Douglas Hyde (1860–1949): The Adolescent Behind the Diarist

Literacy, Language and Reading in Nineteenth-Century Ireland ◽

10.3828/liverpool/9781786942081.003.0003 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 28-50

Author(s):

Máire Nic an Bhaird ◽

Liam Mac Mathúna

Keyword(s):

Coming Of Age ◽

Cultural Nationalism ◽

Literacy Acquisition ◽

Early Writing ◽

National Library ◽

Linguistic Development ◽

Irish Language ◽

Self Development ◽

Douglas Hyde

This chapter examines the diaristic and linguistic development of Douglas Hyde through an examination of his early journals. As the founding President of the Gaelic League, first Professor of Modern Irish in UCD and first President of an independent Irish state, Hyde’s linguistic ideas were integral to his literary and cultural nationalism. His inner thoughts and ideas, his linguistic development and his coming of age in Co. Roscommon are articulated through thirteen diaries housed in the National Library of Ireland. Personal, affective encounters with the Irish language are shown to be an integral part of his personal and political self-development, as Irish language becomes the written mode of both self-expression and self-creation. Hyde’s diaries use phonetic, anglicised transcriptions to chart his early encounters with Irish and experiments in writing in the language. Intriguingly, Hyde’s early writing in Irish utilises diacritical marks from French, suggesting how available textual models affect literacy acquisition when there is little access to works written in the language under study.

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A gallant little ‘tírín’: the Welsh influence on Irish cultural nationalism

Irish Historical Studies ◽

10.1017/s002112140000362x ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 39 (153) ◽

pp. 58-75 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Caoimhín De Barra

Keyword(s):

Deep Understanding ◽

Traditional Culture ◽

Cultural Nationalism ◽

Cultural Revival ◽

Irish Language ◽

The People ◽

Welsh Language ◽

Culture And Language

Throughout the Irish cultural revival of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Wales was held up as an example by some Irish nationalists of how a nation could revive its traditional culture and language. These writers told their audience of the heroic deeds of the Welsh in restoring their language to show Irish language revivalists that their task was not impossible. The Welsh example was studied by enthusiasts to see what steps were needed to improve the position of Irish. Organisations such as the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language (S.P.I.L.) and the Gaelic League noted with envy the levels of literacy among Welsh speakers. Revivalists believed that literacy had prevented Welsh from disappearing, and they hoped to boost literacy rates in Irish to save that language. They noted how successful the eisteddfodau were in instilling pride among the Welsh people in their culture. Accordingly, members of the Gaelic League established the Oireachtas to encourage the people of Ireland to celebrate their own distinctive characteristics. Yet while the example of the Welsh language was regularly discussed, this did not reflect a deep understanding of linguistic developments in Wales.

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Better to Die Abroad Than to Live in China

10.7591/cornell/9781501754906.003.0004 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 76-93

Author(s):

Eric S. Henry

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Lower Order ◽

Personal Growth ◽

Higher Order ◽

The Self ◽

Linguistic Development ◽

Narrative Self ◽

Personal Stories ◽

Self Development ◽

Plot Structure

This chapter examines how personal stories of Chinese citizens often narrate self-transformation as both linguistic development and geographical movement from lower-order social spaces to higher-order ones. Taken together, the stories reveal a common plot structure beginning with descriptions of the self in childhood as naïve and lacking in comprehension, followed by a growing awareness, openness, and sense of personal growth and transformation only fully realized when the teller had traveled abroad. This plot structure of English acquisition was framed against the backdrop of Shenyang as a chronotope, the temporally backward and spatially isolated city, which can be transcended through successful language acquisition. Depending on the nature of these autobiographical trajectories, sometimes the narratives culminate in the realization of transnational personae capable of transcending the limitations of the local social context. In others, however, a variety of obstacles such as age, class, gender, or lack of social connections halt narrative self-development in its tracks, leaving only failed potential or the determination to provide a better grounding for one's children to succeed in the same path.

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Public intellectuals, language revival and cultural nationalism in Ireland and Wales: a comparison of Douglas Hyde and Saunders Lewis

Irish Studies Review ◽

10.1080/09670880802658109 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 5-18

Author(s):

Paul O'Leary

Keyword(s):

Cultural Nationalism ◽

Public Intellectuals ◽

Language Revival ◽

Douglas Hyde

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Cúchulain in the General Post Office: Gaelic revival, Irish rising

British Academy Lectures, 2015-16 ◽

10.5871/bacad/9780197266045.003.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Joep Leerssen

Keyword(s):

Cultural Nationalism ◽

Post Office ◽

Irish Nationalism ◽

Consciousness Raising ◽

Irish Language ◽

Irish History ◽

Easter Rising ◽

Restricted Number

This article looks at the importance of the Gaelic language for the development of Irish nationalism in the decades leading up to, and following the Easter Rising of 1916. This importance was mainly symbolical: the Irish language was used mainly by revivalist activists, in a restricted number of functional registers, and largely as an enabling platform of other consciousness-raising activities. It is suggested, however, that such a symbolical instrumentalisation is by no means inconsequential and should be analysed as an important feature of cultural nationalism, not only in Irish history.

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Twisting in the Wind

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198706137.013.17 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Brian O'Conchubhair

Keyword(s):

Irish Language ◽

The Future ◽

Douglas Hyde

Without a strong native tradition of drama, theatre in the Irish language, initially associated with the Gaelic League, has been slow to develop and has suffered from many frustrations and setbacks. One of the landmark early productions wasCasadh an tSúgáinby the League’s founder Douglas Hyde (1901). The Abbey did not do much initially to foster Irish-language theatre, which has functioned intermittently in Dublin, with An Comhar Drámaíochta in the 1920s and An Damer, which produced Máiréad Ní Ghráda’sAn Triail(1964). More central to the tradition has been An Taibhdhearc, established in Galway in 1928, which continues to be Ireland only dedicated Irish-language theatre. While there have been outstanding plays in Irish produced in the Abbey, the future of the tradition seems to depend more on small adventurous companies such as Fíbín, Setanta, and the Belfast-based Aisling Ghéar.

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