IRISH LITERARY REVIVAL, the name given to that particular development of the Celtic Renaissance which, toward the end of the 19th century and during the 20th cen tury up to the present date (1918), resulted in the production of a large, valuable, and char acteristic body of literature, written in English by Irishmen and Irishwomen, primarily for their own people, on subjects mainly but not exclusively Irish in character. Put in another way, it may be said that the Irish literary re vival means the creation of a distinctively na tional Irish literature, expressed in the English language. The success attained amply demon strates the possibility and even the advantage of the employment of that medium for the purpose. This splendid efflorescence of literary activity manifested itself in the usual forms of poetry, drama, short-story, novel, and essay. It should be noted that it synchronized with a general uplift not only in Intellectual emanci pation but also in economic progress, agrarian reform, improvement in agricultural methods, and the revival of industry — in a word, with a more hopeful outlook on life.
While there is no doubt that the increasing attention focused by the Celtic Renaissance on old Irish legends and traditions, on the ancient pagan gods and other supernatural beings of Erin, on •the hero tales and love episodes of the Red Branch and Os sianic cycles of romance, and on Irish fairy lore and folk-lore, coupled with the other revelations made by scholars concerning the wealth of literary material stored up in the almost forgotten manuscripts of the past, was the general cause of the Irish Literary Revival, it is difficult to assign 'a specific date or a given work as its starting point and proximate cause. At no period, even before the publica tion of Zeuss's 'Grammatica Celtics) m 1853, was old Irish literature or the themes it sug gested entirely neglected. Macpherson's 'Poems of Ossian> (1760-63), forgeries though they were in whole or in part, achieved a Eur reputation, and Charlotte Brooke (c. 1M3), a patient delver in the mines of antiquity, had, in her 'Reliques of Irish Poetry) (1789), unearthed treasures, dating back to the 3d cen tury of our era, before which she stood en raptured. Other collectors were James Hardi man, Rev. Dr. Drummond, Thomas Crofton Croker, Patrick Kennedy, Lady Wilde, Jere miah Curtin, Lady Ferguson, and Douglas Hyde. Credit must also be given to various learned societies, whose 'Transactions) show consistently solid results, and to a number of individual scholars, whose researches covered with accuracy an extensive field.
This, however, was all pioneer work, scholarly and necessary, but, as far as most of it was concerned, not belonging to the domain of literature proper. Thomas Moore's 'Irish Melodies) (1808 et seq.), although primarily produced for English consumption, were per haps the first real revelation of the Irish spirit in English literature. Moore's services in this respect have been sometimes strangely under rated; but it should not be forgotten that he not only sang of the episodes of the struggle between Saxon and Celt and of the earlier glories of Malachy and Brian the Brave, but that he also helped to keep alive enthusiasm for the memory of a still remoter past by cele brating the coming of the Milesians to Ireland, and those later but still olden periods when skilled generals led the Red Branch Knights to battle and when Tara was as yet the seat of mity kings. Jeremiah Call and Edward (1805-50) caught to some degree the Irish note. In one limited sense it may be said that the Revival dates from the Young Ireland party, for its members endeavored in their weeldy organ the Nation (1842-48), to reawaken the fast decaying spirit of Irish nationality, and, as a means to that end, taught that Ireland must be conscious of its past. The Nation writers, however, were in general too much engrossed in political strife and in the revolt ,against English domination to go back be yond the Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th century for their subjects. Their view was bounded by the struggle of Ireland against con quest in the past and its then existing struggle against Anglicization; though here again it ought to be noted that one of the most versatile of them, Thomas D'Arcy McGee (1825-68), found it in him to sing of the mighty race which flourished in Ireland more than 2,000 years ago. The greatest of the Nation poets was James Clarence Mangan (1803-49), and his voicing of the spirit and much of the manner of Celtic Ireland makes him one of the direct forerunners of the literary movement now under notice. Another forerunner was Sir Samuel Ferguson (1810-86), a distinguished Gaelic scholar as well as a poet, whose 'Lays of the Western Gael) (1865), (1872), and (Poems) (1880) tended strongly to that restoration of ancient legend as a groundwork and a theme for literature which later became one of the distinguishing marks of the Revival.