| Abstract: |
The study investigates the nation and nationalism, national ideology, and national identity in Ireland during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and aims to explore whether such terms as ``nation'' or ``nationalism'' may be applied to medieval Ireland. While some historians and sociologists argue that the nation may exist only in the modern world with the advent of the nation-state, others have shown that, at least, ethnic groups which appear to be nations existed in medieval Europe, possibly in antiquity. In Ireland, historiographical issues related to the creation of the modern Irish state in the early twentieth century have always guided the study of the nation and nationalism. The study focuses on the manifestations of the medieval nation in Ireland as found in the historical and archaeological record, and the central questions addressed include whether there are observable manifestations of a nation, national identity, and ethnically-based ideology in Gaelic Ireland in the years 1200--1400, and the extent to which those manifestations may accurately be described in national terms. In this study, the nation is defined as a population sharing an ethnic history, tradition, language, and/or religion, and this population's connection with a particular, definable geographic region. In addition, the author argues that this identity is shown as often conflicting with the self-ascribed identity of another population sharing the same or neighbouring geographic space. Hence, examples of a nation found in medieval Ireland may embody the double characteristics of being a means of self-identity for the Irish and of self-distinction from the Anglo-Normans. |
