de Brún, Fionntán
(2018)
Escaping the 'Shower of Folly' – the Irish Language, Revivalism and the History of Ideas.
Maynooth Philosophical Papers, 9.
pp. 43-58.
ISSN 2009-7751
Abstract
The Irish language represents a material link ensuring continuity between the past and present of the Irish experience, but as that link
has gradually been obscured, the language has become a form of alterity, indicated in the notion of Gaelic Ireland going ‘underground’. The
choice between maintaining the continuity of the Irish literary tradition
and abandoning it was characterized by Franciscan theologian and philosopher Froinsias Ó Maolmhuaidh (Francis O’Molloy) as the choice between keeping one’s reason and embracing folly. Thus, his envoi to the
first printed Irish grammar in 1677 exhorts the people of Ireland to engage in a revival of literacy in the Irish language so as to transform their
future by keeping faith with the past. Yet the desire to revive past knowledge or values is problematic. Is it possible, as the Irish revivalist Douglas
Hyde desired, to ‘render the present a rational continuation of the past’?
Or is it the case that revivals are attempts at a renewal of tradition, involving a dialectical transition similar to Hegel’s notion of Aufhebung? This
inaugural lecture considers this question and the wider implications of
revival by situating the Irish tradition of Revivalism within the broader
history of ideas.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Escaping; Shower; Folly; Irish Language; Revivalism; History; Ideas; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > Philosophy |
| Item ID: |
16151 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.5840/mpp201810263 |
| Depositing User: |
Fionntan de Brun
|
| Date Deposited: |
20 Jun 2022 12:34 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Maynooth Philosophical Papers |
| Publisher: |
Maynooth University Department of Philosophy |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| 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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