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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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In-depth documentaries which explore music, history, science, philosophy, film, visual arts and literature.

Sunday Feature: How Celtic Are We?

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Factual: History

04/10/2015

How Celtic Are We?

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, How Celtic Are We?

What is Celtic identity? Professor Dai Smith searches for the essence of Celticism.

Dai Smith explores the meaning of Celtic identity, focusing on genetics, the Celtic language and the shared history that holds the six Celtic nations of the British Isles together.

Dai Smith - professor, author, cultural historian and father of the current Labour leader hopeful Owen Smith- searches for the essence of Celticism everywhere.

For generations, Celtic identity on the British isles has been about 'not being English.' It's an interpretation you can see written out in Rugby internationals, jewellery design, music and poetry; underpinning devolved politics and regional radicalism. 

Dai Smith takes the meaning of the terms 'Celt' and 'Celtic' in the twenty-first century and searches for a Celtic DNA and for Celtic language, as well as the shared history that holds the six Celtic nations together. At a time when many are questioning those facets which hold the identities of the UK together, he also asks if the use of the term Celtic to mean passionate, hot blooded, or romantic is not just a harmless inaccuracy, but a dangerous myth that is preventing a more mature and evidence based analysis of identity around the fringes of the British Isles. 

First broadcast in October 2015.

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