- Do b'ait liom-sa spóirt agus amhrán' The popular aspects of Gaelic Irish mentalité in the mid eighteenth-century
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Abstract:
- This paper is a chapter of a larger study on Gaelic Irish mentalité in the mid eighteenth century. Drawing on Irish language sources, namely the vernacular poetry of Filí na Máighe (The Maigue poets), this study provides a unique insight into the thoughts, attitudes and beliefs of the Gaelic Irish community in mid eighteenth-century Limerick. This study draws on the insights of historians like Louis Cullen, Seán Connolly, Vincent Morley and Éamonn Ó Ciardha as well as literary scholars like Breandán Ó Buachalla, Úna Nic Éinrí, Máire Comer Bruen and Dáithí Ó hÓgáin but provides an original case study rooted in a specific corpus of poetry. This study examines the collective outlook and popular mind of the Maigue-side district of County Limerick in the period c. 1730-1770. While the first two chapters, which have also been submitted, focus on the prominent political and religious elements of mentalité respectively, this chapter examines the more personal and local concerns of the Maigue poets. While historians have consistently called for more research drawing on Irish language sources over the past twenty years, the focus of the historiography still remains on the more meta concerns such as politics, penal legislation and religious issues. This study is an effort to engage with the vernacular literature and to demonstrate its wealth and value as historical source material in social and local history. In this bottom-up approach, themes such as alcohol, community, intellectual activity, women and superstitions are discussed to demonstrate the full extent of what the vernacular literature can contribute to the historiography of the eighteenth-century and provide a more comprehensive interpretation of Gaelic Irish mentalité than has hitherto been achieved.