How did the Eucharistic Congress and language and education policies contribute to Irish Identity Flashcards
(11 cards)
Decorating the streets
The decoration of the streets highlights the importance of religion to Irish cultural identity.
Families decorated their houses with white and yellow bunting - the Vatican colours - and erected pictures of the sacred heart and other religious imagery.
The “City Decorations Committee” was formed to give advice on how to decorate houses and streets for the Congress.
All great buildings in the City were illuminated with floodlights and decorated with flowers.
The theme of the Congress was early Christian Ireland.
“It used to be called Dirty Dublin…… it is now a spotless city and festooned for the Eucharistic Congress”
An article from the Daily Tribune said that Grafton streets was decorated with ropes of greenery supporting the replica of St, Patrick’s Bust.
The amount of effort that went into decorating the cities and the theme Early Christian Ireland emphasise the importance of religion to Irish cultural identity
Divisions because of unity
The Congress contributed to Irish Cultural Identity by promoting unity between Catholics in the north and south.
This unity had its disadvantages, however.
Protestants felt that the fact that the Congress was being held in Ireland proved their belief that a country that is 77% Catholic would discriminate against their religion and culture.
They believed that “Home Rule is Rome Rule”
Because of this, 100,000 Catholics that were heading to the Congress from ye north got attacked by Protestant protesters.
“From both sides of the track came the attack, smashing windows of cars and
severely cutting passengers”
Despite the violence, the unity between Catholics north and south strengthened their cultural identity.
Eucharistic Congress (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1932
The Eucharistic Congress act highlighted how important Catholicism was to Irish cultural Identity.
Revival of Irish arts and culture
The Congress contributed to Irish identity by sparking a cultural revival.
The theme of the decorations was ‘Early Christian Ireland’.
Many people were inspired by their heritage and drew inspiration from many old Irish Traditions.
The Dublin Choral Choir Society performed with 2,500 people at the high mass.
The 1 million people who heard the music were inspired to beak away from the conservatism left from British rule.
The use of early Irish symbols and traditional music inspired people to promote their Irish identity and Culture.
Massive turnouts
The league turnout at the Events during the Congress highlighted the Congress as a part of Irish identity and spread Irish culture.
When cardinal Lauri arrived approximately 5,000 awaited his arrival.
The men’s and women’s mass had a higher turnout with 200,000 women and 250,000 and men.
The highlight of the week - The High mass at phoenix park, saw 1 million gathered to see the mass.
The high turnout of people during events of the week of the Congress highlighted how important religion was to the identity of the Irish People.
Cumann na nGhaedheals process of de-anglicisation
Cumann na nGhaedheal process of de-anglicisation contributed to Irish identity by promoting Irish culture.
They hoped to remove English influences from things like place names and Government documents.
For example, Queenstown was names Cóbh and Kingstown was named Dun Laoighaire.
Civil servant candidates also had to demonstrate their competence in the language.
One 1925, Cumann na nGaedheal set up a commission to investigate the decline of the Irish language in Gaeltacht areas around the country to try and improve Irish literacy.
The Commisson report said “ out Langley has been laid, beaten and robbed and we have to ask ourselves if it is allowed to lie there or……have it restored to health ans vigour”
Their efforts to improve Irish education contributed to type feeling of pride amongst the Irish people towards their heritage and identity.
Irish in classrooms
The process of making Irish compulsory in schools made people appreciate and express their Irish Identity and Culture.
In 1928 the Minister for Education - Eoin MacNeill, made the teaching of Irish compulsory at both primary and secondary level.
Schools that taught all their subjects through an Irish were given additional grants.
However, only 12,000 primary school teachers had qualifications in the language.
Macneill established a number of predatory training colleges in 1926 to entice more Irish speakers to the teaching profession.
Half of the vacancies wear given to native speakers and half to those who got 85% or higher in an oral entrance exam.
It then became a requirement for all teachers to pass a bilingual diploma to qualify as a teacher.
Fianna Fáil and Irish
Fianna Fáil’s work to make the population’s level of Irish stronger encouraged people to explore their cultural identity.
Minister for Education - Thomas Derig, continued the work of the previous government in regard of Irish in schools
Fianna Fáil wanted Irish to be the language of the Civil Service but this never went ahead because once people got the job, they wouldn’t need or use it.
A symbolic development under Fianna Fáil was in the Constitution - Bunreacht ná hÉireann.
In Article 8, Irish was recognised as the official language of Ireland.
English was made the Second language of the state, despite so many people speaking it.
New Irish writing
The uprise of young Irish writers helped people recognised their Irish Identity.
A central figure behind the revival of Irish poetry and prose was Seán Ó hEigeartaigh (Ó’Hegarty).
He became the director of “Comhar”, an Irish literacy journal founded in 1942.
The journal published the works of many new writers (Brendan Behan and Seán Riordan).
Many of the journals contributors became
famous authors for both their English and Irish works .
Ó’Hegarty was also a founding member of ‘A Club Leabhar’ which promoted the publication of new novels and short stories written in Irish.
The emergence of new Irish writing made people appreciate their Culture and a identity as Irish People
Tailteann games
The revival of the Tailteann Games by Cumann na nGaegheal helped to develop pride surrounding Irish Identity and heritage.
The games included a series of Sporting and cultural events healed each July that ended following the Norman invasion of Ireland.
They saw that the GAA has success so they tried to build on that.
The games included traditional sports like Athletics, boxing and, hurling, Joined with modern sports like car racing and motor boat sports.
It was designed to receive a sense of Irish Culture in the 200,000 spectators.
The first games opened with the Tailteann Choir singing “Tailteann Ode”.
The games also had 6,500 competitors across 20 events from countries like New Zealand and England.
The games eventually had to stop as the costs were too high. They were investigated in 1936 and officially stopped in 1938.
Failure to properly revive the language
Despite language and education policies encouraging people to appreciate their culture and identity, it didn’t have much of an impact as was originally thought.
This was partly due to the government putting emphasis of Irish in schools and not taking a broader approach.
People also emigrated from the Gaeltacht in search of work.
The population fell from 240,000 in 1946 to below 200,000.
