The Philosophy of Irish Ireland (Classics of Irish History)

First published between 1898 and 1900 as a series of articles in the "New Ireland Review", "The Philosophy of Irish Ireland" was the most forceful manifesto produced by that section of the Gaelic Revival movement which saw Irish identity as inextricably Catholic and Gaelic. The book addresses the growing Catholic professional class educated in secondary schools run by religious orders, and attempts to instil a collective consciousness in this nascent elite. It shows that the Gaelic Revival would not inevitably lead to separatism; it could also be deployed in the service of an aggressively reinvented less deferential 'Catholic Whig' politics. It includes a new introduction by Patrick Maume.