Meon Gaelach: A 1960s warning against Globalization in Ireland
Máirtín Ó Braonáin, SJ.'s famous pamphlet 'An Dá Chultúr' (1967) railed against the cultural usurpation of Gaeldom.
The struggle against Anglocentric provinciality
For this week’s Meon Gaelach I have decided to translate a powerful passage from the Jesuit Gaeilgeoir writer Máirtín Ó Braonáin, SJ.’s pamphlet, ‘An Dá Chultúr’ (1967). A profoundly prescient piece of work, Ó Braonáin makes an argument for preserving and allowing to flourish our cine’s (race’s) linguistic and cultural soul, from what he perceives to be the threat of Ireland’s assimilation into the Anglo-American cultural orbit. In this sense, there are the ‘two cultures’ of our native Gaeldom on the one hand and the global Anglicised Ireland on the other. In a similar sense to Seán De Fréine’s work whom I touched on before, the warnings are eerily prescient considering he wrote this in the 1960s, so long before so much of the Anglocentric transformation we see in Ireland today.
If anyone knows more about Ó Braonáin himself I would love to hear, as truth be told I have not been able to find out much about the man, other than that he collaborated with Muiris Ó Droighneáin and that of course he was a Jesuit. The latter aspect striking me as very similar to the great thinker and librarian Stephen J. Brown, SJ., and his work on nationality and Gaelicism in the work ‘Essays of Contention’. Ó Braonáin appears to be part of a budding intellectual current in the 1960s, along with De Fréine, Fennell and Ó Tuama, which emphasised that meas orainn féin agus ar ár n-oidhreacht (proper respect for ourselves and our heritage) was the key to national self-respect and confidence in taking part in the modern world.
In one beautiful passage, Ó Braonáín encapsulates the philosophy I am trying to encourage with Meon Gaelach, in looking back on our native culture and language: Iontu siúd éistimid lenár gcine ag machnamh agus ag marnadh uirthi féin, ar an saol mói agus ar an tsíoraíocht le dhá mhíle bliain (‘In them we will listen to our race pondering and speaking to itself, on our expanded world and eternity for two-thousand years’). This first makes me think of a GK Chesterton essay about the importance of him, as an Englishman, watching Irish nationalist plays as they are effectively ‘the Irishman speaking to himself’. But perhaps more significantly I’m reminded of the beautiful phrase Arracht-actor Dónall Ó Héalaí uses in his beautiful telling of a story in which the Gaelic god Ogma reminds his eager comrades of the importance of re-appreciating one’s ancestral soul: ‘We have moved so far so fast during these past two and a half moons, that we must now sit down and wait for our souls to catch up.’
INTELLECTUAL FORCES AND SPIRIT
I don't have to repeat here the thing I've said before (in my article in Studies), that there is no one feature in particular of our forefather's civilisation which we need to resurrect, but the culture, the intellectual force and spirit, that was there from the start of the movement, in its creative spirit, in the body of civilisation in its totality, again to put its principles and creativity to the forefront of the life of our people. That is the movement that taught forcefully to our race in particular to be aware of our heritage and to impress onto their minds the value of having a graceful life in regard to it and in saving it. It was that which realised the value of living life in that particular way towards oneself, a mode which does not equal any quality for him or any other race's perspective, a mode which is truly non-material and at the same time very real, very concrete. If the head of the Gaels is in the sky he will not have the knowledge of his feet, that are settled, based on the soil and on the hard earth of good people.
If the culture is taught to the race, the race will teach the culture to the next generations over and over again. Both of these are alive; they will transmit, between culture and race, from generation to generation, moulding and counter-moulding them, co-shaping each other creatively and alternately during it, that they both became a unity that no part of it lives in the absence of each other. That spirit is always there, especially in the language and in literature. It is alive in ourselves and in our people, whether big or small, if not we could not say any longer that the culture of the Gael lives. But it does.
But it is very weak. There is nothing in her but a small trickle from a low well, or like the remains of Gaeldom from previous generations. She is almost stripped from the wells from which she birthed, but thanks be to God that binding of the narrow ribbon between us and through that small stream of Gaelic-speaking that is always alive. There is no way to repair this decadent culture and to widen the stream into a spring tide, but to fully allow our language and literature to flow once again from those wells. In them we will listen to our race pondering and speaking to itself, on our expanded world and eternity for two-thousand years.
Only there will we get an understanding of our heritage, and without that understanding, not only will we not be able to save that heritage, but we will not have the right respect for ourselves as a race or of the particular specifics of our heritage which we most need to save and preserve. That is the heart of the story; respect for ourselves and our inheritance as something which will do a lot for our prosperity and the wealth of the human race's spirit. Prosperity, and I said prosperity of spirit most importantly-but I don't have to tell the people of the Conradh (Gaelic League), that have always been in the forefront in encouraging emphasis on our native qualities, for this self-confidence to influence our morale or economic courage and the economic future of the country. Either in the case of culture or economics the Gaeilgeoirí (Irish-speakers) are looking forward beyond any other group.
