In Search of the Galician Identity (via Éire)

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Many of us – interested in Irish gaelic Studies – may have heard about the Lebor Gabála (translated as Book of Invasions or Book of the Taking of Ireland), an important Irish text (with dissimilar versions) composed during the Middle Ages that narrates the origins of the unlike Celtic tribes that peopled Ireland. If y'all already knew nearly it, you might accept likewise heard about the final settlers, the Milesians, who came from the north-west of Spain.

[You'll find plenty nigh the legend of the Milesians, or the 'Sons of Mil', doing a simple search online. But, if you desire the real bargain, click hither to access the text edited and translated by Professor Robert Armstrong Stewart Macalister, which includes the different versions of the legend].

And so, did the Irish come from Kingdom of spain? You can discover the answer to that in dissimilar manufactures simply for a quick reading I recommend you lot John Carey'south article "Did the Irish come from Spain?", published in History Ireland.

[For a more than detailed understanding, you can read Manuel Alberro´s "Milesians and Alans in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula and the Mythical Invasion of Ireland"].

Beginning, permit me requite yous the mythical respond. Bregon, or Breogán (as we know him in Galicia), or Breoghan, was the Celtic primary of a town named Brigantia (belived to exist the modernistic metropolis of A Coruña), where he had a very high belfry built: the Tower of Breogán (believed to be A Coruña's Belfry of Hercules). Ane day his son Íth got to the top of the tower and, looking northwards, he saw state in the distance. "Íth at once embarked for the mysterious isle. There he met the state's iii kings, men of the Túatha Dé Dannan" (Carey 8). They killed him and Íth's followers took his trunk back to Brigantia. "Information technology was to avenge this deed that the Gaelic invasion took identify: the expedition was led by Íth's kinsmen, the sons of Míl Espáine (hence 'Milesians'). Aided by the wisdom and magic of their principal-poet Amairgen [or Amergin], the sons of Míl gained the support of Ireland's three goddess-queens, and conquered the Túatha Dé Danann. Ireland was divided betwixt Éremón, son of Míl, who ruled its northern half, and Éber Find, son of Míl, in the south (Carey 8)".

Breogán and his tower in A Coruña, Galicia
Breogán and his tower in A Coruña, Galicia

Now, legends aside, what practice academics think? Did the Irish gaelic come from Spain? or, to be more precise, from the Celtic region of Gallaecia? To put it simply, Carey argues that "the story of Ireland's settlement from Kingdom of spain tin can exist shown to accept been based not on native tradition but on scholarly speculation, drawing on Latin learning and especially on the writings of Orosius" (x), a Spanish cleric – himself a native of Galicia. The Roman ideas of geography are a key question; "If Espana was thought to exist the role of Europe closest to Republic of ireland, what would be more natural than to run across it as the source of arrivals from overseas? Already in 1915 the Dutch scholar A.1000. van Hamel had ended that practically 'the entire story' of the sons of Míl tin can be accounted for on the basis of the geographical ideas of Orosius" (Carey ten-11). Finally, at "a time when scholars in Ireland felt themselves to exist receiving and so much from Kingdom of spain, […] information technology is not at all surprising that Kingdom of spain – 'the female parent of races', equally Isidore [of Seville] had called it – should effigy prominently in their own historical speculations" (Carey eleven). Thus, Carey concludes that the fable of the Milesians was "an old invention, the fruit of medieval imagination, rather than a dim recollection of the prehistoric past" (11). Manuel Alberro also states that its historical credibility "has been gradually deteriorating. Initially considered a legitimate chapter of Irish gaelic history, information technology is presently rejected as 'pseudo-history'" (i).

However, when facts fail our purposes, we tin yet choose to believe. The original link between the Galician and the Irish people might be only a myth, but that is not the issue anymore; the Irish-Galician link goes far across that. Manuel Alberro talks about the contacts betwixt Gallaecia and Ireland since the Neolitic, increased during the "Atlantic Era" of the Bronze Age, until the center of the 1st c. AD; and near the "close resemblances between the folk-tales and legends of Galicia and those of Republic of ireland" (iii).

However faux the legend of the Milesians might be, it has become part of the Galician cultural identity. Galicia took Ireland as a model for recuperating her Celtic identity during its cultural revival of the 19th century, particularly in the fields of literature and traditional music. Some similarities are easy to recognise and have helped in making Galicians see Éire equally their Celtic sister: Catholicism, rainy weather, a beautiful green mural, colina forts and a traditionally agricultural and fishing economy. The idea of Ireland as sister is peculiarly strong if we get into Galician nationalism and its politics, but that is another story. As Emily Lawless said, "I am not anti-Gaelic at all as long as information technology is but Gaelic enthuse and does not include politics".

If yous visit A Coruña, in front of the Tower of Hercules you will find the statue of Breogán guarding information technology and a summary of the legend written at his feet; a GAA club  under the name of Fillos de Breogán (Breogán's Sons); and the Amergin Academy Institute of Research in Irish gaelic Studies at the University of A Coruña. Also, in 2014, the most pop Galician folk band, Luar na Lubre, released their anthology Torre de Breoghán, which songs are inspired in the legend of the Sons of Mil.

These are but a few examples of how the connectedness to Ireland is very present in and has helped to shape Galician identity. To name all the influences present in music and literature would be the matter of a PhD, but one concluding example must be given every bit the most representative: the lyrics of the Galician anthem, taken from a verse form by "the bard" Eduardo Pondal (1835-1917). Its chorus refers to Galicia as "fogar de Breogán" (Breogáns hearth).

I would be lying if I said that I have not been influenced by this attraction of Galicia towards Irish studies. To thoroughly understand the Galician cultural identity, one must cross the bridge built between Galicia and Éire and explore Irishness. Whether I volition come back from that journeying to join and perpetuate the one-sided Celtic link or to suspension with it is something we cannot say only yet. Follow, wait and see.

coruña to Cork

If you want to know more about Galicia, you should know that there is an Irish Center For Galician Studies in UCC.

P.S.: Visit Cadrado Doce coffee shop if yous want to experience great specialty coffee in Santiago de Compostela.

https://cadradodoce.negocio.site/


Bibliography:

Alberro, Manuel. 'Milesians and Alans in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula and the Mythical Invasion of Ireland'. Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 23 (2003): 1–20. Print.

Carey, John. 'Did the Irish gaelic Come from Spain? The Legend of the Milesians'. History Ireland (2001): 8–11. Print.