Cé chomh minic a chloiseann tú Gaeilge á labhairt go poiblí?
When was the last time you heard the language you were raised with spoken next to you? Was it on the street, in a shop, in a club, on a bus or in a bar?
It might seem a strange question to ask in a country where almost everyone speaks the same language, but for native Irish speakers living outside the Gaeltacht, it is an all-too-rare event.
Census results released before Christmas highlighted how fewer people are using Irish on a daily basis. Just over 20,000 people in the Gaeltacht said they spoke it on a daily basis when they filled out the Census form in April 2022, while nationwide, the numbers speaking Irish daily (71,968) would not fill Croke Park.
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Of course, significant changes had taken place in the years since the previous Census was taken in April 2016.
Language rights legislation was updated in 2021, Irish achieved full parity with the European Union’s 23 official languages in January 2022, and an overdue national policy on the delivery of Irish in the education system was promised. Altogether, these factors would normally be seen as positive signs that the language is gaining traction in some key areas.
While the percentage of daily speakers recorded dropped nationally, almost 1.9 million people said they could speak Irish in April 2022, representing a 6 per cent increase since 2016 or more than 112,500 additional people.
Some reporting was criticised for being “too negative” for focusing on the 55 per cent who said they could not speak Irish “well”. After all, on the positive side, in a society where there are so few speaking opportunities, is it not significant that 40 per cent of the country’s population indicated that they could speak Irish?
And with 72,000 people recorded as daily speakers and just over 115,000 speaking it weekly, that brings us to almost 200,000 daily and weekly Irish speakers, quite a sizeable chohort in an Irish context.
Perhaps more store still should also be placed in the fact that almost 800,000 people reported in Census 2022 that they can speak Irish “well” or “very well”. Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh’s suggestion for that number to reach one million within a decade sounds like an attainable goal.
Beatha teanga í a labhairt
Yet while some measures have shown positive signs, the core issue remains: what is a language if it is not spoken or, as the saying says, beatha teanga í a labhairt – the life of a language is the speaking of it.
Certainly, for many who don’t speak Irish, the language holds symbolic cultural value, even if it is not their primary language of communication.
Yet, revitalising a language is not only about preserving its linguistic heritage, it also has social, political and practical aspects.
But possibly the most important element of all is its social status.
Yet, a 2018 report by the Coimisinéir Teanga found that just 123 hours of Irish-language programming, representing just 0.6 per cent of the total broadcasting hours, were aired on RTÉ in 2017.
Any visitor to Ireland tuning into our main television and radio stations would be forgiven for assuming that Ireland is a monolingual English-speaking nation.
Julian de Spáinn, general secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge, has a hopeful outlook and says he is “optimistic” for the future of the language and for the Gaeltacht. He points to opinion polls that indicate a consistently high level of public support and interest in Irish.
“This can be seen in survey after survey and anecdotally, when you take into account the massive positivity shown towards the success of the film An Cailín Ciúin and popular public figures such as Paul Mescal speaking in Irish,” he says.
However, he also stresses that politicians need to “see to it that the language is treated fairly, and that the required supports are made available”.
Cearta teanga (language rights)
RTÉ may have made some efforts to address its Irish output since the Coimisinéir Teanga’s report was published, but the example above reflects the challenges faced by Irish in a wider context.
The accurate recording of citizens names is a basic requirement for any state, one that public bodies are expected to fulfil. Yet, even at this most rudimentary level, it has taken more than 100 years for the Irish State to compel itself to correctly record the Irish names of its citizens.
Mandating public bodies to correctly record names will be one of the first tangible changes resulting from newly updated language rights legislation, which many are hoping will signal a change in the language’s trajectory.
This will entail using the síneadh fada, observing proper upper and lower-case lettering in people’s names (eg. Bríd Óg Ní Mháille) and ensuring that traditional patronymic and matronymic forms such as Séamus Mhicil Tom or Bríd Róise Rua are also recognised.
Of course language rights entail more than the State respecting its citizenry enough to address them by their correct names; they also include the right to interact in Irish with the State – and that includes: An Garda Síochána, equal representation in the courts and the right to Irish-medium education.
