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Modern Celts

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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 Age of Enlightenment 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, Spain and northern Portugal.

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..."). A similar use of "celticity" for 19th century nationalism was made in Switzerland, when the Swiss were seen to originate in the Celtic tribe of the Helvetii, a link still found in the official Latin name of Switzerland, ''Confœderatio Helvetica'', the source of the nation code CH. At the same time, there was also a tendency to play up alternative heritages in the British Isles at certain times, partially as a rationale for non-English parts of the islands to fully participate in the British Empire. For example, in the Isle of Man, in Victorian times, the "Viking" heritage was emphasised, and in Scotland, both Norse and Anglo-Saxon heritage was played up. With the advance of Indo-European studies, philology 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 Celtic languages languages, and by extension to the peoples that spoke them. A Romanticism 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, François-René de Chateaubriand Chateaubriand, Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué and the many others influenced by them. This image coloured not only the England English perception of their neighbours on the so-called "Celt belt 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 Gorsedd 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. Irish nationalism Nationalists in Northern Ireland sought an end to endemic discrimination with the Civil Rights Movement. Breton regionalists participated in the May 1968 revolt under Breton flags and with the slogan ''Bretagne=Colonie''. The Republic of Ireland, on surpassing Britain's GDP per capita 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 Scottish and Welsh Nationalists have recently forced the institution of the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales, which are seen by many as a first step towards eventual independence from the United Kingdom UK. More broadly, 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 pan-Celticism pan-Celtic or 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 Celtic link is also claimed to come mainly from: * language * music * cultural events * sport 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. Sports such as Hurling and Shinty are seen as being 'Celtic', whilst the Irish fleadh is seen as an equivalent to the Breton fez noz. The United States USA, which has the most people with claims to a Celtic heritage, has also taken part in discussions of modern Celticity. For example, James H. Webb, in his 2004 book ''Born Fighting – How the Scots-Irish Shaped America'', controversially asserts that the early "pioneering" immigrants to North America were of Scots-Irish origins. He goes on to argue that their distinct "Celtic traits" (loyalty to kin, mistrust of governmental authority, and military readiness), in contrast to the "Anglo-Saxon" settlers, helped construct the modern "American identity". Irish Americans also played an important role in the shaping of 19th-century Irish republicanism through the Fenian movement, the development of a discourse of the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1849) Great Hunger as a British atrocity, and so on.

What are the Celtic Countries?
{{main|Celtic nations}} Six nations tend to be most associated with a modern Celtic identity, and are considred 'the Celtic nations'. These are: * Ireland * Scotland * Wales * Brittany * Isle of Man * Cornwall It is these 'Six Nations' that (alone) are considered Celtic by the Celtic League (political organisation) Celtic League, Celtic Congress, and various other Pan-Celticism pan-Celtic groups. A number of activists on behalf of other regions/nations have also sought recognition as modern Celts, reflecting the wide diffusion of ancient Celts across Europe.

Celtic Diasporas
No treatment of modern Celticity would be complete without mentioning the diasporas of Celtic peoples. A very large portion of the populations of the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is composed of people from Ireland, Britain, Brittany and the Isle of Man; and Jamaica, Barbados, Montserrat, Saint-Barthélemy, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico have also experienced large-scale migration from these lands at various times. There are three areas outside Europe with communities of traditional Celtic language speakers: the Chubut valley of Patagonia with Welsh speaking Argentina Argentinians (known as "Y Wladfa"), Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, with Canadian Gaelic Scottish Gaelic-speaking Canada Canadians and southeast Newfoundland with Irish language Irish Gaelic-speaking Canada Canadians. While no celtic-identified immigrant group is currently pursuing independence or other nationalist goals, Celtic people have played critical roles in each societies movements for independence from the larger empires to which they were formerly attached. Today, Celtic identity throughout the Diaspora is generally presented as a cultural identity (as opposed to a nationalist or racial one), and is experiencing a major revival. 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: the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia, with Cornish Australians; Liverpool with the Welsh and Irish people in England; Jesus College, Oxford with Welsh students; Glasgow with the Irish in Scotland; South Boston South Boston or the South Side Irish South Side of Chicago with Irish Americans; and certain arrondissements of Paris with Breton Parisians. Historically prominent members of the Celtic Diaspora in the Americas include Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, Bernardo O'Higgins, Che Guevara (who was of Irish, Spanish, and Basque descent), the members of the San Patricios St. Patrick's Battalion, and many others.

Criticism of Modern Celticism
There have been critics of the modern valorization of Celticity. It has been seen, for example, as firing some of the negative aspects of Irish nationalism. Continental European groups claiming Celtic identity have been particularly vulnerable to claims that they are using ethnic divisions for political gain. For example, the Italy Italian Lega Nord have been accused of appropriating Celtic culture to pursue a racism racist and exclusionary agenda. Similar accusations have been made towards claims of Celtic ethnology in Austria.[http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/celtic.htm] Indeed, John Collis of the University of Sheffield has argued that the idea of a 'Celtic' culture in the British Isles was invented entirely by ancient authors, and then re-born by modern day nationalists. This is seen as an extreme critique of the situation; however, in Ireland, it has been shown that only around a quarter of the island contains significant archaeological evidence of the Iron Age culture typically identified as 'Celtic'.[http://www.irish-association.org/archives/richard_warner11_99.html] Among Insular Celtic languages Atlantic Celtic groups, the main line of attack is that – while there is strong evidence for linkages between Atlantic and Continental Celtic languages Continental Celts – earlier assumptions that the Atlantic Celts must be the descendants of Continental Celts have largely been proven false. This finding has led some, including Richard Wagner of the Irish Institute, to assert that the Atlantic Celts are not Celts at all.[http://www.irish-association.org/archives/richard_warner11_99.html] Defenders of Celtic identity counter that the term has long referred to both Continental and Atlantic groups and is not dependant on any association between the two, so while revelations that the Atlantic Celts are an indigenous and not an immigrant group are of profound academic interest they are not particularly relevant to debates around the ethnic identitifications of the modern Celtic nations. Recent genetic evidence seems to indicate that the populations of Ireland, Wales, Brittany, the Isle of Mann, and Galicia may be closely linked and have been remarkably stable for "at least 6,000 years".[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2076470.stm] This would mean that their shared culture actually pre-dates the La Tène culture La Tène and Hallstatt culture Hallstatt Celtic cultures. This does not necessarily mean that these peoples are not "Celts", however. Rather it means that the historical understanding of who the Celts were and are may need to be revised.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1256894.stm] In any case, the usage of "Celtic" identity as a marker of indigenist, autonomist, and/or nationalist movements within the modern "Celtic nations" is deeply in ground and unlikely to change any time soon.

See also
*Pan Celticism

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. * Euan Hague, Benito Giordano and Edward Sebesta 2005. ''Whiteness, multiculturalism and nationalist appropriation of Celtic culture: the case of the League of the South and the Lega Nord'' in ''Cultural Geographies'', 12 (2), pp151-173 * John Collis 2003. "Celts: Origins, Myths and Interventions". Tempus Category:Celts

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