Barter, Derek
(2008)
National identity construction
and the popular ballad in
nineteenth century Ireland.
PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Abstract
This dissertation sets out to analyse the discourses surrounding the construction
of a nationalist sense of Irish identity through the medium of popular culture
specifically song lyrics throughout the nineteenth century. The English language songtexts
that this work is based on provide evidence of the process of Anglicisation which,
some would have it, began with the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the twelfth
century, or at least since it became English colonial policy to force them to retain a
distinction upon the gradually assimilating English population with the statutes of
Kilkenny 1366, the first of a number of such laws proclaimed intermittently over the
subsequent centuries aimed at halting a drift towards Gaelicisation. By the nineteenth
century however, and particularly in the post famine period with the sharp decline in
the use of the Irish language, anglicisation was a trend that was felt to be fast becoming
irreversible and with its progression, some perceived, went any legitimate claim for
recognition of nationhood either as an independent territory or as an autonomous region
of the United Kingdom. However, these song-texts also provide other evidence,
evidence regarding the social, economic, political, sexual, and religious life that was
deemed worthy of comment by, in the main, anonymous witnesses who have left shreds
of information which suggest that the lives of the Irish masses were often more varied
and engrossing and displayed moments of agency and resistance (in unexpected ways)
than many orthodox historiographies would allow. I reproduce these texts as my main
primary source and place them within an historical framework based upon readings of
primary and secondary sources in order to try ground them in their proper context
| Item Type: |
Thesis
(PhD)
|
| Keywords: |
National identity construction;
popular ballad; nineteenth century; Ireland; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > History |
| Item ID: |
13576 |
| Depositing User: |
Derek Barter
|
| Date Deposited: |
16 Nov 2020 10:36 |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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