Northumbria's southern frontier: a review

Northumbria's southern frontier was arguably the most important political boundary inside pre‐Viking England. It has, however, attracted little scholarly attention since Peter Hunter Blair's seminal article in Archaeo‐logia Aeliana in 1948, which later commentators have generally followed rather uncritically. This essay reviews his arguments in the light of more recent research and casts doubt on several key aspects of his case: firstly, it contests his view that this boundary was fundamental to the naming of both southern and northern England and its kingdoms; secondly, it queries the supposition that the Roman Ridge dyke system is likely to have been a Northumbrian defensive work; thirdly, it critiques the view that the Grey Ditch, at Bradwell, formed part of the frontier; and, finally, it argues against the boundary in the west being along the River Ribble. Rather, pre‐Viking Northumbria more probably included those parts of the eleventh‐century West Riding of Yorkshire which lie south of the River Don, with a frontier perhaps often identical to that at Domesday, and it arguably met western Mercia not on the Ribble but on the Mersey. It was probably political developments in the tenth century, and particularly under Edward the Elder and his son Athelstan, that led to the Mercian acquisition of southern Lancashire and the development of a new ecclesiastical frontier between the sees of Lichfield and York on the Ribble, in a period that also saw the York archdiocese acquire northern Nottinghamshire.     

A Land and a People of Extremes – Ireland and the Irish in German Cinema

Irish film history has often been seen as a pragmatic “creative bricolage” that draws almost exclusively on images of Ireland and Irishness that have emanated from the cinema industries of the USA and the United Kingdom. Yet, Ireland has also featured in the film industries of other non-Anglophone countries and the images produced in these contexts also represent an element within the vast and extensive archive of Irish filmic images. This article writes the first chapter in the expansion of Irish film history by examining the depiction of Ireland and Irishness in German film. Ireland and the Irish, not unlike the Anglo-American gaze, are depicted as a people and a land of extremes marked by an intensity of emotion, nationalism, Catholicism and alcohol, while extremes of poverty and wild untameable landscapes also feature prominently.     

Republican Political Theory and Irish Nationalism

Republicanism has enjoyed something of a revival in recent times among political theorists. This article examines the way in which republican strains of democratic political philosophy impacted political thinkers and leaders in the case of modern Ireland. Although the Republic of Ireland was officially established in 1949, the question of its origins was a source of contention throughout the first part of the twentieth century. I argue that the intellectual origins of Irish republicanism lay in the impact of French revolutionary thought on Irish nationalist leaders in the 1790s, and then trace these republican ideas through the public debates and tracts that marked the major stages in the development of the Irish Republic. In particular, I focus on the principles informing the 1916 Declaration of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic, as well as the central arguments employed in the debates surrounding the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and the Republic of Ireland Act of 1948. My aim is to demonstrate that republican ideas affected nationalism to such an extent that in Ireland republicanism and nationalism became, and in some respects still are, practically synonymous.     

‘Aristocracies of thought’: social class in the early folklore of Yeats and Hyde

The years 1888–89 saw the production of two influential collections of Irish folklore: Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry by William Butler Yeats and Leabhar Sgeulaigheachta by Douglas Hyde. These works broke strongly with the unscientific and patronising tone of the Buchmärchen tradition in Ireland and established a new theory of folklore. In this theory, Yeats and Hyde distanced peasant narrators in an attempt to secure literary and, ultimately, aristocratic origins for their tales. As a result, Hyde and Yeats, despite their Ascendancy upbringings, could view themselves (and not the peasant narrators) as the legitimate inheritors of folklore narratives. The very stories collected, however, challenge this power dynamic. Stories such as ‘Monachar agus Manachar’ directly critique the perceived unjust division of labour and profit in rural Ireland in a way that parallels the act of folklore collection. The tales themselves resist the rhetorical frameworks of their Ascendancy collectors.     

Returning home: the return of Irish-born football migrants to Ireland’s football leagues and their cultural re-adaption, 1945–2010

This article examines a number of Irish professional soccer players’ career trajectories subsequent to their return to Ireland from the United Kingdom. More specifically, we explore their experiences following termination of their careers there, their adjustments to life after their professional football careers as well as the options and challenges in relocating into alternative professions and migratory positions. Moreover, how players cope and deal with the considerable difficulties in adapting to post-professional football career transition and termination is highlighted. Prior experience of League of Ireland or Irish League football does not impact on career duration in English League football. The majority of players that return following a career there stay in the game through participation as players with Irish professional clubs. This article also identifies the lack of structures, at many clubs in England and Ireland, for facilitating players’ adaptation to alternative careers following a career in professional football.     

