From Revival to Revolution: Medieval Narratives in Irish Republicanism

How did the history and literature of the Middle Ages play a role in the modern struggle for Irish independence? Why is the young hero Cú Chulainn the icon of the 1916 Easter Rising but not of the events that follow? What can we learn from the differences between how male and female activists retold stories of Queen Medb?Irish revolutionary nationalism engaged in a sustained and creative dialogue with the medieval past. This book argues for the continued cultural relevance of medieval narratives throughout the revolutionary era, circa 1912–23. Revival to Revolution traces common narrative threads across eras, analysing where those threads intertwine, fray, break or re-form.In some instances, stories were deployed in a self-conscious and deliberate way, reclaiming and reimagining a timeline thought to have been sent askew by Anglicisation. In other instances, the connection was more intuitive, with medieval narratives forming a reservoir of precedents and symbols drawn on to construct an understanding of the present.This ground-breaking project demonstrates that medieval narratives do not have a single distinct place in revolutionary culture: they were selected, reimagined and deployed in ways specific to the ever-changing political context. The narrative details – what was remembered, forgotten, misinterpreted or fabricated – deepen our understanding of revolutionary identity in this period. Employing a hybrid methodology and incorporating a wide range of source material, this study offers a nuanced account of a key transitional period in the history of iconic national narratives.