Discover the secrets of the Celts

• Celts overview
• Celtic languages
• Modern Celts

Modern Celts "Celticity" has been adopted as a node of fringe" found in Celticity an explanation for self-identification by a variety of peoples their peripheral "otherness", as well as a at different times. During the 19th century, source of pride which could galvanize them French nationalists gave a privileged into demands for development and significance to their descent from the Gauls. regeneration. Nationalists in Northern The struggles of Vercingetorix were portrayed Ireland sought an end to endemic as a forerunner of the 19th-century struggles discrimination with the Civil Rights in defence of French nationalism, including Movement. Breton regionalists participated in the wars of both Napoleons (Napoleon I of the May 1968 revolt under Breton flags and France and Napoleon III of France). Basic with the slogan Bretagne=Colonie. The French history textbooks could begin with the Republic of Ireland, on surpassing Britain's famous words "Nos ancetres les Gaulois..." GDP per capita in the 1990s for the first ("Our ancestors the Gauls..."). A similar use time in centuries, was given the moniker of "celticity" for 19th century nationalism "Celtic tiger". Thanks in part to agitation was made in Switzerland, when the Swiss were on the part of Cornish regionalists, Cornwall seen to originate in the Celtic tribe of the was able to obtain Objective One funding from Helvetii, a link still found in the official the European Union. Scotland and Wales Latin name of Switzerland, Confoderatio obtained agencies like the Welsh Development Helvetica,  the source of the nation code CH. Agency, and Scottish and Welsh Nationalists have recently supported the institution of At the same time, there was also a tendency the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly to play up alternative heritages in the for Wales, which are seen by many as a first British Isles at certain times, partially as step towards eventual independence from the a rationale for non-English parts of the UK. More broadly, a distinct identity in islands to fully participate in the British opposition to that of the metropolitan Empire. For example, in the Isle of Man, in capitals has been forged and taken strong the Victorian era, the "Viking" heritage was root. emphasised, and in Scotland, both Norse and Anglo-Saxon  heritage  was  played  up. These latter evolutions have proceeded hand in hand with the growth of an pan-Celtic or With the advance of Indo-European studies, inter-Celtic dimension, seen in many philologists also established that there was organizations and festivals operating across a relationship between the Goidelic and various Celtic countries. Celtic studies Brythonic languages, as well as a departments at many universities in Europe relationship between these languages and the and beyond, have studied the various ancient extinct Celtic languages such as Gaulish, and modern Celtic languages and associated spoken in classical times. The term "Celtic" history  and  folklore  under  one  roof. therefore came to be widely applied (for the first time) to the Goidelic and Brythonic The Celtic link is also claimed to come languages, and by extension to the peoples mainly  from: that  spoke  them. language A romantic image of the Celt as noble savage was cultivated by the early William Butler music Yeats, Lady Gregory, Lady Charlotte Guest, Lady Llanover, James Macpherson, cultural  events Chateaubriand, Theodore Hersart de la Villemarque and the many others influenced by sport them. This image coloured not only the English perception of their neighbours on the The roots revival, applied to Celtic music, so-called "Celtic fringe" (compare the stage has brought much inter-Celtic Irishman), but also Irish nationalism and its cross-fertilization, as, for instance, Welsh analogues in the other Celtic-speaking musicians have revived the use of the countries. Among the enduring products of mediaeval Welsh bagpipe under the influence this resurgence of interest in a romantic, of the Breton biniou, Irish uillean pipes and pre-industrial, brooding, mystical Celticity famous Scottish pipes, or the Scots have are Gorseddau, the revival of the Cornish revived the bodhran from Irish influence. language, and the revival of the Gaelic Sports such as Hurling and Shinty are seen as Games. being 'Celtic', whilst the Irish fleadh is seen as an equivalent to the Breton fest noz. In the decades leading up to World War II, the various meanings attributed to Celtic The USA has also taken part in discussions of "race" were widely discussed in Europe. The modern Celticity. For example, James H. Webb, so-called Alpine race was identified with the in his 2004 book Born Fighting How the ancient Celts and their descendants, and Scots-Irish Shaped America, controversially classical sources were scoured for asserts that the early "pioneering" appropriate stereotypes to apply to this immigrants to North America were of race. Scots-Irish origins. He goes on to argue that their distinct "Celtic traits" (loyalty to Modern  'Celticity' kin, mistrust of governmental authority, and military readiness), in contrast to the After World War II, "race" went out of "Anglo-Saxon" settlers, helped construct the fashion and "culture" took its place. Many of modern "American identity". Irish Americans the same stereotypes and caricatures of also played an important role in the shaping Celticity once attributed to the Celtic or of 19th-century Irish republicanism through Alpine race, were thus recycled under the the Fenian movement, the development of a label of culture. But since the 1960s, discourse of the Great Hunger as a British Celticity has been put to a somewhat atrocity, and so on. different use. The peoples of the "Celtic 1 A B C 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101