Dia dhaoibh to you all.If you have already read the title then you will know what I am about to present to you all today. Ireland due to its size can be a bit of a claustrophobic country, especially after 2 years of a global pandemic; so I have been away in the community of Valencia in Spain and surprisingly enough learnt a lot about our own country in particular about **our language**.
Upon my arrival south I was surprised to find out that the Spanish language does **not** exist. The language we call “Spanish” is known by all Spaniards as Castilian. This language was forced upon other communities, especially during the fascist reign of Franco until it became the dominant language of the country (sound familiar?).Despite this, now days Valencian lives on healthy; it is taught in schools to a competent level and nearly all in the region can understand the language and many can speak it.
I saw how Valencians would break into conversation in Valencian (much to my confusion) and how this encouraged others of foreign origins to pick up the language.This ultimately got me to reflect on our own language, Irish. To me it was plain as day the differences between these two languages and where Irish fails where Valencian succeeds. To simplify things I have created a little chart of the what I believe to be the 5 different levels of languages per speakers.
* **Global:** A language is Global when it is spoken in more than one continent and has a sizable amount of speakers. Examples: English, Spanish and French.
* **National:** The dominant language in a country, German for Germany, Spanish for Spain (This is not to be confused with a **national language** as Irish is the national language of Ireland, however is not a language at national level)
* **Secondary:** A language that is alive and spoken, but on some level overshadowed by another language at national level; a good example of this is the Valencian language itself as although it is alive and healthy it is still overshadowed by Castilian.
* **Minor:** A language that only holds weight within some small key communities. Unfortunately my example for this level is our language, Irish.
* **Dead:** A language that has no living native speakers and is for all intents and purposes, dead.
I believe it is entirely possible to get Irish to the level of secondary, and even national with the right implementations of systems and encouragement. Now we all know about the system’s faults, hell we lived through them. Because of this I won’t focus heavily on this topic but I will give a brief overview on what should be done.(side note on Valencian, it is not necessary to read this unless you are curious: All public sector jobs value heavily a official qualification of the Valencian language. Levels of Valencian varies from public sector job but it is another interesting factor that motivates people to learn the language) All Irish schools have already proven their effectiveness, students come out of them with a very competent command of the Irish language. Thus its simple enough to implement these schools nationwide which will effectively give Ireland a generation of Irish speakers boosting the language to National level. **However I do think similar classes should be offered to adults to encourage the younger generation to speak more and to keep the language alive in the streets.**
This is only the systemic changes, we will however have to change a bit culturally to make way for the language. I remember I used to work in a company which had at least 30% of the employees were Irish speakers, however **not once** did I hear them speak Irish among themselves. Unlike in Valencia where their language is encouraged to be spoken by all, we Irish are nearly ashamed to speak our own language in our own country in public. This culture which sneakily discourages the Irish language may come from peoples frustration with the language at school, or even generational trauma that comes with being from a post-colonial country which was enslaved and abused by one of history’s most powerful empires. Whatever the case may be, I have made three pillars which I consider **essential** for the Irish language.
**Pride:** Pride in where you come from, your language and your history. Nearly every country on this earth takes great pride in their nation’s language, **but we don’t**. Don’t be ashamed to speak your language in public, be proud to be able to speak it and cherish every opportunity to do so, if we don’t speak it, who will?
**Encouragement:** Ultimately we want more people to pick up the language and for this to happen we need to adopt a culture of encouragement in relation to the Irish language. Correct grammatical errors of others in a friendly way, don’t shame people for not speaking perfectly and try to encourage others to join in on the language.
**Humility:** To learn any language one must be humble on some level. What I mean by this is accept that its okay to have imperfections, and that it is the attempt that matters more than the result. Ask questions, don’t be ashamed to speak and practice and accept that we are always able to learn more. \*\*Is fearr Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla clíste.\*\*
If these three pillars are implemented, I don’t see what would stop us from saving the Irish language from its gradual decline. However with every post or conversation about this topic often summons the typical counter arguments of those who are either against, or apathetic to the importance of our language, I will address some of these now.
* **Its not useful:** The people who make this argument rarely tend to be strict utilitarians. Yes the Irish language is not global like English, neither is Dutch, Norwegian or Finnish. Every citizen of these nations can speak English fluently and could easily switch if they so choose. But why don’t they? **Because the importance and significance of one’s own language is not something that can be replaced by the convenience of speaking a global tongue.** (I would be keen to mention that being bilingual is proven to be good for you)
* **Its just not possible:** This argument is uttered by both those who support decolonization and those who do not. It is possible, big language reforms have happened in the past and will continue to do so in the future. One must only turn their head to Russia and Hebrew to see the power a successful language reform has. This line of thinking, whether ill intended or no, **harms the cause of decolonization.**
* **Its anti-immigration:** This one is by far the funniest. Learning Irish, in Ireland is no barrier for immigrants. Many understand the importance of having one’s own language, in fact most of the immigrant population is more passionate about the Irish language than most Irish people themselves.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at this lovely video of foreigners learning Irish:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrtC\_IUhx4k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrtC_IUhx4k).
In the comments of said video you can find quotes such as:
” Sadly I’ve found that often foreigners have a greater interest in and appreciation for the Irish language than many Irish people.”
Other quotes from foreigners can be found in the same like such as:
” The Irish people may want to visit the indigenous peoples of North America and ask them about the loss/preservation of their native language, and how much it has to do with the loss/retention of their identity. Then ask yourselves, “Do I want to be Irish, or another English-speaker?”
“” I find it mental that it never crossed anybody’s mind to speak both Irish AND English. Yes, it’s very valuable to speak English fluently in this interconnected world but there’s no reason we couldn’t be fluent in both, like our other northern European neighbors.”
