2017/02/22 by Aidan Beatty · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Irish and British Studies #Migration, Policy, and Dickens Studies #Political and Economic history of UK and US #Zionism #Nationalism #Ideology #Irish nationalism #Irish #Identity (music) #Political science #History #Gender studies #Palestine #Political economy #Sociology #Ancient history #Law #Politics #Philosophy #Aesthetics #Linguistics
paper · doi:10.1080/03086534.2017.1294237
openalex publication_date 2017/02/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/06
This paper is a comparative cultural history of Zionism and Irish nationalism, focusing on themes of race, gender and identity. It seeks to highlight the strong similarities of both nationalist projects: to show how Zionists and Irish nationalists were both heavily invested in state-building projects that would disprove European racist stereotypes about their respective nations and yet, paradoxically, were also part of the general history of European nationalism. Both Zionism and Irish nationalism sought to create idealised images of the past and claimed to be rebuilding a glorious ancient society in the future as a means of escaping a degraded present. Both movements saw language revival as a key means of carrying out this ‘return to history’. And both emphasised martyrdom as a way to build up prideful ideals of devotion to the nation and used sport, militaries and agriculture as forms of nationalist social engineering. Despite their claims to the contrary, neither national movement was truly unique.