L’Esprit et les Lois
L’Esprit et les Lois
Celts and Saxons in Ireland, 1840–1848
This chapter roots the story of the Irish diaspora in the soil, people, idioms, and history of Ireland. Buoyed by a rising tide of popular support for political independence from Britain, yet wracked by an unprecedented natural disaster in the form of the Great Famine, weekly periodicals such as the Young Irelanders’ Nation constructed and disseminated a highly elastic historical image of Irish Catholics as “the original Celtic owners of the soil.” Once it was dislocated from the Irish natural environment, this dexterous discourse subsequently provided the template for global nationalism. Following their abortive rebellion in 1848, many of the Young Ireland leaders were arrested and sentenced to exile in Britain’s Australian penal colonies.
Keywords: Ireland, political independence, Britain, Great Famine, Irish Catholics, Irish soil, Irish history, global nationalism, Young Irelanders
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