Includes section "Book reviews".

Includes its Report, 1896-19 .

Irish literature's roots have been traced to the 7th-9th century. This is a rich and hardy literature starting with descriptions of the brave deeds of kings, saints and other heroes. These were followed by generous veins of religious, historical, genealogical, scientific and other works. The development of prose, poetry and drama raced along with the times. Modern, well-known Irish writers include: William Yeats, James Joyce, Sean Casey, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, John Synge and Samuel Beckett.

The volume collects papers from a multi-disciplinary workshop, held under the auspices of the European Science Foundation, which examined the idea of Celticism in its European contexts from the eighteenth century to the present. Linguists, historians, cultural theorists and literary critics from a range of European countries addressed for the first time in a sustained way how the idea of Celticism developed and how it affected many aspects of European culture. A primary focus of the volume is James Macpherson's Ossian, now under-going a re-estimation. Other topics which receive significant examination are Celticism as a force in cultural nationalism, Celticism in contemporary Christianity, primitivism, the image of the Celt in archaeology, historiography, political propaganda and the role of the idea of the Celtic in linguistic taxonomy. This pioneering work will be of interest to scholars and students in a wide range of subjects in which the nature, function and effect of cultural concepts and images are of central concern.