P. J. MATHEWS ARGUES AGAINST the received opinion that the Irish Revival was a purely mystical affair of high culture characterized by a preoccupation with a backward-looking Celtic spirituality, nostalgia for Gaelic Ireland, and anti-modern traditionalism. Instead, he claims, the time of the Irish Revival was a progressive period that witnessed the cooperation of various self-help movements -- the Abbey Theatre, the Gaelic League, and the Irish Agricultural Organization Society -- which encouraged local modes of material and cultural development. These different groups were bound together by...