The Celtic Revival and Easter Rising examined

One of the world’s leading experts on Irish literature will present a provocative view of the Celtic Revival, the influential cultural movement linked with the Easter Rising.

To mark the centenary of the Rising, Prof Declan Kiberd from the University of Notre Dame will argue that the movement, whose figures include WB Yeats and James Joyce, was much more than an expression of nationalism or the late flowering of Romanticism in Ireland.

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The Celtic Revival: more than a nationalist movement?
The Celtic Revival: more than a nationalist movement?

A liberation movement

The Celtic Revival, he will argue, was more of a liberation project than nationalist, providing new roles and influence for excluded groups such as women, socialists, pacifists and secularists.

It was a way for Ireland to become a test-case for a world that was soon to experience rapid de-colonisation.

Free event

The talk, The Future of the Past: Revival Ireland: 1891-1922, takes place 18 May 2016 at 5.15pm.

The event is hosted by the Celtic Studies Initiative.