The aforementioned language rights legislation, the Official Languages (Amendment) Act, which was signed into law in December 2022, goes some way to addressing this area by including a requirement that 20 per cent of public service recruits will be proficient in Irish by 2030.
The legislation is an iteration of the Official Languages Act, introduced in 2003, which also established the Office of An Coimisinéir Teanga, an independent statutory office operating as an ombudsman’s service and compliance agency.
Since it was founded the office has conducted numerous investigations into public bodies over their record on the Irish language. Its investigations have found against institutions, including An Garda Síochána, RTÉ and the Department of Education, among others.
Similar issues exist in the north where activist group An Dream Dearg successfully campaigned in recent years for an Irish language act in what was traditionally a hostile environment for the language. Despite the fact that the act is less than many hoped for, they are still awaiting implementation.
The administration of funding for the Irish language rests with cross-border body Foras na Gaeilge and while it has achieved much to-date on a limited budget, its scope north of the border is directly tied to the wellbeing of what is essentially a turbulent political process.
Oideachas/education
In the early 1970s, interest grew in Irish-medium education and playgroup settings known as naíonraí. Since then the provision of Irish-medium schooling has been a source of conflict between parents who wish to have their children educated through in Irish, and the Department of Education, which bases its school-building policies on demographic growth instead of linguistic demand.
An Economic, Social and Research Institute survey published in 2015 found that 23 per cent of parents would send their children to Irish-medium education if it was available. In very many cases, it is not.
There is a significant imbalance in transfer rates from Irish-medium primary schools to Irish-medium post-primary schools: only 8 per cent or so of the country’s primary schools are Irish-medium while just over 3 per cent of secondary schools are Gaelcholáistí (secondary schools). Where are primary students supposed to go once they finish the first phase of the cycle?
Concerns have long been voiced over adequate teacher training, the provision of special needs supports in Irish, an overly lenient process for obtaining exemptions from studying Irish, and the efficacy of the curriculum.
“The Irish language in the education system is not in a good place and that is one of the biggest obstacles we face,” de Spáinn says. “The Department of Education is opposing the establishment of new Irish-medium primary and secondary schools which would meet the demand for Irish-medium education from parents”.
Changes introduced by the Department in 2019 made it easier for pupils to opt out of studying Irish. Revised circulars were issued in 2022 which, it was claimed, would make opting out rare, but increased it greatly instead, as was forecast by observers. “All of this must be dealt with urgently or there will be a threat to the status and use of the language in the system as a whole,” said de Spáinn.
Pádraig Ó Duibhir founder of Sealbhú, a Dublin City University-based research centre specialising in applied linguistics and language planning research, is also concerned at the direction taken. “The teaching of Irish has lost its way somewhat despite the inspirational work of many teachers. An example of the lack of direction is that there are three times as many students with an exemption from the study of Irish (12 per cent) as there are attending a post-primary gaelcholáiste or Gaeltacht school (4 per cent).
“There is a lack of a central vision for the teaching of Irish and what the ultimate goal is. Irish has become just another school subject,” he says.
Research carried out by Ó Duibhir found that the time allocated to teaching Irish at primary school has dropped by 500 hours per year, or 37 per cent, since 1971. Earlier this year, he said Government claims that reduced time spent teaching Irish in primary school under a newly proposed curriculum would enhance their language acquisition “defied logic” after it emerged Irish language instruction time in English-medium schools was to be shortened from 3½ hours to three hours per week under the Primary Curriculum Framework.
“When the Irish State was founded, it was thought the primary schools could revitalise Irish on their own. Research and experience in other countries where minoritised languages such as Irish are spoken suggest that teaching the language in schools is a necessary first step but will not lead to language revitalisation on its own,” he said.
An Ghaeltacht
Ireland’s Gaeltacht communities are unique in that they have carried on an unbroken, 2,000-year-old tradition of using Irish as the communal language. Incredible when one considers the significant social, political, and economic marginalisation the language has faced down through the centuries. However, there is a real threat to the viability of the Gaeltacht, partly due to reduced intergenerational transmission of Irish. A 2021 in-depth study by Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta, an organisation providing practical support to Gaeltacht families raising their children through Irish, found that just 23 per cent of families located in the Gaeltacht were raising their children with the language.
