Renæssanceforum 8

		Renæssanceforum 8 • 2012 Keith Sidwell Old English or Gael? Personal, Cultural and Political identity in Dermot O'Meara's Ormonius close window

		Dermot O'Meara's didactic-epic Ormonius, published in 1615, focuses upon the military career of the 10th Earl of Ormond, Thomas Butler. In doing so, however, it also negotiates, sometimes subtly, sometimes rather bluntly, serious problems of identity, personal, cultural and political (national) caused by the peculiar circumstances of those, like Butler and his poet O'Meara, born in the Kingdom of Ireland, with strong local ties and an affection for the Irish language, in a period when the policies of the English government were more and more inclined towards centralisation and Anglicisation.