The end of the XIX – beginning of the XX centuries is the efflorescence period of national culture in Ireland. In historiography, this time was named the Irish Renaissance. Its bright representatives and organizations promoted national ideas, tried to restrain verbal aggression from the English language, to revive self-consciousness of their compatriots, developed sports, literature, theater, musical culture, and opposed the British way of life.
The Irish Renaissance was not homogeneous. Some of its representatives tried to be politically neutral, tried to show their non-involvement in the existing political situation. The other held positions of active cultural nationalism. They believed that the Irish should revive their culture, cultivate their national identity, using a solid language base. They promoted the advantages of the Gaelic lifestyle as opposed to the English one. Still others proceeded from realistic attitudes, they saw narrow-mindedness of the Irish society, they were not afraid to point out its vices, and convinced in the need to include their homeland in the cultural space of the West. In addition to the multiplicity of options, the Irish Renaissance was an elitist phenomenon, since most of the society lived in poverty, did not have the opportunity to get a good education, and cared more about «daily bread». The most vivid appeals to the spiritual Revival of the nation were made in the theater and literature, the flourishing of which is associated with the names of W.B. Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, D. Joyce, D.M. Sing and others. To a large extent, the Irish Renaissance was a kind of reaction to modernism. It is quite possible to say that in Ireland there was a strong confrontation between the archaic and the modern. The important features of cultural Irish Renaissance were its anti-British orientation, the desire to emphasize national identity. The Hiberno-English version of English had similarities to Irish in some grammatical idioms, the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle, perhaps subconsciously, used the grammatical structures of their native language when speaking English. This linguistic tradition also influenced the Irish literature, which differed in various ways from the English literature.
THE IRISH RENAISSANCE IN FACES