Hello there, once again,
I wanted to share something on the supposed "Celtic" identity of Galicia,
Ireland, Wales, and other nations (which I find very questionable in
general) today.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the most vocal proponent of "Celticism"
was the Irish poet and playwright, W.B. Yeats. His poems and plays have
always been praised for showing the "true Celtic spirit" of the people
(however we want to categorise that). As a result, Vicente Risco, the
brothers Villar Ponte, and Placido Castro translated some works of his in
order to inspire literary projects. When Yeats and his colleagues founded
a theatre in Dublin, he originally wanted to call it the "Celtic
Theatre". But, after doing a bit more research and reflecting on the
idea, Yeats realised that "Celticism" was an extremely problematic concept
in both historical and cultural terms. In fact, he decided that the idea
was completely bogus. As a result, Yeats felt a bit ashamed of his
earlier works and his naivete.
My point in mentioning Yeats is that here we have a poet, who promoted the
alleged "Celtic" identity of his homeland, but then realised that he was
wrong. Imagine that! (Unfortunately, most people, particularly in
Europe, focus on his earliest works, which Yeats himself did not like too
much in his later years.) For this reason, he changed his course and
tried to (re)invent Ireland and her people from a different perspective.
In my humble opinion, I think that this is exactly what we need here in
Galicia. We need to approach Galicia and its identity with a new
perspective and (re)define it without the alleged "Celtic" tag.
Saudos,
Kerry
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