Modern Celts
This article concerns those peoples who consider themselves, or have been considered by others, to be Celts in modern times. In ancient times, the Celts were a number of interrelated peoples in central Europe sharing various cultural traits and speaking Indo-European languages with a common origin. Since the Enlightenment, the term "Celtic" has been applied to a wide variety of peoples and cultural traits present and past. Today, "Celtic" is often used in order to describe the people and their respective cultures and languages of several ethnic groups in the British Isles, France and Spain.
History of "Celticity"
"Celticity" has been adopted as a node of self-identification by a variety of peoples at different times. During the 19th century, French nationalists gave a privileged significance to their descent from the Gauls. The struggles of Vercingetorix were portrayed as a forerunner of the 19th-century struggles in defence of French nationalism, including the wars of both Napoleons (Napoleon I of France and Napoleon III of France). Basic French history textbooks could begin with the famous words "Nos ancêtres les Gaulois..." ("Our ancestors the Gauls..."). With the advance of Indo-European studies, philologists also established that there was a relationship between the Goidelic and Brythonic languages, as well as a relationship between these languages and the extinct Celtic languages such as Gaulish, spoken in classical times. The term "Celtic" therefore came to be widely applied (for the first time) to the Goidelic and Brythonic languages, and by extention to the peoples that spoke them. A romantic image of the Celt as noble savage was cultivated and reclaimed by the early William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, Lady Charlotte Guest, Lady Llanover, James Macpherson, Châteaubriand, Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué and the many others influenced by them. This image coloured not only the English perception of their neighbours on the so-called "Celtic fringe" (compare the stage Irishman), but also Irish nationalism and its analogues in the other Celtic-speaking countries. Among the enduring products of this resurgence of interest in a romantic, pre-industrial, brooding, mystical Celticity are Gorseddau, the revival of the Cornish language, and the revival of the Gaelic games. In the decades leading up to World War II, the various meanings attributed to Celtic "race" were widely discussed in Europe. The so-called Alpine race was identified with the ancient Celts and their descendants, and classical sources were scoured for appropriate stereotypes to apply to this putative race.
Modern "Celticity"
After World War II, "race" went out of fashion and "culture" took its place. Many of the same stereotypes and caricatures of Celticity once attributed to the Celtic or Alpine race, were thus recycled under the label of culture. But since the 1960s, Celticity has been put to a somewhat different use. The peoples of the "Celtic fringe" found in Celticity an explanation for their peripheral Otherness, as well as a source of pride which could galvanize them into demands for development and regeneration. Nationalists in Northern Ireland sought an end to what they perceived as endemic discrimination in the Civil Rights Movement. Breton regionalists participated in the May 1968 revolt under Breton flags and with the slogan Bretagne=Colonie. The Irish Republic, on achieving actual prosperity in the 1990s for the first time in centuries, was given the moniker "Celtic tiger". Thanks in part to agitation on the part of Cornish regionalists, Cornwall was able to obtain Objective One funding from the European Union. Scotland and Wales obtained agencies like the Welsh Development Agency, and eventually devolved governments of their own. Perhaps more crucially, a distinct identity in opposition to that of the metropolitan capitals has been forged and taken strong root. These latter evolutions have proceeded hand in hand with the growth of an inter-Celtic dimension, seen in many organizations and festivals operating across various Celtic countries. Celtic studies departments at many universities in Europe and beyond, have studied the various ancient and modern Celtic languages and associated history and folklore under one roof. The roots revival, applied to Celtic music, has brought much inter-Celtic cross-fertilization, as, for instance, Welsh musicians have revived the use of the mediaeval Welsh bagpipe under the influence of the Breton cornemuse, Irish uillean pipes and famous Scottish pipes, or the Scots have revived the bodhran from Irish influence. Northumbrian pipers in full kilt can now be seen and heard more commonly throughout the north east of England.
What are the Celtic Countries?
In the course of these inter-Celtic contacts, questions concerning the boundaries of modern "Keltia" have taken on some importance. The land most universally associated with Celtic is Ireland: but even here, the status of Northern Ireland is a source of endless friction. Scotland and Wales are the other countries best represented in, for example, Celtic studies departments; and few inter-Celtic organizations would fail to include Brittany, the Isle of Man, or Cornwall (in spite of the inability of many English people to perceive much difference between Cornwall and the rest of administrative England). It is these 'Six Nations' that (alone) are considered Celtic by the Celtic League, Celtic Congress, and various other pan-Celtic groups. But even England itself is the result of a Teutonic overlay upon a Celtic base, with in particular regions such as Cumbria, Northumbria, Devon and western parts of the country retain many aspects of the old Celtic culture in dance, mythology, dialect and craft. Meanwhile, activists on behalf of other regions have also sought recognition as modern Celts. Galicia is the first among these; Asturias sometimes follows. In neither Galicia nor Asturias has a Celtic language survived, which means that the commonest litmus test for Celticity does not apply. The basis for these regions' claim to Celticity is, rather, Celtic consciousness itself, which is justified in turn through similarities in music, dance, and folklore to Brittany and the other widely recognized Celtic countries. Cantabria, and lately Devon, may occasionally be mentioned as other Celtic regions – not to mention the French people themselves, whose identificative affinity with the Gauls has already been mentioned.
Celtic Diasporas
No treatment of modern Celticity would be complete without mentioning the so-called diasporas of Celtic peoples. A very large portion of the populations of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and England is composed of people of Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Breton or Manx descent. Since the 1960s, there has been a very considerable growth of interest and enthusiasm in their "Celtic" heritage on the part of such people. Certain places in the diaspora have particularly strong associations with these various identities: Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, with Highland Scottish Canadians; the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia, with Cornish Australians; the Chubut valley of Patagonia with Welsh Argentinians; Liverpool with the Welsh and Irish people in England; Jesus College, Oxford with Welsh students; Glasgow with the Irish in Scotland; South Boston or the South Side of Chicago with Irish Americans; and certain arrondissements of Paris with Breton Parisians.
References Peter Berresford Ellis. 1992. "Introduction". Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford University Press. Norman Davies. 1999. The Isles: A History. Oxford University Press. Robert O'Driscoll (ed). 1981. The Celtic Consciousness. George Braziller, Inc, New York City.
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