An Ghaelstát — A Defence of Gaelic Nationalism
This article was originally featured on An Deoraí’s Substack and is syndicated with the permission of the author.
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There has been quite a bit of controversy over one of my posts on X, I shared John Mitchels preface to “The life and times of Aodh O’Neill”. In it he states;
“The struggle is over, and can never, upon that quarrel, be renewed. Those Milesian Irish, [The Gaels] as a distinct nation, (why not admit it ?) were beaten—were finally subdued ; as the Fir-bolgs were before them; as the ancient Kymry were in Britain, and afterwards their conquerors the Saxons. A new immigration was made, early in the sixteenth century, like that of the Tuatha-de-Danaan and Milesians of remoter times. Once more new blood was infused into old Ireland.”
Here Mitchel takes an unapologetic pro-plantation stance. It is important to mention that he was a descendant of those very plantations. I feel, as a Irish Milesian man myself, disgust at a planter telling me that my nation cannot possible be distinct again and that I must make room for his people, a people mind you sent here by the British state to replace us.
The most controversial thing though was my statement that John Mitchel was not part of the Irish nation. A masculine man, a man who suffered for Ireland, but not Irish.
Let’s start with a word about word, especially that of Nation. The word comes from the Latin Natio, coming from the verb Nasci, meaning “to be born”. A nation is a racial group, only way of membership is to born of its ethnicity.
So what is the Irish nation? I hold it to be those the English labelled as “mere Irish”, the Gaels and all other groups assimilated both racially and culturally into them i.e the Gael-Normans. The Ulster-Scots and Anglo-Irish are not part of this nation.
Again, returning to the word Nation, it is defined as a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory. What descent do we share with them? What history? Are Colmcille, An Táin Bó Cúailnge shared? Is our native manner and native tongue actually shared? I fail to see what is shared with them other than history since their invasion/plantation.
I am of the thought of D.P Moran when he said;
“The foundation of Ireland is the Gael, and the Gael must be the element that absorbs. On no other basis, can an Irish nation be reared that would not topple over by force of the very ridicule that it would beget.
Eventually they [Anglo-Irish/Ulster-Scots] began to look upon themselves as a kind of English-Irish colony, that ought to be independent of English Parliamentary interference. … Those people[Anglo-Irish/Ulster-Scots] in fact, cared nothing about the Gaels, who, to their minds, were undesirable aborigines, speaking gibberish: a low multitude, whose existence they would like to forget, if they could.”
Let’s review what has happened since the ascension of the Gaels to (at least nominally) the rulership of Ireland. Once Home Rule became inevitable, Home Rule of course meaning Gael Rule in any fair democracy as we make the vast majority, the Ulster-Scots freaked out, with half a million, almost their entire population at the time, signing a covenant to resist violently a Dublin parliament (A Gaelic parliament). They got their way. They partitioned our island to give them an exclave they would be the majority in. They did not view themselves as Irish. They don’t engage in our culture, or language because it is not theirs! They say they are British and we should listen. I am sick and tired of seeing people telling the Orangemen that they’re actually misled Irish people, they’re not. They’re a different nation. Until we accept the reality of the ethnic nature of this conflict, Catholic vs Protestant being a misnomer, we can resolve it. If a united Ireland ever happens it will be because the Gael outbred the Ulster-Scots. We will never convince them to join our nation under some civic Irishness. I believe that in a 32 county Republic the Orangemen should be given limited autonomy. They shouldn’t be forced to learn Irish the way those in the 26 are because it isn’t their language and it isn’t their history.
Now let’s move onto the Anglo-Irish. Is it any coincidence that when the Anglo-Irish lost their position as Ruler of the Gaels, they left? Where to? They returned to their Homeland, England.
These people knew that they are not Irish, they have done everything in their power to avoid being incorporated into the Irish nation. They are not Irish. Berkeley and Swift may of said interesting things but they are not ours. Are they like Aodhagán Ó Rathaille or Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill? No, it is laughable to suggest such. They would have laughed at you too if you suggested they were Irish like them. But I say, is there any other way to be Irish than the way of Ó Rathaille, or Ó Néill?
I know these opinions put me at odds with much of Irish nationalist literature, but I would hope that if they had known what I know, if they had seen the Orange police state, if they had seen state organised pogroms, if they had read the horrors of the Shankill butchers, if they had seen the mass exodus of the Anglo-Irish, their opinions might have changed. They lived in a different time; the ideals they held have failed.
