slow-dog.entry07.06.2002: "misc: ireland"

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It may well be, however, that the very idea of "Ireland"--like the now deserted Great Blasket which went on sale for a million dollars in the Wall Street Journal in 1987--is a kind of fiction, which the mere islanders themselves are finding it harder and harder to sustain. But it is a necessary fiction, and tens of millions of people on our planet turn annually to the fiction for an explanation of their innermost being. All nations are, in Benedict Anderson's phrase, an invented or imagined community, and the Irish have shown more relish for that fiction than most. In particular, they have asked their writers to chart its progress for them.

From The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland.

12:15 PM PST

Replies: 5 comments

That would be a nice passage coming from an Irishman, or even an American. But seeing as it comes out of Oxford, it just sounds imperialist and elitist -- just so ... English. The author's pooh-poohing the savage Troubles as childish, in almost as many words.

Posted by Schnitz @ 06/07/2002 04:18 PM PST

The paragraph isn't about the Troubles.

Posted by Sean @ 06/07/2002 04:40 PM PST

The earlier post was just a reminder to myself to elaborate.

I think all but one of the contributors to the book, and the editor, are Irish, so it's not really correct to say that it's a British book, although that's what I suspected when I picked it up..

The book tries to add some complexity to the generally held view of Irish history, and does a reasonably good job of it, since I was at first skeptical. It's not anti-Irish by any measure, but shows that Irish history isn't as simple as drawing a line from the Battle of Kinsale to the Battle of the Boyne to the 1798 uprising to the famine to the Easter uprising to Independence. You'll have to read the book to find out all the details.

As for the fiction bit, that shouldn't be so controversial. Yeats made up his own Irish mythology, with ties to some of the ancient myths. That's well known.

Posted by Sean @ 06/07/2002 05:22 PM PST

One more thing: This book was unfortunately not the most interesting read. It's not an engaging telling of the story of Ireland, there just happened to be some good bits and pieces in there.

Posted by Sean @ 06/07/2002 05:33 PM PST

Sorry, but I think a British book saying "all nations are ... an invented or imagined community, and the Irish have shown more relish for that fiction than most" has the subtext "oh, those Irish and their quaint nationalism", regardless of context.

Perhaps he just didn't turn his phrase right.

Posted by Schnitz @ 06/07/2002 07:57 PM PST