In a recent episode of Downton Abbey, Lady Cora tells Lord Robert that their youngest daughter is expecting, and he says something like, "Great, a Fenian grandchild."
We were wondering exactly what that meant. It was meant to be sarcastic/mildly derogatory, but how? Lady Sibyl is married to an Irishman (horrors :)) and it seems the Fenian Brotherhood was an early precursor to the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The name is based on Fianna, the word for a small band of warriors in Celtic mythology.
The term is especially associated with Fionn Mac Cumhaill, the Irish name for Finn Mac Cool. In Lord Robert's time and apparently today as well, it is a derogatory term for Catholics and Irish nationalists.
I guess I must harbor a latent love of soap operas ... I watched season 1 of the series in 2 days on Netflix. I'm eagerly awaiting season 3. I'm also waiting impatiently for PBS to get through their interminable Dickens miniseries so I can see see season 2 of Sherlock.
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1 comment:
I know this is very late but I am Scottish with parents born and bred in Ireland, and fenian is a derogatory term for an Irish catholic which is in itself an ethnic group that is used today quite a lot
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