BELLAGHY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Tuesday, JANUARY 10th, 2012
Dr. DERMOT DEVLIN: IRISH LITERARY REVIVAL
1918, Florence Wilson looked at aspects of the 1798 rebellion, in particular, the fate of
Thomas Russell, “The Man of God Knows Where”.
Tailors and weavers often travelled to ply their trade and were often also ballad singers.
Most towns had printing houses which printed papers and ballda which they sold at fair
days, at races and at patterns.
Orange ballads were surprisingly identical-the airs and internal meters were gaelic;
there was less sentiment in them; they celebrated victory over enemies; recounted faction
fights and family feuds.
Issues of 19th century Ireland: 1760-the end of penal laws; Catholic emancipation/
OʼConnell monster rallies; the land question-absentee landlords-Parnell broke landlordism;
Education Act 1831; famine 1845-7.
Continental Europe-romanticsm; the cultivation of self; great books written.
Societies formed in Ireland-Celtic Society; Celtic Hibernian Society; GAA; Gaelic League
(Douglas Hyde).
Yeats-sifts through Irish folklore; Irish Literary Society(London); Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
Singe, CAsey-playwrights.
Pearse, poet % educationalist.