Just as the Celtic identity continues to spread, so too does Celtomania. Modern Celtomania is inextricably linked to the growth of the environmental movement, which can be said to have begun with the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962. Carson argued for the protection of the natural environment not only on scientific grounds but on moral grounds also. Drawing on a tradition of American thought going back to Ralph Waldo Emerson, she argued that humanity needed to show more humility before the forces of nature and abandon attitudes that ‘supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man’. Carson’s scientific arguments convinced governments worldwide to regulate the use of pesticides but her moral arguments had an even wider influence, striking a chord with those who were dismayed by the destruction of the natural environment for gain and the alienation of humanity from nature in the industrial world.
In doing this, she helped give the modern environmental movement its quasi-religious belief that salvation for humanity lies in a harmonious relationship with nature. Allied to other aspects of the social revolution of the 1960s - disaffection of (usually affluent) youth from materialism, rebellion against traditional attitudes to the family, gender relationships, nationalism, militarism and imperialism - this created fertile ground for a resurgence of Celtomania by renewing the appeal of the noble savage (although, unlike in the eighteenth century, the Celts now had to share the role with the American Indian). The positive image of the Celts has also been aided by changes in European values. Since the mass destruction of the world wars of the twentieth century, conquest and empire-building are no longer seen as praiseworthy activities. As ‘Europe’s beautiful losers’ this has given the Celts a certain (and certainly undeserved) aura of moral superiority. It is for these reasons that, despite great advances in the academic study of Celtic history and archaeology, modern Celtomania focuses not so much on the historical Celts as on the romanticised Celts created by the first period of Celtomania.
The most important manifestation of modern Celtomania is an increase in interest in neo-Druidism, Wicca and other pantheistic ‘New Age’ paganisms, which have a strong emphasis on the need to live in harmony with nature. Though the first neo-Druids of the eighteenth century probably believed that they were reviving an ancient religion, most modern Druids are more realistic about their religion and freely acknowledge its synthetic nature. They would claim no more than that they believe that they are re-creating the spirit of Druidism and, in particular, its respect for nature. Even this requires some large assumptions about ancient sensibilities though. Modern Druidism has no organised theology and no narrowly defined creed to which its followers must subscribe; they may mix and match. Therein lies the appeal of neo-Druidism for those who are at odds with modern materialism but who find organised religion impersonal, unacceptable or simply unbelievable. Such was the popularity of the neo-Druidic solstice celebrations at Stonehenge among the so-called ‘New Age Travellers’ by the 1990s that the Conservative government of the day, which regarded them as the great unwashed on wheels, somewhat vindictively restricted access to the stones, the justification being to protect them (the restrictions have since been relaxed). It is very easy to be cynical about New Age Celtomania - it has, after all produced some pretty bizarre offshoots, including Celtic tarot, Celtic shamanism, Celtic sex magic and even Celtic tea bag folding - yet its results have been mainly benign, boosting tourism in the Celtic countries and raising awareness of Celtic culture, especially its music and art. Celtomania has, however, also bred an uncritical attitude to Celtic history, so that the enemies of the Celts, be they Romans, Normans, English or whatever, are always ‘ruthless’ and the Celts are always the innocent victims. This one-dimensional image of the Celts as victims, their own days of aggressive expansionism conveniently forgotten, has often been exploited by nationalists in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, not to mention Hollywood film makers. An extreme example of
This is the way that, during the Troubles, Irish republican terrorist groups, like the Provisional IRA, successfully presented their activities before world opinion as a simple continuation of an age-old struggle of the Celts against English oppression. They gave apparent substance to this claim by not conducting terrorist activities in Wales and Scotland. The political (and financial) benefits to the Republican movement of doing this were considerable. It might be said in passing that the adoption of a decentralised cell structure by the IRA enabled it to maintain a terrorist campaign for 30 years in the face of the vastly superior resources of the British state and it remained, to what we must hope is the end, unbroken. The Celts have also been appropriated by white supremacist groups in the southern states of the USA, such as the League of the South, which claims that the white settlement of the south was essentially Celtic, while that of New England was English. In this scenario the American Civil War becomes an extension of the Anglo-Celtic struggle and the battle of Gettysburg a re-run of Culloden where the dashing freedom-loving Confederate Celts are mown down by the grim Anglo-Yankees. Not all uses of the past are good uses.
World History
