Kiberd as a product of late capitalism, and parodied in terms of
Eurocrats visiting Ireland as they would a Celtic theme park.
Kearney develops his theorization of the postmodern and the
post-nationalist into the vision of a federal-regional ëCouncil of
Islands of Britain and Irelandí that has no politically centralized
sovereignty. Viewing the postmodern largely at the level of
deconstruction, Kearney does not make the important connections
between post-nationalism, postmodernity and capitalism that are
identified by Kiberd. He attempts to persuade any doubtful Irish
nationalists who remain unimpressed by postmodern theorization that
this would not be a new arrangement but a pre-modern one associated
with a ëbardic/druidic Irelandí that ëwas predicated upon principles of
ìrepublican egalitarianismî.í Referring to the Celtic scholars Proinsias
McCana and John Toland, Kearney argues that ë[p]olitical central-
ization was originally forced upon these islands [Ö] by the need to
respond to invasions ñ especially from the Romans, Norsemen and
Normans.í^33 Here we return to the concerns of Homi Bhabhaís
ëDissemiNationí which identifies the repetition of imperialist
strategies in nationalist resistance.
What is more persuasive in Kearneyís discussion is when he
turns his understanding of post-nationalism to an analysis of the
deterritorializing aspects of contemporary Irish poetry. In his chapter
ëMyth and Nation in Modern Irish Poetryí, he notices how
McGuckian and Muldoon succeed in ërediscovering home away from
home, in rereading native myths of sovereignty from an other place ñ
uncharted, unhomely, unheimlichí, which leads to the ëdesacrament-
alizing of fatherland and motherland.í^34
In ëPost-Nationalism/Post-Colonialism: Readings of Irish
Cultureí (1994), Colin Graham notices how ëthe very idea of nation-
ality which was used by decolonizing people to coalesce themselves
into a coherent political force was itself transferred to the colonies by
imperialist ideology.í Graham goes beyond this well rehearsed point
by taking the logic of his argument one step further than Kearney
when he argues that ë[p]ost-nationalism evolves from rather than
rejects the nation; but its dependency on the maintenance of the
33 Kearney, Postnationalist Ireland, p.94.
34 Ibid., p.123, p.141.