If there are people who could care less about Ireland being able to add its own specific native contribution to the cultural wealth of mankind they’re not worth caring about. There was a large group who thought that Ireland could develop its own culture through the medium of English, and of course that is the culture which is still more or less in this country today through the English side. They are still there, but in recent times the most thoughtful people among them are letting it be known that the Irish language must exist in some way to protect this culture. With those I will be speaking about another time.
FÓRSA INTLEACHTA IS MEANMAN
Ní gá dom a athrá anseo an rud a dúrt cheana (in alt liom ar Studies), nach aon ghné ábhartha de shibhialtachta ár sean is fonn linn a athbhunú, ach an cultúr, an fórsa intleachta is meanman, a bhí ó thús ina sprid, ina anama cruthaitheach, i gcorp na sibhialtachta sin go hiomlán, a chur arís i mbarrr a nirt agus a chruthaitheachta i saola ár muintire. Sí an sprid sin a mhúnlaigh is a fhorbair ár gcine ar modh ab oiriúnaí dá inmhe agus dá dhúchas féin agus a chuir ar a chumas a raibh de mhaitheas as tsaol seachtrach a ghlacadh chuige agus a chomh shamhlú. Ba í a thug air dearcadh ar an saol ar a mhodha sonrach féin, modh nach ionann díreach cáilíocht dó agus do dhearcadh aon chine eile, modh atá fíor-neamh ábhartha agus ag an am gcéanna sár-réalach, sár nithiúil. Má tá ceann an Ghaeil sa spéir ní i gan fhios é dá chosa, atá lonnaithe, bunaithe ar chré agus ar chrua thalamh na dea-chéille.
Má mhúnlaigh an cultúr an cine, mhúnlaigh an cine an cultúr glúin i ndiaidh a chéile. Rud beo iad araon; traiseoladh iad, idir chultúr is chine, ó ghlúin go glúin, iad ag múnlú agus ag frithmhúnlú, ag comh-mhúnlu a chéile go cruthaitheach comh-mhalarthach lena linn, go ndearnadh díobh araon aontacht nach beo do chuid de in éagmais a chéile. Tá an sprid sin beo i gcónaí, go príomha sa teanga agus sa litríocht. Tá sí beo ionainn féin agus inár muintir, an bheag nó a mhór, nó ní fhéadfaí a rá gurb ann a thuilleadh do chultúr Gael. Tá.
Ach tá sí an-lag. Níl inti ach mar a bheadh silín an-lag ó thobar íseal, nó mar a bheadh fuíoll ó ghaelachas na n-aoiseanna. Tá sí beagnach scartha ó na toibreacha is beatha dí, ach a bhuí le Dia tá ceangal an ribín chaoil idir sinn is iad tríd an srutháinín beag Gaeilge atá beo i gcónaí. Níl slí chun an lagchultúr seo a neartú agus an srutháinín a leathnú ina rabharta ach é chur arís i gcomhcheangal iomlán leis na toibreacha sin, an teanga agus an litríocht. Iontu siúd éistimid lenár gcine ag machnamh agus ag marnadh uirthi féin, ar an saol mói agus ar an tsíoraíocht le dhá mhíle bliain.
Ansin amháin a gheobhaimid tuiscint ar ár ndúchas, agus gan an tuiscint sin, ní amháin nach mbeidh ar ár gcumas dúchas sin a fhorbairt, ach ni bheidh an meas ceart againn orainn féin mar chine ná ar an sonraitheacht inmheasa is dúchas dúinn a thabharfadh go mb'fhiú linn é a ghráú, é a fhorbairt agus é a thraiseoladh. Sin croí an scéil: meas orainn féin agus ar ár n-oidhreacht mar rud a chuirfidh go mór lenár rathúnas féin agus le saibhreas spride an chine daonna. Rathúnas, a dúrt-go priomha rathúnas spride-ach ní gá dom a rá le lucht an Chonartha, a bhí i gcónaí chun toasaigh ag cothú meas ar ana earra dúchasach, gur ar an bhféinmheas seo a bhraitheann morale nó meanmnacht eacnamaíoch agus todhchaí eacnamaíoch na tíre. Pé acu i gcás cúltúir nó eacnamaíochta táid na Gaeilgeoirí ag breathnú rompu thar aon dream eile sa tír. Is iad na réalaithe par excellence iad.
Má tá daoine ann ar chuma leo Éire a bheith ag cur go sonraitheach uaithi féin le saibhreas cultúrtha an chine daonna ní fiú iad go mbacfai leo. Bhí dream lionmhar mair a cheap go bhféadfadh Eire cultúr dá cuid féin chothú trí mhéan an Bhéarla, agus ar ndóigh sin an cultúr atá fós ann a bheag nó a mhór sa tír seo ó thaobh an Bhéarla de. Táid fós ann, ach ar na saolta deireanachan seo tá na daoine is smaointiúla ina measc ag ligint lenal n-ais go gcaithfidh an Ghaeilge a bheith ann ar chumal éigin chun an cultúr seo a chosaint. Leo siúd a bheidh mé ag labhairt go ceann tamaill eile.