful place. Where literature and poetry are quoted the originals are given first and English translations follow. Gaelic place names are preferred. To make it easier for the reader all Gaelic words are given in italics. I place anglicised versions of Gaelic words in brackets and translations between apostrophes e.g. Earra-Ghàidheal (Argyll) or ‘the coastland of the Gaels’. When referring to dùthchas and deoraíocht , or ‘place’ and ‘exile’, I use Scottish Gaelic for the first and Irish Gaelic for the second. 1 Introduction In 2006 I walked from Cathair Saidhbhín (Cahersiveen) in the southwest corner of Ireland to Nis (Ness) in the northwest corner of Scotland. From the beginning of June to the end of August, following the Atlantic coast all the way, I covered 1500 kilometres on foot, passing through An Mhumhain (Munster), Connacht (Connaught), Ulaidh (Ulster), A’ Ghàidhealtachd (the Highlands) and Innse Gall (Hebrides). The journey was motivated by a desire to understand more about Gaelic history and culture and to explore the meaning of sustainable development for small communities on this coastline. After completing the walk I wrote At the Edge: Walking the Atlantic Coast of Ireland and Scotland (Murphy, 2009). In this paper I draw out and extend some of the arguments in that book. During the walk and the time spent writing the book, dùthchas and deoraíocht emerged as key themes in. These Gaelic concepts can be translated as ‘place’ and ‘exile’, or, more accurately ‘being in place’ and ‘being in exile’. In this paper I show how they can help us to understand the meaning of (un)sustainable development in this context. Unlike more conventional approaches to sustainability, which focus on generic social, economic and ecological criteria, they give us a way of understanding sustainability that is rooted in the experiences of Gaelic people. One of the objectives of this paper is to show that history and culture can be used in this way. I begin with an overview of Gaelic history and culture. In Section 2 I develop the key themes of dùthchas and deoraíocht and explore them through the poetry and prose of George Campbell Hay ( Deòrsa Mac Iain Dheòrsa ) and Pádraig Ó Conaire . The middle sections of the paper extend the discussion and bring it up to date by exploring dùthchas and deoraíocht in the context of contemporary environment and development conflicts. My case studies are the Corrib gas terminal in northwest Mayo (Ireland), a large wind farm on Lewis (Scotland) and the community buy-out of the Galson estate, also on Lewis. These case studies show that dùthchas and deoraíocht continue to be important today. In the final section of the paper (Section 5) I show that imperialism, from colonisation to globalisation, is the context within which dùthchas and deoraíocht are meaningful. I develop this argument with the help of literature from Postcolonial Studies, including the concept of ‘internal colonialism’ and the debate over ‘ecological imperialism’. Further analysis of the case studies leads to three ways of linking imperialism and sustainability, which I set out in the conclusion: (i) imperialism as a cause of 5 unsustainable development; (ii) sustainable development as imperialism; (iii) the possibility of sustainability beyond imperialism or post-imperial sustainability. Before beginning it is appropriate to say a few words about method. The experience of walking 1500 kilometres from Kerry to Lewis and observations made along the way underpin this paper. It has, therefore, anthropological/ethnographic aspects. Also, I emphasise the importance of the Gaelic language and draw extensively on poetry and literature. This is essential because, as Campbell (2006: p. xiv) remarks, in many ways ‘the gates of dùthchas ’ are the language itself’. Poetry is particularly important because it is the pre-eminent Gaelic literary form and it holds within it a native view of history and society (MacInnes, 2006a). As MacInnes (2006d: 178) says elsewhere: ‘... it is true to say that the main thrust of Gaelic genius has been in poetry, not in drama nor in prose’. 2 Gaeldom Successive waves of Celtic tribes migrated from Europe to Ireland between 700 and 300 BC, mixing with and displacing people who settled there from the Neolithic period onwards. Celtic tribes speaking a language similar to modern Gaelic arrived some time around 100 BC and by 500 AD Gaelic culture had spread across most of Ireland. Around this time it also emerged on the west coast of Scotland. There is no agreement on how this happened but some Gaels certainly left Antrim and crossed Sruth na Maoile (The Sea of Moyle) to re-establish themselves in Earra-Ghàidheal (Argyll) – ‘the coastland of the Gaels’ – before helping to spread Gaelic culture and language spread throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Today, however, the language is largely restricted to a small number of communities on the Atlantic seaboard of Ireland and Scotland. 2.1 Expansion The period over which Gaelic culture and society flourished is disputed. Restricted accounts focus on the ‘Golden Age’ from the beginning of the 6th century to arrival of the Vikings at the end of the 8th century, a period during which Celtic Christian monks created some of Europe’s
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