STRIKING THE BALANCE: THE ROLES OF PETROGRAPHY AND GEOCHEMISTRY IN STONE AXE STUDIES IN IRELAND*

There has been a long but sporadic history of research on stone axes in Ireland, leading to the formation of the Irish Stone Axe Project (ISAP) in 1990. The purpose of this paper is to outline the research strategy of the project and to indicate the petrological techniques that are being applied in parallel with archaeological and archival studies to classify and identify potential sources for Irish stone axes. These include macroscopic studies, transmitted and reflected light microscopy on polished thin sections and X-ray fluorescence analyses. The results of the macroscopic examination of 15916 axes indicate that one rock type, porcellanite, was the dominant source, but that a wide range of other lithologies was also exploited. Several avenues for more detailed research are highlighted. A case study of gabbro axes demonstrates the value of this systematic approach to stone axe studies, and the results of this study suggest that some of these axes are petrographically consistent with British Group I, presumed to originate from sources in Cornwall, south-west England.     

A question of national identity or minority rights? The changing status of the Irish language in Ireland since 1922

When the Irish Free State was founded in 1922, the Irish language was a substantial feature of the politics that led up to this event. Subsequently the language was recognised as the national and first official language of the Irish Free State. Since then, the de jure position of Irish appears to have evolved. Most recently, legislation was introduced in the Republic of Ireland, and statutory duties were placed upon certain public bodies with regard to the Irish language in Northern Ireland. This article examines this historical shift in the status of Irish in the two political jurisdictions in Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland [as a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)], and explains its significance.     

Strange associations: Elizabeth Bowen and the language of exclusion

Since The Last September was first published in 1929, the novel's style has been a major source of controversy amongst Elizabeth Bowen's critics, many of whom align the work with reactionary feeling among the Anglo-Irish community in early 1920s Ireland. This longstanding view ignores, I think, a complex but critically overlooked aspect not only of The Last September but also of Bowen's many opinions about the novel form: the author's fascination with the language of exclusion. In this essay I argue that Bowen's use of literary devices in The Last September that rely on exclusion – including ellipses, euphemism, rumour, overheard conversation, narrative digression, and lying – dramatise the ways in which war disorients figurative language and, in so doing, subverts and transforms the apparently stable metaphors through which the Anglo-Irish sought to reconcile events occurring in September 1920, that fitful last September of the Republic's colonial ties to England, with their historical role as settler-colonialists in Ireland. Further, Bowen's experimental style disorients the reader, thereby undermining any confidence in the legitimacy of Ascendancy protocol, or the morality of British colonialism, or the militant expression of Irish nationalism, and leads instead to an emergent, though ultimately unfulfilled, cosmopolitan vision of late modernist Ireland.     

Finding Vikings in the Danelaw

Historical, artefactual and place‐name evidence indicates that Scandinavian migrants moved to eastern England in the ninth century AD, settling in the Danelaw. However, only a handful of characteristically Scandinavian burials have been found in the region. One, widely held, explanation is that most of these Scandinavian settlers quickly adopted local Christian burial customs, thus leaving Scandinavians indistinguishable from the Anglo‐Saxon population. We undertook osteological and isotopic analysis to investigate the presence of first‐generation Scandinavian migrants. Burials from Masham were typical of the later Anglo‐Saxon period and included men, women and children. The location and positioning of the four adult burials from Coppergate, however, are unusual for Anglo‐Scandinavian York. None of the skeletons revealed interpersonal violence. Isotopic evidence did not suggest a marine component in the diet of either group, but revealed migration on a regional, and possibly an international, scale. Combined strontium and oxygen isotope analysis should be used to investigate further both regional and Scandinavian migration in the later Anglo‐Saxon period.     

Reasons for leaving: The effect of conflict on English landholding in late thirteenth-century Leinster

In 1297 a parliament was convened at Dublin one of the main purposes of which was to defend more effectively the borders of the English lordship of Ireland. The conquest of Ireland had never been complete. Several of the pre-conquest kingdoms survived beyond the effective edge of the English lordship and elsewhere the actions of conquistador and settler had pushed the native Irish up into the hills. Consequently, the settler population in many parts of Ireland lived in close proximity to areas under Gaelic control. This was not a particular problem in the eastern province of Leinster until the 1270s when the Irish of the Wicklow mountains began to raid settler manors. It has recently been suggested that the effects of this ‘Gaelic revival’ and the legislation passed at the Dublin parliament to deal with its effects led several English lords to cut their landholding ties with Ireland. This article questions how important a factor conflict actually was in the decision-making processes of such English lords by examining their withdrawal from Ireland in a wider context. It concludes by pointing out that withdrawals from a landholding community were not necessarily negative in their effect or cause.     

