Periodic Reporting for period 3 - CLIC (Classical Influences and Irish Culture)
Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2024-03-31
The ERC project Classical Influences and Irish Culture (CLIC, grant no. 818366) addresses Ireland’s unique and hitherto underexplored history of cultural engagement with models from ancient Greece and Rome. It asks why Ireland, a northern European country never colonized by Rome, has such a rich history of classical reception, and what is distinctive about that history? The project answers these questions through a multi-thematic analytical approach, anchored to nine themes of diachronic relevance: language; land; migration; Troy; satire; Platonism; female voices; material culture; and global influence. The multi-thematic approach provides a heuristic framework that generates dialogue between normally disparate fields, such as classical reception studies, Irish and British history, English-language literature, Irish-language literature, medieval studies, postcolonial studies, philosophy, material culture, women’s studies, and global studies. The project engages with contemporary preoccupations surrounding the politics and history of the divided island of Ireland, such as the decade of centenary commemorations for the foundation of an independent Irish state (1912-1922, 2012-2022), the on-going political divisions in Northern Ireland generated by Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol, and recent scholarship on the complexities of Irish cultural identity. These issues are a springboard for opening new avenues of investigation that look far beyond the past 100 years, but are linked to them. Our project argues that sources from classical antiquity have consistently been exploited in thematically specific ways across the island, and throughout its history. The research sheds new light on the role of classical culture in shaping social, literary, and political discourse in Ireland and in facilitating the articulation of diverse Irish identities. The project’s central objective is to demonstrate the overwhelming pervasiveness of appropriations of classical culture in Ireland from the medieval period to the present day. Understanding Ireland’s deep-rooted indigenous and pre-colonial expertise in classical learning translated into Irish vernaculars and native forms, and the continuing legacy of classical appropriation for social and political expression across the island, generates new perspectives on the polyphonic diversity of Irish history, culture and identities.
Since the project launch in October 2019, work has progressed in line with eight objectives listed in the Description of the Action. A database of references to classical allusions in Irish literature is under development (Objective 1), and already contains well over 200 Irish literature entries in both English and Irish languages, dating from the 12th to the 21st centuries. Data can be searched through over 450 mythological figures, close to 130 historical figures, and 320 classical locations. Each literature entry contains Notes explaining the significance of its classical allusions, and an accompanying bibliography. All data is accessible through the clic.au.dk project website.
Through over fifty dissemination talks to both specialist and public audiences, our project team has presented research on the core research objectives associated with the project’s nine themes. Irish language texts, their interaction with classical sources, and their political meanings have been illuminated. The historical context of land confiscations in the early modern period has highlighted the articulation of political upheaval and experiences of migration and exile through classical exempla. The recurrence of the Trojan War as a motif from the medieval period to the present day has been examined to demonstrate the primacy of this narrative in addressing historical conflicts in Ireland. Similarly spanning the early medieval period to the twentieth century, exploration of the various forms of Platonism that have existed in Ireland across its intellectual history has demonstrated the development of a common non-sectarian language shared by Irish figures of diverse interests, political ideals, and religious commitments. Study of the contribution made by women to the dissemination of classical culture in Ireland has developed and expanded beyond the original women identified to include new figures from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries. Research on neoclassical and classicizing art and architecture in Ireland has uncovered the vital importance of the classical personification of Hibernia as a non-sectarian figure of universal appeal in embodying Ireland. Meanwhile, the global influence of Irish classicism has been spotlighted by research on James Joyce’s Ulysses and its intersection with migration. Publications are starting to appear and continue to be planned in line with the final object of the Description of the Action.
Through over fifty dissemination talks to both specialist and public audiences, our project team has presented research on the core research objectives associated with the project’s nine themes. Irish language texts, their interaction with classical sources, and their political meanings have been illuminated. The historical context of land confiscations in the early modern period has highlighted the articulation of political upheaval and experiences of migration and exile through classical exempla. The recurrence of the Trojan War as a motif from the medieval period to the present day has been examined to demonstrate the primacy of this narrative in addressing historical conflicts in Ireland. Similarly spanning the early medieval period to the twentieth century, exploration of the various forms of Platonism that have existed in Ireland across its intellectual history has demonstrated the development of a common non-sectarian language shared by Irish figures of diverse interests, political ideals, and religious commitments. Study of the contribution made by women to the dissemination of classical culture in Ireland has developed and expanded beyond the original women identified to include new figures from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries. Research on neoclassical and classicizing art and architecture in Ireland has uncovered the vital importance of the classical personification of Hibernia as a non-sectarian figure of universal appeal in embodying Ireland. Meanwhile, the global influence of Irish classicism has been spotlighted by research on James Joyce’s Ulysses and its intersection with migration. Publications are starting to appear and continue to be planned in line with the final object of the Description of the Action.
Progress of the project beyond the state of the art is exemplified by research completed to date covering three areas – Early Medieval Ireland, Early Modern and 18th Century Ireland, and contemporary 21st C Ireland. Chapters for the monograph Philosophia Mundana in Early Medieval Ireland present the first excavation of the influence of Platonic material on early medieval Irish literature. A peer-reviewed article published in Celtica (2021), along with a book chapter under review, give a comprehensive overview of classical allusions within Early Modern Irish poetry and 18th C Irish song tradition. This research has demonstrated the primacy of narratives of the Trojan and Roman civil wars, the popularity of Hector as a paradigm of heroism, and the ongoing persistence both of the idea that the Irish are descended from the Greeks and of an indigenous tradition of reading Latin. A forthcoming peer-reviewed article in Éire-Ireland and book chapter under review both shed new light on the contemporary relevance of Greek tragedy to Irish society and politics. Pressing themes revealed by the research are an engagement with the contemporary politics of Northern Ireland and the colonial history laid bare by the Northern Irish Protocol, and the political impact of institutional abuse and trauma uncovered in recent years throughout the Irish state, particularly the sufferings of women and children as social and political outcasts. Further articles and book chapters are planned in line with research already disseminated though talks.
A recent conference on Irish Platonisms, and associated book in preparation, was the first to survey, through interdisciplinary means, the diachronic importance of Platonist thought to a diverse cross-section of Irish culture. A planned conference on Classical Antiquity in Medieval Ireland, and an associated book, will shed light on neglected medieval texts, dating from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, which rewrite classical literature but remain largely unknown outside very small circles of specialist scholars. A planned conference on Irish Migrations and Classical Antiquity, with a further associated book, represents a ground-breaking intersectionality in bringing together scholars from a wide range on interdisciplinary backgrounds to demonstrate the importance of classical antiquity for the articulation of Irish experiences of migration, with former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese as keynote speaker.
A recent conference on Irish Platonisms, and associated book in preparation, was the first to survey, through interdisciplinary means, the diachronic importance of Platonist thought to a diverse cross-section of Irish culture. A planned conference on Classical Antiquity in Medieval Ireland, and an associated book, will shed light on neglected medieval texts, dating from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, which rewrite classical literature but remain largely unknown outside very small circles of specialist scholars. A planned conference on Irish Migrations and Classical Antiquity, with a further associated book, represents a ground-breaking intersectionality in bringing together scholars from a wide range on interdisciplinary backgrounds to demonstrate the importance of classical antiquity for the articulation of Irish experiences of migration, with former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese as keynote speaker.