Shoneenism

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Shoneenism is a

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History and use

Since the 1800s, the words shoneen and shoneenism have been used by

Irish nationalists as terms of derision and are always uncomplimentary towards the shoneen as the Irish language diminutive ending een (ín) when used in this manner has a loading of contempt. One suggested etymology of shoneen is seoinín, meaning "Little John" in Irish, referring to John Bull, a national personification of the British Empire in general and of England in particular.[6][7] The following lines were published in 1882, under the pseudonym Artane:[8]

There is not in this wide world a creature so mean,
As that mongrel of mongrels, the Irish shoneen!

Published in 1910, Patrick Weston Joyce's work English as We Speak it in Ireland, defines a "shoneen" as "a gentleman in a small way: a would-be gentleman who puts on superior airs", noting that the word is always "used contemptuously".[9]

James Joyce uses the term in several of his works, a practice which some Joycean scholars attribute to the frequent use of the term by Irish nationalist journalist D. P. Moran in The Leader newspaper.[10] In Writers and Politics: Essays and Criticism, a series of essays published by Conor Cruise O'Brien in 1965, O'Brien noted that advocates of a particular form of Irish nationalism, including D. P. Moran, would describe those who were deemed not to be an "Irish Islander" as either "a West Briton, if of Anglo-Irish descent, or a shoneen if of Gaelic ancestry".[11]

The Irish historian and academic, F. S. L. Lyons, defined a "shoneen" as a person "of native Irish stock who committed the unforgivable sin of aping English or West-Briton manners and attitudes".[12]

In 2017, the Irish

European Convention of Human Rights, instead of the Constitution of Ireland, as a "sort of legal shoneenism".[13]

See also

References

  1. . In the 18th century, Shoneenism was a term used in Ireland to describe an ostensible Irishman who was viewed as adhering to Anglophile snobbery
  2. ^ Gannon, Sean William (2018). The Irish Imperial Service Policing Palestine and Administering the Empire, 1922–1966. Springer International Publishing. p. 192.
  3. ^ Dolan, Terence Patrick (2020). A Dictionary of Hiberno-English. Gill Books.
  4. ^ Moran, D.P. (1905). "Chapter 4 "Politics, Nationality and Snobs"". The Philosophy of Irish Ireland.
  5. ^ Murphy, John A (27 August 2006). "The subtle and everyday legacy of Irish-Irelanders". independent.ie. Independent News & Media. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
  6. required.)
  7. .
  8. ^ Artane (1882). Young Ireland: An Irish Magazine of Entertainment and Instruction. Nation and Weekly News. p. 472.
  9. ^ Joyce, P.W. (1910). English as we speak it in Ireland. Dublin: M.H. Gill & Son. p. 321.
  10. JSTOR 26283656
    .
  11. ^ Cruise O'Brien, Conor (1965). Writers and Politics: Essays and Criticism. Chatto and Windus.
  12. .
  13. ^ Comyn, Francesca (14 November 2017). "Hogan: 'Legal shoneenism' has replaced 'golden era' of Constitutional law". businesspost.ie. Business Post. Retrieved 21 November 2022.