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Post by maolsheachlann on Jul 28, 2015 9:05:45 GMT
I'd like to ask a question about Irish "isolationism", at the time of the Gaelic revival and during the early decades of the independent Irish state, up to (I suppose) the time of Sean Lemass and T.K. Whittaker.
My question is, did Irish "isolationism" really exist as an attitude or a policy? I've heard the term bandied about constantly, but I don't think I've ever come across any historical quotations where an Irish nationalist called for isolationism, even without using the term.
I agree that there was cultural protectionism-- for instance, the ban on English games in the GAA-- and that there was a strong adherence to neutrality. But that is hardly isolationism, is it?
I'd appreciate input from anybody, but especially those with better historical knowledge than me (which, come to think of it, is probably everybody!).
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Post by hibernicus on Jul 28, 2015 18:23:58 GMT
Not quite sure what isolationism means in this context. Should be borne in mind that in that era national economies were more self-contained than today when capital and technology are more mobile. I don't think there were very many advocates of absolute economic self-sufficiency. I know of a couple of instances of things such as an ultra-republican and suppporter of the GAA BAn who didn't see why Ireland should compete in international sports (though the same individual was a fan of the Marx Brothers and PG Wodehouse) or a priest who called for a ban on the import of ALL foreign newspapers and magazines, because he believed this would allow the Irish newspaper and magazine sector to expand. IN the American context "isolationism" means the view that matters outside US borders (and/or its sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere; usually "and") are irrelevant and the US should stay out of them as getting involved can only cause grief, but this is an attitude which is much easier for a continental power to adopt than for a small island. The British in the late C19 used to talk about "splendid isolation" meaning they were so strong they didn't need allies and could dictate to any possible rival, but that wouldn't apply to Ireland either (unless in the megalomaniac fantasies of Ailtiri na hAiserighe) and even when they had an empire the British couldn't keep up such a policy after 1900 or so.
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Post by maolsheachlann on Jul 28, 2015 18:34:24 GMT
Thanks Hibernicus. I was deliberately non-commital about the meaning of the term because when it is bandied about, in an Irish historical context, it is rarely explained or defined. For instance, one of the first results I found for "Ireland" "isolationist" was this discussion on Politics.ie. The person who starts the thread seems to mean it mostly in an economic context, but then it is used in all sorts of ways. www.politics.ie/forum/eu/218270-futility-isolationist-nationalism.htmlIt may not be your experience, but I hear it used all the time, and usually to denounce Irish nationalism. If you google "Irish isolationaism", you get lots of results, and (from a quick scan) they all seem to be using the phrase as though it is self-explanatory. But I very much doubt that many Irish nationalists were isolationist in any sense-- though it's interesting to hear about those exceptions. (I did hear that there was an attempt, at one stage, to jam English TV broadcasts; I don't know if this is a myth. The proposal to ban foreign newspapers in order to build up the Irish market seems more like protectionism than isolationism to me; the bannig of the foreign newspapers would not be an end in itself.)
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Post by hibernicus on Jul 28, 2015 18:46:11 GMT
There may have been calls for English TV to be jammed but I don't know if it was ever tried; it would require powerful equipment. In the 60s some Gaelic Leaguers and writers on neo-colonialism claimed that the presence of powerful TV transmitters in West Wales was a deliberate attempt to culturally subjugate Ireland, but the real explanation seems simply to have been that it was necessary because the Welsh mountains interfered with transmissions from the east. The proposal to ban foreign newspapers (made by Fr RS Devane SJ, who was fairly prominent in the cultural debates of the 20s-50s) was put forward not only for economic reasons but on the grounds that even if they weren't actively immoral (and there was a fair bit of on-and-off censorship of imported newspapers in the period on specific grounds) they coloured the mind of IReland with foreign cultural assumptions.
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