Smolensk and the Varangians according to the archaeological data

The historical and archaeological sources from the Viking period which concern the city of Smolensk and the large cemetery at Gnyozdovo by the river Dnieper are discussed.

The author examines the most important find groups and grave types and asserts that extremely few specific Scandinavian traits are to be found.

His conclusion is that Smolensk was founded by the Slavs before the Gnyozdovo cemetery was established. The fact that only a few Scandinavian graves are known from the tenth century and none from the ninth and eleventh must mean that only small groups of Scandinavians had settled in the Smolensk area and these were rapidly assimilated with the Slav groups.     

Contemporary Irish theatre,the new Playboy controversy,and the economic crisis

Abstract

This article examines the impact of the economic crisis on contemporary Irish theatre. More specifically, I contend that the legal controversy surrounding Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle’s second production of Playboy of the Western World: A New Version in 2008 provides a case study of how professional theatre productions that dramatised stories of immigrant empowerment during the Irish economic boom were profoundly inhibited by the bust that followed. Their collaborative version of the new Playboy was widely regarded as Ireland’s most successful intercultural play and a commercial success when it was first staged at the Abbey Theatre in 2007. The subsequent breakdown in their relationship and ensuing legal dispute is more symptomatic of Celtic Tiger Ireland in economic collapse, I suggest, than the content of the play itself, or most other productions mounted in the period. I argue that this dispute did not simply reflect but also reinforced the social effects of the economic crisis, through its prolonged litigation, enormous expense, and especially the missed opportunity that it represented to position the multicultural and migrant themed Playboy within the Irish theatrical mainstream. More broadly, I suggest that the economic crisis has been marked by the disappearance of immigrants from the professional Irish stage, a void which was only partially filled by community theatre productions. A case in point is Adigun and Arambe’s most recent adaptation of Jimmy Murphy’s The Kings of the Kilburn High Road in The Paddies of Parnell Street (2013), a play which I positively appraise as an example of successful “intercultural re-appropriation”.     

Roman soil and Roman sound in Irish hagiography

ABSTRACT

Irish hagiography displays considerable interest in communication between Ireland and Rome, particularly as this featured saints, popes and relics. While people and objects travel between the two places, there is also concern to circumvent the distance involved. This article discusses an episode of miraculous communication in the Irish Life of St Colmán Élo. Here messages and messengers travel from Rome, but time and space are also telescoped through aural and material means: the sound of the bell marking the death of Pope Gregory the Great and a gift from him of Roman soil to be spread on Colmán Élo’s cemetery. The article considers how the two elements function within their hagiographical context to connect Rome and Ireland, and how these places shaped the account. The roles of bell and soil both draw on their associations in Ireland and relate to papal communication as this was experienced and imagined more widely.     

The Kidney Dagger as a Symbol of Masculine Identity – The Ballock Dagger in the Scandinavian Context

During the 13th century the dagger re‐emerged as a military weapon in Europe. A variety of distinct types evolved, soon also functioning as popular civilian weapons, all over the Continent. Contrary to other European societies, Scandinavians favoured one specific type, namely the kidney dagger. These daggers are found in different archaeological contexts in the Nordic countries, and their violent use is known from both iconographic and written sources. The Scandinavian preference is noted by several authors, one of them even proposing a Scandinavian origin. Still, they do not try to explain this preference. The article presents an interpretation based on the phallic form both of the weapon and of the way of carrying it. The phallic symbolism of the ballock dagger was obvious in contemporary medieval times, but has been obscured later on, for instance by the Victorian label ‘kidney dagger’. Using daggers from Western Norway as a starting point, kidney daggers in Scandinavia are interpreted in a medieval context derived from the Norse sagas and laws. These sources draw a picture of a violent society with rigid conceptions of honour, masculine identity and sexuality. Based on this picture, our understanding of the kidney dagger and material culture of violence in medieval Scandinavian society can be brought a step further.     