Though the ideal of of Protestant, Dissenter and Catholic are preached by the intellects of Irish nationalism, what do the common soldiers know of this. To return to D.P Moran;
“The United Irish Movement was a colossal failure, for it was not a movement running in line with the genius of the Irish people, and it took but a poor hold on the peasant. What did the peasants know of republics? What did they understand about English-speaking independent states? What did they care about the glorious Pale victory of 1782? The peasant was crushed and ignorant and conservative, and his mind could not be rooted out of its traditions by any Pale-steeped emissaries ; it was not ripe for the grasping of French principles or Paleman’s patriotism.”
We can speak of Tone and Emmet, but did they motivate the common solider of Kilmicheal? Was it their ideals that motivated the common footsolider of 1798? What about all the examples of Irish nationalism before them? Did O’Néill not fight for Irish nation? Moran put it aptly:
“The appeal should have been in Irish, the object held out not an academic republic but the re-conquest of the land, the reestablishment of old ways and manners, and the sweeping away not only of the English connection but, I fear, of the Paleman as well. … There are few more masculine characters than Theobald Wolfe Tone. But the truth remains that he was not an Irishman.”
The credo of the common Irish nationalist has always been and will always be, as long as our nation exists, an Ireland of the Gaels, ruled by Gaels, by the Gaels, and for the Gaels. A reconquest and reassertion of our culture, language, and nation; the creation of An Ghaelstát, to put it succinctly, is our ideal. We should strive to be what Pearse states about O’Donovan Rossa
“He came out of the Gaelic tradition. He was of the Gael; he thought in a Gaelic way; he spoke in Gaelic accents. He was the spiritual and intellectual descendant of Colm Cille and of Seán an Díomais. With Colm Cille he might have said, ‘If I die it shall be from the love I bear the Gael’; with Shane O’Neill he held it debasing to ‘twist his mouth with English’. To him the Gael and the Gaelic ways were splendid and holy, worthy of all homage and all service; for English he had a hatred that was tinctured with contempt. He looked upon them as an inferior race, morally and intellectually; he despised their civilisation; he mocked at their institutions.”
I find it most peculiar that those who on any other day would use Ethno-Nationalist arguments against the policy of mass immigration suddenly switch to civic ideas of Irishness. Either Irishness has an ethnic dimension or it doesn’t. Being Irish isn’t a civic ideal, it is a genetic reality. You cannot become Irish.
People will say this is sacrilege — “how dare one protest the principles of Tone!”, they aver. But weren’t Tone’s ideals contrary to those of Eoghan Ruadh O’Néill? Wasn’t his vision of uniting Dissenter, Protestant and Catholic not the opposite of O’Néill’s? We live in a different age than Tone — we don’t need to continue parroting his failed ideas.
I stand here unashamed of my “Mere Irish” status. We do not need “new blood in old Ireland” as Mitchel stated - we need a reassertion of our national identity, our Gaelic identity on this Ireland.
I’ll finish with the lyrics of “Bold Fenian men” by the Young Wolfe Tones (ironic I know). Take notice of the appeals back to Con and Hugh, the kings of old Gaeldom, and those “who inherit their names” - the ethnic undertones are transparent.
“We raise the old cry anew
Slogan of Con and Hugh
Out! And make way for the Bold Fenian men!
We’ve got men from the Nore, the Suir and the Shannon
Let the tyrants come forth. We’ll bring force against force
…
Pay them back woe for woe
Give them back blow for blow
Out! and make way for the bold fenian men!
Side by side, for this cause, have our forefathers battled
…
And those who inherit
Their names and their spirit
…
All those who love foreign law
Native or Saxon
Must out! and make way for the bold fenian men!
..
Irish land, Irish men, Irish mirth, Irish manners.
Sons of old Ireland, now
Love you our Sireland!”
Le meas
An Deoraí
P.S
Those acting in bad faith will say that I am claiming Pearse was not Irish. I am not. Pearse was half-gael. That’s plenty for my definition. He might well of had an ancestor at Tara. I know Pearse wouldn’t agree with me; he thought Tone the greatest Irishman, but lest we forget he is that man who wrote “Gaeil iad féin is ní Gaill ná Spáinnigh”, the complete opposite of what’s in the traditional ballad. The man who wrote “The Rebel”, which has strong racial undertones - could Tone have penned that? Mitchel? Swift? Emmet? Never! Pearse knew the Gael intimately, he was “flesh of our flesh”. If the Gael does not come first, why even bother with the language? Or culture? Or sports?