” This is the effects of hundreds of years of colonization. The swedes can speak Swedish and English. There’s no reason why Irish shouldn’t be the main language and also learn English.”
” Please, keep your language keeps intact. Your language is your national identification, treasure and your pride as the Irish”
Last but certainly not least I would like to introduce you to this fine German gentleman, who you may have met before if this topic interests you. I cannot link his post directly but if you want to see this man in all his glory I suggest typing “**If Ireland wants to preserve Irish they have to”.**
So no, its not anti-immigration.
In conclusion the support towards the Irish language is important to our cultural identity in a increasingly global word, take the quote of *Pádraig Sáirséal Ó hÉigeartaigh:*
” If we do not revive and develop Irish, we must inevitably be assimilated by one of these two communities (United Kingdom or the United States), or by the combined power by which they must eventually form and in that case our name and tradition and history will vanish out of human ken and our national individuality will be lost. ”
Because what are we really? If not a past British colony? A old country with a forgotten past? Is there more to us than that? I like to think that there is. We have looked outwards unto the world and adopted its ways, this has made us strong in some ways, and **weak** in others. Its time we embrace who we all really are, its time for us to decolonize and turn inwards.
**Tír gan teagan Tír gan anam**
If you are interested in the project of decolonization add me
Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
I may be away, but I am always thinking of you all.
7 comments
Thanks for writing this, it’s an interesting post.
I’m vaguely in favour of Irish recovering, but I don’t allocate any resources to it myself (like my own time, spending money on lessons) because it’s not a personal priority. And on a political level, there are always things I consider more important.
I’d rather have competent teachers than teachers that are fluent in Irish. I’d rather have competent civil servants than civil servants that are fluent in Irish. Can they be both? Sure, but insisting on both narrows the pool and makes it less likely to have the competence.
So, I’m probably part of the problem you see. I do see this in utilitarian terms, and that’s the basis on which I engage with just about everything. It’d be nice if Irish was like Dutch, but it’s not. And it’s not worth the effort, compared to that effort being allocated elsewhere, for me personally.
Ditch the romantic and creepy “blood and soil” notions. It does feel very much anti-immigration and anti-foreigner/minority in tone and outlook no matter how much you proclaim otherwise. Having “pride” in some national heritage which you have no control over is touching on some really dark and revanchist kinds of themes. You see far-right political parties doing this a lot.
Forcing minorities to learn an impractical language is discriminatory. The likes of the Gardai used to require a second language (usually Irish) which served as a barrier to entry for ethnic and racial minorities. Should the police force of the country not represent the population?
Many of us do not want to learn Irish, have no interest in it and you are not going to force it on us. Thankfully, we are moving in a more inclusive direction and embracing modernity, having a global outlook and understanding that we have a diverse population.
Edit: Thanks to whoever gave me the silver award. I appreciate it.
If you want a united Ireland then you cannot force this language on everyone.
Looks like an essay you wrote for college & pasted here, ie looks like you’ve spent time contemplating this, on a personal and possibly academic level. It’s an interesting post. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
If we’re serious about making Irish a working and living language again, we should look at what Wales and Israel did.
Obviously Israel is a particular case (and not one I’d generally offer up as an example of how to do things) but they imported a lot of Jewish people from different cultures and they needed a common language, so they brought Hebrew back from the dead and launched immersion programmes for people migrating to Israel.
Wales adapted that programme into their own Wlpan programme and used it to immerse Anglophone Welsh people who wanted to learn Welsh (kinda like our Gaeltacht trips, but serious)and it’s been a huge success in transforming Welsh from a language spoken by elderly widows in remote villages to a language which is in daily use in large swathes of Wales.
I remembering visiting Caernarfon some years ago and listening to young lads speaking to each other in Welsh and being acutely jealous that they, Wales, had got to a level where it was the primary language of communication for actual human beings instead of the hobby language Irish has become. I even plucked up the courage to try a little of it myself and ordered some _pysgion y sglodion_ in a local chipper!
A lot of it is parents reaction in the home, when I was younger I heard from parents and relatives that Irish was boring or difficult or useless, so I learned to dislike it. I had free reign to teach myself in transition year and then had one great teacher for fifth and sixth year, now I really love the language. If parents could be requested in primary school not to express a negative opinion about the language and treat it like learning French or German, then you’d have a lot less children hating the language. Thanks for sharing your post, very interesting!
Funny how in 1942 we had our own minor fascist movement. Ailtirí na hAiséirghe. There idea on reviving the language was as follows:
A central plank of Aiséirghe was its focus on the revival of the Irish language, viewing it as not only as an expression of cultural distinctiveness but also an instrument in which the party’s ideals could be communicated to the Irish people.[34] From the day of the party’s ascension to power, all official business was to be conducted in Irish and no civil servant under thirty retained who was not fluent with the language. Those making representations to the government were to be denied a hearing unless they pleaded their case in Irish. A register of Irish-speaking households was to be compiled, with members of such households accorded positive discrimination. A heavy stamp duty was to be imposed on all notices in English and all streets, towns and business names would be required to be in Irish. Though English was to be tolerated “for a reasonable time” in the case of the Catholic Church, even sermons, pastoral letters and other communications by the Church would soon be required to incorporate passages in Irish. In addition, all foreign monuments and memorials were to be destroyed, all names of Irish citizens were to be Gaelicised, and the use of titles associated with the British monarchy or aristocracy would be forbidden.[35]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailtir%C3%AD_na_hAis%C3%A9irghe
Why not turn back to Catholicism? It meant far more to most Irish people than their language throughout the last few hundred years.