The Celtic Revival (c. 1890), also known as the Irish Literary Revival, was begun by William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, John M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, James Joyce and others. The Revival stimulated new appreciation of traditional Irish literature. The movement also encouraged the creation of works written in the spirit of Irish culture, as distinct from English culture.
Irish dramatists Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan used the stage to voice their cultural commentaries and developed the comedy of manners dramatic form that would be picked up and sharpened by another important Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, a century later.
A literary descendant of William Blake, and spiritually connected with the mythology of Ireland, Yeats' poems were unexampled in the 20th century for their technical brilliance and rarefied beauty, and are now recognized as some of the finest poetry ever written in the English language.
The IrishLiteraryRevival paved the way for the revolutionary expression of James Joyce, a towering figure of the 20th century literature who ushered in a new literary era with the publication of his novel Ulysses in 1922.
Irish Literature, literature written either in Gaelic (see Celtic Languages) or in English by writers of Irish birth who remain identified with Irish life and culture.
The beginnings of Irish literature in the English language coincided with a decline in the use of written and spoken Gaelic, which began about the end of the 18th century.
The principal writers of the latter type of poetry were Thomas Moore, the author of Irish Melodies (10 parts, 1807-1834) and National Airs (1815); Gerald Griffin, the author of “Aileen Aroon” and many other poems; and Francis Sylvester Mahony, better known as Father Prout, the author of the famous “Bells of Shandon”.
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