The Kilt's use in Irish Nationalism

[CMcG]

Hobsbawm and Ranger's book is on my self-generated PhD reading list... it just got a whole lot more interesting...

I have not read this one, but have read Trevor Roper's "Invention of Tradition". Just as Roper's book regurgitates pervious works, I wonder if there's anything new in Hobsbawm and Ranger's book?

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I believe Roper's "The Invention of Tradition" is an essay inside the book The Invention of Tradition edited by Hobsbawm and Ranger. The post-modernists would say there is nothing new anywhere these days, but that book has at least had a fairly significant impact on the social sciences and humanities.

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The Irish kilt can be dated to the very late 1800's or very early 1900's. Written contemporary evidence by Pádraig Pearse/Pádraig Anraí Mac Piarais clearly says it was not in existence as a considered Irish garment in 1900.
There was an attempt by a wealthy but influential minority to make it the national dress of Ireland/a symbol of Nationalism around this time, but it failed for several reasons very obvious to anyone who has studied Irish history.

While the kilt may have failed to become the official national attire of Ireland, it has gained far more currency in the Irish diaspora. Benedict Anderson's book Imagined Communities takes a similar tack to Hobsbawm et al.'s critique of tradition, but applies it to nation building. In the age of the internet, however, transnational communities are facilitating the re-imagining of communities. The word "nation" has other valences than country and can imply a cultural or ethnic group as well. Perhaps then, the Irish kilt was not such a failure after all