Irish Migrations and Classical Antiquity

This open-access volume explores the reception of Graeco-Romano culture from Ireland’s earliest medieval scholars such as Columbanus and John Scottus Eriugena to later writers including James Joyce, Seamus Heaney and Colm Tóibín. Migrations and classical antiquity have played a key interconnected role for successive centuries in the experiences of the Irish diaspora, in the articulations of those experiences, as well as in the influences of Irish classicism abroad. Throughout subsequent centuries ancient Greece and Rome were repeatedly evoked in literature, art, and historiographies associated with migrations as vehicles for the expression of varied political and cultural positions.

The chapters in this collection explore how the early Irish peregrini left their mark on continental scholarship; how the model of ancient Rome was coopted for political purposes; the ways in which Protestant writers adopted the notion of ancient Romanitas as a key to the British imperial project; and, finally, how the Catholics perceived ancient Rome as being subsumed into the universalism of the Roman Catholic Church. As such, this collection, the first of its kind, seeks to create a holistic overview of the distinctive cultural classical in Irish culture throughout the ages. What we learn is how deep articulations of migration through classical media have penetrated Ireland’s diasporic culture.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the European Research Council.