Analysis: By the mid-13th century, the "English-Irish" had already begun to be assimilated in the native culture
The question of national identity in Ireland is one which has a long and complicated history. Beginning in the 12th century, with the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, the English colonial administration actively sought to erode the native (Gaelic) identity and replace it with English linguistic and cultural norms.
Ironically, by the mid-13th century, the descendants of those Anglo-Norman families, sometimes referred to as the "English-Irish", had already begun to be assimilated in the native culture. The Statutes of Kilkenny, written in the year 1366, stated that "...many English of the said land, forsaking the English language, manners, mode of riding, laws and usages, live and govern themselves according to the manners, fashion, and language of the Irish enemies..."
The idea of transforming the Irish people into loyal, obedient, English-speaking subjects in the image of the colonisers was the end-goal during the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland in the second half of the 16th century. It was to compel the natives of the island to abandon their "Irish stains" and to "become English". Sir Henry Sidney's comments (1529-1586) about the native nobility in Munster would likely turn the stomach of your average Cork native in 2025 when, in his memoir (1583), he wrote: I might have thought myself rather in the city and county of York, than in the city and county of Cork. I found such humbleness in them and willingness to become English, and accordingly to live under English law...
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Liveline, listeners call in to give out about and praise the Normans
But much to the frustration of the English colonial administration, the reality was that the efforts to impose English language, culture, and identity had not seen much progress by the 16th century. This was noted by Lord Chancellor Gerrarde when he wrote about the descendants of English settlers in Ireland in 1578: …all English, and the most part with delight, even in Dublin, speak Irish, and greatly are spotted in manners, habit and conditions with Irish stains…
Trying to understand the identity of a people through the lens and language of the colonial power is misguided. After all, these are natives of Ireland we are talking about, who spoke Irish and had their own literary tradition. During the Desmond Rebellions (1569-1583) against the advancing English conquest in Munster, the desire of the Fitzgeralds – one such "English-Irish" family – to distance themselves from any English identity is clear from the Irish-language poetry they patronised.
In his poem, Cia as sine cairt ar chrích Néill, the poet Domhnall Mac Bruaideadha claims of them: cia a-mháin acht maicne Ghearailt [...] nach pór andúthchais d'Éirinn? ["which bloodline is not foreign to Ireland except the FitzGeralds?"]; that is to say that the Fitzgeralds are the only family which can claim to be true natives of Ireland.
Read more: Ireland's language shift: when Irish speakers switched to English
The Butler family of Ormond, one of the most powerful noble families of Ireland of Anglo-Norman descent, is an interesting case. Let's take Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond (1531-1614). Butler was a distant cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, unwaveringly loyal to the Crown – much to his benefit – and a staunch supporter of her conquest in Ireland and in the suppression of rebellions, including those of the aforementioned Fitzgeralds. In a biography of his, it is said that, given his English affiliations and loyalties, and in spite of his connections to other Gaelic families, he was never "meant to turn Irish". It's hard to imagine that a man born and raised in Ireland, an Irish speaker, a patron of Irish poetry and music could be considered to be anything other than Irish.
In a poem composed for him by Flann Mac Craith entitled Taghaim Tomás an ragha is roghrádh, he and his court are celebrated for their Irishness, as distinct from Iarlaí Sagsan ["the English earls"], with a specific boastful mention of his marcshluagh cairptheach creatchruaidh ainmhear eachluath Éireannach ["tough-bodied, swift, vigorous Irish charioteer cavalry"]. The poet goes on to say that of all the nobles in Europe, and indeed further afield, gnáth sin éad re hÉireannach ["it’s normal for them to envy the Irishman"].
It was during the late 16th-early 17th centuries that this term Éireannach "an Irish person" was coming into popular use in the Irish language to describe a native of Ireland. Geoffrey Keating writes about the Gaeil and the Gaill/Seanghaill (i.e. the Gaelic people and those of Anglo-Norman descent) and places them together under the umbrella term of Éireannach in his introduction to Foras Feasa ar Éirinn (1634). A term for the natives of Ireland in the language of the people, circumventing the distinctions of Gael and Gall, was necessary for the cultivation of a national identity.
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From RTÉ Archives, Domhnall Ua Buachalla (1866-1963), Irish politician and member of the First Dáil, speaks in Irish about 'Athbheochain na Gaeilge'
It is through the lens of early-modern Irish-language literature, such as Classical Irish Poetry, that we see the emergence of a national identity, something that is impossible to trace through English-language sources alone, at a time when Irishness was under the greatest of threats.
Fast forward 300 years, to the end of the 1800s. Ireland is a part of the British Empire during La Belle Époque. Older generations remember the famine. The population of Ireland has almost halved in their lifetime. An Athbheochan has begun, the period of revival of Gaelic culture which saw the establishment of the GAA, Conradh na Gaeilge, and revival of Irish traditional music and dance.
Especially after independence in the 1920s, the Irish state and cultural movements attempted a deliberate reassertion of Irish identity. This involved promoting the Irish language and other national or cultural symbols that had been suppressed or marginalised under colonial rule. While the revival had mixed success—think of the popularity of the GAA, Irish music and dance, and compare it to the use of Irish as the national community language—it re-centred Irishness as distinct from Englishness and laid the cultural foundations of modern Irish national identity.
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