Today's world is often described as a global village and yet more and more people seek to get back in touch with their roots and cultural heritage, what UNESCO calls "intangible heritage" : "The Intangible Cultural Heritage includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants". Most people take pride in their cultural identity, this feeling of belonging to a group and also a specific geographic place.
In April 2020 during the Covid19 pandemic, the Queen addressed the British people on television. She had only done so a handful of times so this was a rare and noticeable occurrence. In her speech, she reminded Britons "That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country." She further encouraged them to take "pride in who we are… (which) defines our present and our future." By praising Britain's national spirit and referring to the country's past, she reminded the British of what they have in common and what they can achieve together as a people.
The U.K. is a multicultural society and many events reflect this. For example, the Notting Hill Carnival held every year in August on the streets of London celebrates the Afro-Caribbean communities in the UK, their cultures and traditions.
At the end of the 19th century and in the early 20th century, people in Ireland fought the British and hoped to achieve home rule. As a response to the Anglicisation of the island, the Irish cultural revival sought to renew interest in ancient Gaelic culture, including the Gaelic language. The Irish literary renaissance was part of this movement. The poet SB Yeats (1865-1939) was the leading figure in the Irish revival movement. He is sometimes described as "a cultural revolutionary". He was fascinated by Irish folklore and in 1888, he published Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry. He co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre in 1899 and the Irish National Theatre Society in 1903. In one of his most famous poems Easter 1916, he describes his feelings after the Easter Rising against the British. He was the first Irishman after Ireland became an independent republic to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923.
American folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land is your Land" in the 50s when everyone was listening to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Guthrie reportedly found Berlin's song far too jingoistic and decided to write about his native country as he saw it : not so much as a place blessed by God but as a place "made for you and me", in other words a country which belongs to its people.
