The Irish Classical Self considers the role of classical languages and learning in the construction of Irish cultural identities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, focusing in particular on the "lower ranks" of society. This eighteenth century notion of the "classical self" grew partly out of influential identity narratives developed in the seventeenth century by clerics on the European continent: responding to influential critiques of the Irish as ignorant barbarians, they published works demonstrating the value and antiquity of indigenous culture and made traditional annalistic claims about the antiquity of Irish and connections between Ireland and the biblical and classical world broadly known. In the eighteenth century these and related ideas spread through Irish poetry, which demonstrated the complex and continuing interaction of languages in the country: a story of conflict, but also of communication and amity. The "classical strain" in the context of the non-elite may seem like an unlikely phenomenon but the volume exposes the truth in the legend of the classical hedge schools which offered tuition in Latin and Greek to poor students, for whom learning and claims to learning had particular meaning and power. This volume surveys official data on schools and scholars together with literary and other narratives, showing how the schools, inherently transgressive because of the Penal Laws, drove concerns about class and political loyalty and inspired seductive but contentious retrospectives. It demonstrates that classical interests among those "in the humbler walks of life" ran in the same channels as interests in Irish literature and contemporary Irish poetry and demands a closer look at the phenomenon in its entirety.

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: Irish English (hereafter abbreviated as IE) has been the subject of many previous studies, dealing primarily with history, grammar, pronunciation and lexicon. Many works have also been published about the English language used in works of famous Anglo-Irish authors such as Swift, Synge or Joyce. However, little research exists on the English language used in works by contemporary Irish authors. The purpose of this paper is to give an idea of what modern written IE is like. In this paper four plays by contemporary Irish authors (all born between 1950 and 1960) will be analysed with regards to pronunciation, grammar, lexicon and manners of speech. These plays are: - The Factory Girls by Frank McGuinness. - After Easter by Anne Devlin. - Brownbread by Roddy Doyle. - At The Black Pig s Dyke by Vincent Woods. As will be discussed later on, IE is not a common dialect, but regionally different, especially between the northern and the southern part of the island. In order to point out some dialect variation, the plays were selected according to their settings, which were County Donegal, Belfast, Dublin and County Leitrim. This paper will be divided into two parts. In the first part, I would like to give a theoretical overview of the various aspects of IE, such as grammar, pronunciation, lexicon and manners of speech, and how they differ from Standard English (henceforth abbreviated as SE). I will commence by providing a historical overview on how and when the English language came to Ireland, which is essential for understanding the further development of the different dialects and accents. This introductory overview is followed by IE pronunciation and grammar in comparison to RP and SE respectively. Subsequently, the lexicon of IE and certain manners of speech, such as exaggeration, will be considered. The second part will comprise the analyses of the four plays, which were carried out on the basis of those features of IE outlined in the theoretical part. The analyses will provide a short summary of the respective play, and present relevant examples from the plays. Evidently, there are more typically Irish features in the text corpus, however these are not investigated here. The second part will conclude with a comparison of the findings of the four plays. Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: 1.Introduction3 Part I.5 2.The advance of the English language in Ireland across the [...]

Belfast Charitable Society was established in 1752 with the purpose of raising funds to build a poorhouse and hospital for the poor of Belfast; twenty years later, the foundation stone of the Poorhouse was laid. From here the Society would go on to assume increasing responsibility for a range of matters relating to health, welfare and public order, and its members would play a key part in the civic life of Belfast. It continues to provide vital social services to this day and its Poorhouse, now Clifton House, is still one of the finest buildings in the city. During the century following the establishment of the Society, Belfast was transformed from a relatively small mercantile town into a major industrial city, a transformation that was accompanied by political upheaval and the major societal challenges associated with rapid industrialisation and urban growth. Taking as its focus the work of the Society, the global connections that influenced its thinking and the societal issues it sought to address, this fascinating volume provides valuable insights into the wider social, economic and political life of the nineteenth-century Irish town of which the Society became such an iconic part.

Focus: Irish Traditional Music is an introduction to the instrumental and vocal traditions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, as well as Irish music in the context of the Irish diaspora. Ireland's size relative to Britain or to the mainland of Europe is small, yet its impact on musical traditions beyond its shores has been significant, from the performance of jigs and reels in pub sessions as far-flung as Japan and Cape Town, to the worldwide phenomenon of Riverdance. Focus: Irish Traditional Music interweaves dance, film, language, history, and other interdisciplinary features of Ireland and its diaspora. The accompanying CD presents both traditional and contemporary sounds of Irish music at home and abroad.

Focusing on Irish speakers in Catholic West Belfast, this ethnography on Irish language and identity explores the complexities of changing, and contradictory, senses of Irishness and shifting practices of 'Irish culture' in the domains of language, music, dance and sports. The author’s theoretical approach to ethnicity and ethnic revivals presents an expanded explanatory framework for the social (re)production of ethnicity, theorizing the mutual interrelations between representations and cultural practices regarding their combined capacity to engender ethnic revivals. Relevant not only to readers with an interest in the intricacies of the Northern Irish situation, this book also appeals to a broader readership in anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, history and political science concerned with the mechanisms behind ethnonational conflict and the politics of culture and identity in general.