#actual romantics

Politically, it was easy for French writers to sympathize with Scotland and Ireland really hating the English; the original French Republic had actually tried to link up with Irish rebels against England (it went Badly). And figures like Daniel O'Connell ("the liberator") were hugely popular.

There was also an idea that French and Irish people were somehow especially related? To quote Louis Blanc (a republican, and so relevant on the political side):

The Irish betray so many qualities similar to those we ourselves possess—for example, the same ardor, the same excitable temperament—that it might be said they belong to the same race. It is, however, a historical fact that the Irish and French come from the same Celtic stock, and such a fact explains those similar trails of character I have remarked. I am an advocate of Irish independence. You can say from me, and I give you full permission to say, L'lrlande doit s’apparteinir. Ireland ought to be self ruled. She has every right to bo so, if the will of the people can be interpreted as in favor of the project. And from what I know, you Irish are not content with English rule in your couutry. You want your native rule; hence by the laws of justice you are entitled to it, and should have it....But my opinion on the affair is this: The greatest hope of Ireland lies in a war between France and England. ...There is a possibility of it; but as regards the probability of it I cannot say. In such a case France and Ireland would unite their forces, and the two people serried together, what power on earth could withstand them?

And in the same article, no less a Romanticist than Victor Hugo says:

...Ireland is near us if we look to the ties of mutual sympathy which have existed between both. Thus it can be seen that in general, though England, as I said, comes between us, she cannot break the moral chain that binds the Irish race and the French together. The case, however, would be still better if Ireland’s geographical position could be changed to this side of England and send England about her business to the other side, just where your country now lies. In that new position Ireland would be not alone morally and sympathetically near us—she would be our next-door neighbor also geographically.... in the last century your Irish brigade fought and bled for us, and we essayed to give you aid to wrest your independence from England. ...the system which is prevalent over in Ireland I understand to be that by which 800 or 900 persons own the entire soil. That system means this there are in Ireland 800 or 900 lords and somewhat over 5,000,000 slaves (esclaves). A miserably small fraction tyrannize— the rest, i.e., the vast majority, are the automatons that move at the beck of the fraction. That land system is, I have no hesitation in affirming, a glaringly unjust and absurd one. It is unjust, inasmuch as it pampers and enriches the minority of a people at the expense of the majority, and is, consequently, an outrage upon justice.

This article is from later than what we're generally talking about, but the attitudes toward Ireland are basically the same: The Irish Hate the English Too! They're Just Like Us!

Back in the land of art, the writing of Sir Walter Scott had a huge effect on French Romanticism, and he's been described as "the man who invented Scotland" (in the way we might joke about Hugo inventing France, that is, someone who helped define the concept , especially to people outside the country) .

There was also a woman called Lady Morgan, an Irish woman, who was consciously building up a very Romantic legend of Ireland in France as early as 1806.

So overall, while Ireland and Scotland may not have been mentioned as much as Poland or Greece in Romantic writing and politics, they were definitely a part of the ongoing political/literary discussion!

Anyway, I hope this admittedly rather sparse answer is of some interest!

*there's a tendency to describe Dumas as "stealing" from other authors he worked with, because he was the one whose name went on the covers, but from what I've read--including correspondence with Maquet!-- these really were collaborations, and not at all an uncommon way to write novels at the time,or plays. But getting into that more would be a whole other essay, let alone a tumblr post ><