Hmm. Read the Farrell piece. It's interesting, but he's writing from a basis of... well, inadequate cultural information. He doesn't understand exactly what happened to Ireland in the 19th century - how the effect of the Act of Union was to demoralise and impoverish the country; he sees it all in a purely nationalist light, rather than an informed economic one.

And he's talking about the Gaelic Revival writers going back to "the speech of the poorest, the most backward section of the Irish peasantry". In fact, while the 'peasantry' were certainly sought for their knowledge of ancient stories and poems handed down in the oral tradition or béaloideas, what the Gaelic Revival people were after was the resistance poetry of the 18th century, the pre-Christian stories and poems of the Red Branch Cycle and the Fiannaíocht, and so on.

They weren't a centrally anti-English movement either - which is the impression Mr Farrel has. Look at Thomas MacDonagh's Literature in Ireland, and his Thomas Campion and the Art of English Poetry (both of which may or may not be available on Google Books).

It's an interesting piece, all the same.