Essay from the year 2014 in the subject History Europe - Other Countries - Modern Times, Absolutism, Industrialization, grade: A, The Open University, course: Foundation Arts, language: English, abstract: Early twentieth century Ireland was characterised by growing nationalist feeling, and historical texts and visual representations reveal the way republicans sought to develop a discourse of Irish tradition and the distinctiveness of the Celt from the Saxon. Presenting Ireland as a re-emergent Celtic nation helped to legitimise armed republican resistance. However, it also resulted in the construction of an Irish tradition that was only partially based on the island’s cultural, religious and linguistic reality.