Association of Celtic Students

  Fianna Éireann scouts 1914 © fiannaeireann.com Traditionally seen as a well-earned break and a chance to revel and make merry in the middle of the Lenten period, St Patrick’s Day has been marked in many different ways in Ireland. Famously, it is seen at home and abroad as a time to celebrate all things Irish, real or imagined. Millions will wear green, don a shamrock and drink – perhaps excessively – to mark the festival and, of course, many will parade through towns and cities great and small to celebrate the holiday (see van der Heide 2022). As a student of modern Irish literature focusing on gender, I don’t often have an excuse to discuss Naomh Pádraig or his festival. But one text which features in my research takes place during a St Patrick’s Day parade. This short story, titled ‘Culaith le Cois’ [‘A Spare Uniform’], was written by renowned Irish-language author and activist, Máirtín Ó Cadhain (see   here ), and was published in his first collection of short stories Idi...

 Dear Celtic Students from all around the world, The Master in Celtic Studies of the University of Western Brittany recently opened its own blog ! For some context, our Master's program, entitled ‘Celtic Languages and Cultures in Contact’,  which was founded in 2017, consists of two strands : medieval and modern. The professors offer a variety of approaches to Brittany, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, giving students the opportunity to research literature, history, sociology and linguistics. The Master is affiliated to the Centre for Research in Breton and Celtic and is the only one in Brittany/France to encompass all of the Celtic countries, proposing Welsh, Irish and Breton courses, be it modern or medieval languages. Although one of the graduating classes before ours had already set up the “Celtic Breizh” website for future students, it was unable to be maintained due to the lack of rigorous handover between the different classes. At the end of the first year, we decided to op...

Fanfiction, a genre that reimagines and reinterprets established narratives, offers a unique lens through which historical figures and events are continually re-explored. One of the more compelling subjects of such reinterpretations is King Alfred the Great, a ninth-century Anglo-Saxon monarch who is celebrated not only for his military acumen against the Viking invasions but also for his contributions to education and governance. Recent fanfiction, inspired by popular media - such as the TV shows Vikings and The Last Kingdom and video games like Mount & Blade and Total War: THRONES OF BRITANNIA - often introduces anachronistic elements, blending historical authenticity with fictionalised storytelling. Among these elements, one that stands out is the use of Ogham, an ancient script associated with the Celtic peoples. This blog post delves into the significance of Ogham and other Celtic symbols in fanfiction about King Alfred, highlighting how these creative adaptations transform...

  This blog post is loosely based on a dissertation completed for my final year at the University of Edinburgh and contains references to interviews conducted as part of field research. We have all seen multiple new years. Whether you go out clubbing, watch the fireworks under a cosy blanket outside or stay at home and pretend that the new year isn’t coming your way – we all must go through the point of transition to a new year. However, in Scotland, there is something more to a new year’s celebration. Scotland prides itself on the tradition of Hogmanay – the Scottish concept word for a new year. Hogmanay encompasses both the day before and after the turning of the clock into a new January. The essence of a Hogmanay is also contained in the food we eat at this time of year, the music we listen to, the people we see and the traditions we partake in.  A form of Hogmanay can be argued to have taken place since the Celts were located in Scotland and holds a huge importance to Scot...

YouTube and other such public mediums are filled with misleading information about medieval Irish literature. Errors range from the benign, tellings of medieval narratives by non-experts that miss key details or misinterpret events, to misinformed, where members of the public repeat out-of-date scholarly arguments, to the actively malignant, with at least two Fascists publishing forged or edited versions of medieval tales on YouTube. Correcting all of these is impossible for the same reason that point-by-point challenging Gish Gallop arguments (a style of argument intended to flood the opponent with so many poor, unsourced, or untrue pieces of evidence it is extremely time consuming to systematically refute due to the sheer volume of errors confidently stated) is futile, but, that does not mean that we as scholars must abandon the public to the digital wilderness. Instead, it just requires an alternative tactical choice. Several years ago, I, Emmet Taylor, the previous manager of the b...

                   Many people are not aware of the historic and current presence of Gaelic in the North-East of Scotland. In fact, there was an Aberdeenshire Gaelic dialect in existence until 1984. The University of Aberdeen has been a central hub for Gaelic for much of its existence as an institution. Students have come to study Gaelic from the Gàidhealtachd, as well as from across the world. The Celtic Society was formed both by students from Celtic backgrounds, and by those who had taken an interest in the Celtic languages and cultures.          The Celtic Society is one of the oldest societies at the University, and was once the largest. The large number of Gaels coming to study at the University helped the society to thrive and grow in membership. It is difficult to say when the society first began, as students from Gaelic backgrounds had already been meeting together as a group due to their shared...

This blog post is based on the information provided by the Brittany Movie Archive , my personal knowledge, and the interview given a few months ago by Marie Carrez to the Cinémathèque du documentaire, on her suggestion. Said interview is available here , in French. I would like to thank Marie Carrez once again for her help and diligence in organising the screening for the conference. Still from “ Purée géante à Brest ” [litt. Giant mashed potatoes in Brest], amateur movie from Daniel Jacolot, 1986 freely available here . Do you recognize Brest’s main square? For those of you who came to our last conference, you may have attended the screening of a documentary titled “ Americans in Brest in 1917 ”. Made by the Brittany Movie Archive, it presents archives shot by the Sammies themselves stationed in Brest during the First World War, sources that were not largely available in France before. While it may seem a bit far from our usual fields of work in Celtic studies, it’s a an important par...