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One of the little known battle grounds in the cultural/history wars during the Irish nationalist revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was the story of the history of chess. Many of the great figures of that revival, such as the historian P W Joyce and the Gaelic sports revivalist Michael Cusack, strongly asserted that chess was an ancient Irish game, and even that we invented it.
Others always seemed anxious to knock the idea. For example Whitley Stokes was a leading Gaelic scholar of the time, and member of the Indian Civil Service, and in one of his articles he remarks that:
But other great scholars of that period were very clear that the old Irish were playing chess, and in old stories which are usually dated much older than could have been the case if the Irish had got it as an imported game from the East, such as for example the great John O’Donovan.
In any case this war has now been updated to modern times. Modern day Irish academic historians like Tim Harding, who did a Phd on the subject, and Paul Rouse, who is a lecturer in history in UCD, are very dismissive of the idea. The latter is often interviewed in the mass media and frequently brings up the subject, always using this as an example of what the old Irish ‘nationalist’ historians claimed:
So if anybody would like to follow a bit more of what the great Irish historians used to say on this, maybe this video will help:
by Brian Nugent, www.orwellianireland.com
Others always seemed anxious to knock the idea. For example Whitley Stokes was a leading Gaelic scholar of the time, and member of the Indian Civil Service, and in one of his articles he remarks that:
Then for absolutely no good reason he promptly says that fidchell should be translated as draughts!
But other great scholars of that period were very clear that the old Irish were playing chess, and in old stories which are usually dated much older than could have been the case if the Irish had got it as an imported game from the East, such as for example the great John O’Donovan.
In any case this war has now been updated to modern times. Modern day Irish academic historians like Tim Harding, who did a Phd on the subject, and Paul Rouse, who is a lecturer in history in UCD, are very dismissive of the idea. The latter is often interviewed in the mass media and frequently brings up the subject, always using this as an example of what the old Irish ‘nationalist’ historians claimed:
Of course that's the silliest argument any Irish historian could ever make, but actually it is very far from characteristic of the learned and sophisticated reasons why so many of the great Irish historians always believed that the ancient Irish played, and probably invented, chess.
So if anybody would like to follow a bit more of what the great Irish historians used to say on this, maybe this video will help:
by Brian Nugent, www.orwellianireland.com
