the GAA and Home Rule

• Cultural Nationalism

  • Cultural nationalism focuses on promoting a national identity shaped by shared cultural traditions and language.
  • Many Irish nationalists felt that Ireland was becoming too anglicised, with English culture spreading and influencing Irish life.
• The Gaelic League

  • Founded in 1893 by Eoin MacNeill and Douglas Hyde, the Gaelic League aimed to promote the Irish language.
  • The League published the newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis (The Sword of Light) with poems and stories in Irish.

  It trained travelling teachers (timirí) to teach Irish in local communities and organized feiseanna and céilidhe to encourage traditional Irish music and dancing
• The Irish Literary Revival

  • A movement to promote Irish literature, led by William Butler Yeats.
  • The literature, though written in English, focused on Irish themes inspired by ancient myths and contemporary society.
  • The Irish Literary Society was founded in 1892, and the Irish Literary Theatre opened in 1899, followed by The Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1904, staging plays like Kathleen ní Houlihan and The Playboy of the Western World.
• The GAA and Its Role in Irish Life

  • English sports like tennis, cricket, soccer, and rugby were popular in Ireland, while Irish sports were declining.
  • On November 1, 1884, Michael Cusack called a meeting in Thurles, Tipperary, leading to the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) for sports like hurling, Gaelic football, handball, athletics, and weightlifting.
  • The GAA banned people from Gaelic sports if they also played or attended "foreign sports" and promoted the Irish language, linking sport and nationalism.
• Ireland in the 1800s: A Divided Culture

  • By the late 1800s, 77% of Ireland’s population was Catholic.
  • Religious Divisions: In the 1911 Census, Catholics made up 89.6% of the population in Leinster, Munster, and Connacht, and 44% in Ulster.
  • Political Divisions: Ireland was ruled from Westminster since the Act of Union (1801), dividing political alliances into Nationalists and Unionists.
• Nationalists

  • Believed in an independent Ireland. Constitutional nationalists sought change through political means, while radical nationalists supported full independence, using force if necessary.
  • The Home Rule Party, founded by Isaac Butt in 1874, sought a parliament in Dublin for local affairs. Leaders included Charles Stewart Parnell and John Redmond.
  • The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), founded in 1858, sought a republic through secret, oath-bound society known as Fenians.
• Unionists

  • Wanted Ireland to remain part of the UK. Unionism was strong in the northeast, fearing "Home Rule is Rome Rule" and economic harm. Leaders included James Craig and Edward Carson.
• The Home Rule Bills

  • First Home Rule Bill (1886): Proposed by William Gladstone, it was defeated.
  • Second Home Rule Bill (1893): Passed in the House of Commons but blocked by the House of Lords.
  • Third Home Rule Bill (1912): Introduced by Herbert Asquith, it passed due to the Parliament Act (1911) but was delayed by WWI.
• Unionist Reaction

  • Unionists opposed Home Rule, organizing protests and signing the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was formed in 1913, smuggling arms from Germany in the Larne gun-running operation.
• Nationalist Reaction

  • The Irish Volunteer Force (IVF) was founded in 1913, also smuggling arms in the Howth gun-running. The outbreak of WWI in 1914 postponed Home Rule.
• Charles Stewart Parnell (1846 – 1893)

  • Born in Avondale, Co. Wicklow, to wealthy Anglo-Irish Protestant landowners.
  • Elected to parliament in 1875, using parliamentary obstruction.
  • Formed the Land League with Michael Davitt and John Devoy.
  • Imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol in 1881, released after the Kilmainham Treaty in 1882.
  • The Phoenix Park Murders (1882) damaged his reputation.
  • The First Home Rule Bill (1886) was defeated, and Parnell’s personal scandal in 1890 split the Irish Parliamentary Party.
• John Redmond (1856 – 1918)

  • Born in Dublin, first elected to the House of Commons in 1881.
  • Led the Irish National League after Parnell’s death in 1891.
  • The Second Home Rule Bill (1893) was defeated by the House of Lords.
  • The Parliament Act (1911) limited the House of Lords' veto power.
  • The Third Home Rule Bill (1912) was passed but postponed by WWI.
  • The Easter Rising (1916) and WWI impacted Redmond’s influence, and he died in 1918.