Celtic
Revival is a term sometimes applied to the period of Irish literature in
English (c.1885-1939) now more often referred to as the Irish Literary Revival
or Renaissance. There are other similar terms: Celtic Renaissance, Celtic Dawn,
and Celtic Twilight. These Celtic titles are misleading as descriptions of the
broader Irish Revival, but they indicate a significant factor in the early
phase of the movement: Celticism involves an idea of Irishness based on
fanciful notions of innate racial character outlined by the English critic
Matthew Arnold in On the Study of Celtic Literature (1866), in which Celtic
traits are said to include delicacy, charm, spirituality, and ineffectual
sentimentality. This image of Irishness was adopted in part by W. B. Yeats in
his attempt to create a distinctively Irish literature with his dreamy early
verse and with The Celtic Twilight (1893), a collection of stories based on
Irish folklore and fairy-tales.