Eire, not Hibernia

“Eire: An Old-New Vision” is a clip featuring Thomas Sheridan, the Irish modern pagan and chaos magician. The clip should perhaps be paired with “Onset” and “My Pagan Path”, which I linked to before. Sheridan believes that Christianity and Catholic Emancipation is the worst thing that ever happened to Ireland, and that the Irish must return to their pagan roots (while simultaneously remaking them to better fit a modern world).

The Irish should embrace “Eire” rather than “Hibernia”, Eire being the Gaelic designation for Ireland derived from the name of an ancient Earth goddess. Hibernia is what the Romans (and by implication the Catholic Church) called the island. The attack on Catholic Emancipation does *not* mean that Sheridan supports discrimination of Catholics, rather the point is political. The Irish leaders pushing for Catholic Emancipation during the 19^th century weren´t interested in real Irish independence, instead preferring to strengthen the cultural dominance and social control of the Catholic Church over the bulk of the Irish population.

Sheridan hopes that Ulster culture in its old form (simultaneously Irish, Protestant and regional) can form the basis for a reunited Ireland. It shows that there isn´t a necessary connection between Catholic and Irish identity, or between Protestant and anti-Irish/pro-British identity. At the same time, Sheridan believes that a united Ireland is still far off, since both Catholic and Protestant forms of Christianity probably must collapse before people on both sides of the border will realize their shared Irishness.

Interesting, if nationalist and regionalist identity issues are your thing, or if you´re interested in modern forms of paganism.