Search citation statements
Paper Sections
Citation Types
Year Published
Publication Types
Relationship
Authors
Journals
As he entered the final years of his life, Bernard Shaw received a gushing letter from Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India's first Prime Minister. During his undergraduate days in I am by birth a British subject. I have always so described myself when applying for Shaw was, of course, one of the best known public intellectuals of his age, scaling the heights of the London socialist and avant-garde literary worlds over a fifty-year period. This was achieved while he -publicly, at least -cultivated the status of an outsider in England. That he made common cause with the "foreignness" of Jawaharlal Nehru within a British context, despite substantial differences in race and language, spoke volumes for Shaw's conception of a distinctive Irishness that refused to be assimilated by an over-arching Britishness.Shaw's notion of "a citizen of Nowhere" and affirmations of his "foreigner" status inBritain chime with broader articulations of a migrant mentality of otherness, difference, and exclusion from the host country. Such traits historically distinguished the Irish experienceor, at least, perceptions of it -in Britain. The United Kingdom was, and remains, a multinational political unit; population movement within it thus carries elements of both internal and external migration. While nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Irish migrants to Britain moved, technically speaking, from one part of the British state to another, they also travelled from one clearly distinct nation to another. After the creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, this process continued for migrants to Britain from the six counties. Given this dual internal-external migratory framework and -it can hardly be forgotten -the problematic constitutional relationship between Britain and Ireland, the experience of relocation from the smaller to the larger island produced a wealth of ideas concerning identity, homeland, and belonging.
As he entered the final years of his life, Bernard Shaw received a gushing letter from Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India's first Prime Minister. During his undergraduate days in I am by birth a British subject. I have always so described myself when applying for Shaw was, of course, one of the best known public intellectuals of his age, scaling the heights of the London socialist and avant-garde literary worlds over a fifty-year period. This was achieved while he -publicly, at least -cultivated the status of an outsider in England. That he made common cause with the "foreignness" of Jawaharlal Nehru within a British context, despite substantial differences in race and language, spoke volumes for Shaw's conception of a distinctive Irishness that refused to be assimilated by an over-arching Britishness.Shaw's notion of "a citizen of Nowhere" and affirmations of his "foreigner" status inBritain chime with broader articulations of a migrant mentality of otherness, difference, and exclusion from the host country. Such traits historically distinguished the Irish experienceor, at least, perceptions of it -in Britain. The United Kingdom was, and remains, a multinational political unit; population movement within it thus carries elements of both internal and external migration. While nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Irish migrants to Britain moved, technically speaking, from one part of the British state to another, they also travelled from one clearly distinct nation to another. After the creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, this process continued for migrants to Britain from the six counties. Given this dual internal-external migratory framework and -it can hardly be forgotten -the problematic constitutional relationship between Britain and Ireland, the experience of relocation from the smaller to the larger island produced a wealth of ideas concerning identity, homeland, and belonging.
En Irlande, le nationalisme est l’une des traditions de pensée politique les plus anciennes, mais qui a trouvé une force et une influence nouvelles à la fin du XIX e siècle. Entre 1874 et 1914 ont été conçus et débattus de nouveaux projets de réforme constitutionnelle, par lesquels la classe politique, tant britannique qu’irlandaise, cherchait à transformer l’état parlementaire unitaire soit en une fédération soit en une union, avec dévolution des pouvoirs à un parlement statuant sur l’ensemble de l’Irlande. Cette dernière solution, visant à donner aux Irlandais le contrôle de leurs affaires intérieures sans pour autant abolir l’acte d’Union avec la Grande-Bretagne (datant de 1800), était connue sous le nom de Home Rule. Cet acte d’union n’allait pas jusqu’à envisager l’indépendance, ni même le statut de « Dominion », créé plus tard. Mais durant une vingtaine d’années, les débats virulents autour de cette question divisèrent l’opinion politique en Grande-Bretagne comme en Irlande, au point d’amener cette dernière au bord de la guerre civile dès 1912. La loi sur le Home Rule, votée en 1914 mais non appliquée, en raison de la forte opposition de l’Ulster, fut révisée puis votée à nouveau par le parlement du Royaume-Uni en 1920 — date à laquelle, pourtant, la mesure apparut comme trop limitée et trop tardive pour les nationalistes qui militaient pour une indépendance totale et étaient prêts à se battre pour l’obtenir, comme lors de la Guerre d’Indépendance de 1919-21 ou de la guerre civile de 1922-3. Avec ce débat sur le Home Rule, a-t-on manqué la plus belle chance d’éviter le bain de sang et la déstabilisation durable du pays ? Cet article démontre qu’une solution paisible aurait été possible, n’eût été la polarisation et la véhémence du débat, encouragées depuis Londres par des leaders politiques bien conscients que la proposition de Home Rule suscitait la fureur des impérialistes anglais et écossais, tout en galvanisant simultanément une forme d’idéalisme altruiste et exalté chez les Libéraux. Le fait que Gladstone, Salisbury, Balfour, Chamberlain, Asquith, Lloyd George, Churchill et Bonar Law aient tous pu tirer parti des débats entourant la « situation irlandaise » suggère que celle-ci était en dernier recours une « situation britannique » — ou en tous cas une situation sur laquelle les Britanniques avaient des vues particulièrement tranchées.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.