Protecting the honour of the daughters of Eire: welfare policy for Irish female migrants to England, 1940–70

Across the middle decades of the twentieth century, approximately 500,000 people left Ireland for Britain. Around half were young, single females migrating alone. Drawing on archival material in Ireland and England, this paper analyses the ways in which Catholic and secular agencies became aware of female Irish migrants; and how they understood and responded to their needs. Catholic organisations focused on maintaining religious belief and practice as a means of avoiding social problems in migrants. Some female migrants, such as nurses, were considered exemplars of Catholic and Irish femininity. However, female sexuality was problematised when associated with single motherhood, prostitution and cohabitation. The Irish hierarchy expected to lead policy development for migrant welfare. The framing of female migrant social needs within a moral and religious discourse led to solutions prioritising moral welfare delivered by Catholic priests and volunteers. Both the Irish government and British institutions (state and voluntary) accepted the centrality of Catholicism to Irish identity and the right of the Catholic Church to lead welfare policy and provision for Irish female migrants. No alternative understanding of Irish women's needs within a secular framework emerged during this period. This meant that whilst the Irish hierarchy developed policy responses based on their assessment of need, other agencies, notably the British and Irish governments, did not consider any specific policy response for Irish women to be required.     

Discourses of nation among migrants from Northern Ireland: Irishness,Britishness and the spaces in‐between

Narratives of nation and identity are highly contested in Northern Ireland, with allegiance usually given to an Irish nation or a British nation, or located somewhere along a continuum between the two. The negotiation of one's identity along this continuum can become particularly complex once one migrates outside Northern Ireland. Adopting a sense of belonging to or exclusion from an Irish diasporic community is part of this process of negotiation. This paper explores these negotiations of identity among both Catholic and Protestant migrants from Northern Ireland to England. It utilises an oral history archive of interviews with individuals who migrated in the latter half of the 20th century, and focuses on narratives of nation and identity among these migrants. Drawing on the notion of England as a diaspora space, in order to make sense of these narratives, the intersections between diasporic Irishness and different British identities are untangled in an attempt to draw out the spaces ‘in‐between’ two, often polarised, narratives of nation.     

Polish experiences with Scandinavian activity in the League of Nations

The aim of this article is to analyse the role played by Scandinavian politicians and experts working for the League of Nations in resolving conflicts to which Poland was a party and how this activity was assessed by Polish diplomats and politicians. Scandinavian involvement in decision-making processes related to Polish interests was mainly studied on the basis of diplomatic documents as well as Polish and Swedish press articles. The analysis focuses on several key issues. The first relates to the background to the involvement of Swedish politicians and experts in the procedures employed to resolve the Polish–Lithuanian conflict over Vilnius. Another concerns the attitude of the Scandinavian states towards electing Poland as a member of the League Council between 1923 and 1935, with special emphasis on the Swedish veto of 1926. Finally, the involvement of Scandinavian experts in resolving conflicts between Poland and the city of Danzig is discussed. In this case, the most important figure was Helmer Rosting, who held the position of the League of Nations High Commissioner in the Free City of Danzig between 1932 and 1934. The conclusions emphasize that Poles were generally dissatisfied with the work of the Scandinavians, accusing them of being biased towards the Germans and Lithuanians. Moreover, the Polish party involved believed that, when making their judgments and decisions, Scandinavian officials only followed the letter of the law and did not pay sufficient regard to the political context.     

Citizens of Nowhere: longing,belonging and exile among Irish Protestant writers in Britain,c.1830–1970

Since the 1970s, the literature on the history of the worldwide Irish diaspora has become increasingly sophisticated, with scholars employing a range of innovative techniques to capture aspects of the migratory experience. Many challenges remain, however, in charting the multifaceted experiences of the Irish in Britain. This article makes the case for a cultural study of Irish Protestants in Britain. It examines the contours of the Irish Protestant migratory mind-set, focusing on the writings of a number of creative émigrés, temporary and permanent, such as W.B. Yeats, Denis Ireland, Nesca Robb, and John Hewitt. Of particular relevance are articulations of longing, belonging and exile, which shaped the literary perspective of these writers, and complicated their relationships with Ireland and Britain. Attitudes regarding emigration within Protestant Ireland are also probed to tease out cross-channel ideals and fears.     

Translocational Irish identities in Edna O’Brien’s memoir Country Girl (2012)

A rural-urban exodus subsequently followed by overseas migration has characterised geographical movement in Ireland. While Irish women have outnumbered men in their diaspora, physical and symbolic identification with Ireland has been decisive to the polemic of Irish female migration. This article explores how real and symbolic contradictions in Irish women experiencing displacement are reflected in Edna O’Brien’s memoir Country Girl (2012). Using translocational positionality as an intersectional research framework, the article reveals the importance of spatiality in the ‘life writings’ of a particular situational subject and its major role in identity construction processes. Furthermore, this article relates the individual biography to the collective and complex construction of identity of Irish women abroad in the second half of the twentieth century. The analysis sheds light on many unvoiced experiences shared by female migrants and discloses key aspects of Irish migration that result in a problematic gendered relation with the land still unresolved.