Gaelic League

an organization of the Irish bourgeois intelligentsia. It was founded July 31, 1893. Its established goal was to revive the Gaelic language and to replace English culture in Ireland with Irish-Celtic culture. It promoted the development of the national literature, music, and theater. Its activities were especially intensified in the early 20th century when its influence had also spread among the Irish living in other countries. It contributed to the creation of the National University of Ireland (1909) with departments of Celtic archaeology, the history of Ireland, the Irish language, and Irish literature. The activities of the Gaelic League reflected to a certain extent the protest of the popular masses against the national oppression of Ireland, but on the whole, it was far removed from the real goals of the liberation struggle.