Sorcha Ní Chéilleachair, who leads Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta, says it is “imperative for the survival of both the language and of Gaeltacht communities that families raise their children through Irish.”
“Evidence from Census figures of 2016 and from research carried out for the Department of Education suggest that a high percentage of parents who are native or fluent Irish speakers don’t speak the language to their children,” she said.
She believes a Government taskforce should be established to look at ways to encourage people to raise their families in Irish. She also recommends the introduction of a scheme similar to Scéim Labhairt na Gaeilge, a grant-scheme discontinued in 2011 which was designed to promote the continued use of Irish in the home.
“We believe a scheme like this would be of enormous benefit to the work we do as it would provide encouragement to potential parents when making the decision of which language to speak in the home.”
The housing crisis that is felt so acutely nationwide is also impacting Irish-speaking areas. The proliferation of holiday homes and Airbnb-type rentals exacerbate an already difficult housing situation for Gaeltacht residents wishing to stay in their own communities.
Residents often find themselves priced out of the market, with few homes available for rent, despite being surrounded by empty houses for most of the year.
Ironically, many of these homes, while vacant for much of the year, are only occupied during the summer months when they are typically taken up by English-speaking visitors.
Adhna Ní Bhraonáin, a 27-year-old physiotherapist from an Teach Mór, Indreabhán, returned to Connemara last summer after spending five years abroad. She spent several months sleeping in a converted camper van due to a lack of available or affordable accommodation and in the tradition of Gluaiseacht Chearta Sibhialta na Gaeltachta (a social movement that campaigned for Gaeltacht rights in the 1960s and 70s) she has now started a housing pressure group called Bánú over concerns that the very fabric of the Gaeltacht is threatened by the housing crisis.
“It absolutely is,” she says. “Look West towards na hOileáin \[an area in West Connemara\] and you will see all the schools that are closing. They are struggling with numbers,” she said.
“Young couples who would have children attending those schools have had their planning applications rejected by the planners. If they were able to stay there, the schools could stay open and children would have the benefit of living in a community surrounded by Irish,” she said.
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Guidelines on housing planning are expected from Government in 2024 and Conradh na Gaeilge’s Julian de Spáinn says it is imperative that they cater for Gaeltacht needs. To this end he says an enhanced role in housing provision should be given to Gaeltacht development agency Údarás na Gaeltachta.
“A strong housing policy must be implemented in the Gaeltacht to ensure the community can live in its own native area and in so doing remove a big obstacle to the growth and the development of the Gaeltacht as an Irish-speaking area,” de Spáinn says. “What’s the point of all the language planning taking place at the moment if the people the planning is for can’t live in their own area?”
An announcement by the board of Údarás na Gaeltachta earlier this month that it has approved a housing initiative to develop a model of affordable housing for Irish speakers on three sites in Gaeltacht areas will be welcomed.
Expressions of interest are being sought from local authorities and housing organisations to partner in the scheme and €250,000 has been allocated for research and development purposes. However, Gaeltacht housing is an issue that can’t be addressed quickly enough.
Ní Bhraonáin, who spent three years in New Zealand and two in Tasmania before her return, says there is always a temptation for young Gaeltacht people to go abroad. “You have a lot more money and more disposable income,” she says. “It’s a lot easier to move around and the weather is better. There are so many things that are nicer in other places but still, we want to be here in our own community trying to keep alive our culture, heritage and the language that was given to us.
“But we are being pushed out. A few times now I thought of leaving but I said no, I’ll stand my ground. I’m not leaving.”
Stádas/Status
Linguistic status plays a crucial role in education and in social mobility. Achieving full legislative parity with the European Union’s other 23 official languages in 2021 resulted in the development of new Irish translation courses at third level.
More than 200 people now are employed in Brussels and in Luxembourg, availing of opportunities to work with the Irish language in roles that would never otherwise have materialised..
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A growing number of businesses are also incorporating Irish into their branding and operations, signalling a broader recognition of the language’s value. Organisations such as Gaillimh le Gaeilge, Gnó Mhaigheo and Baile Átha Cliath le Gaeilge all provide support services to businesses.
Niamh De Búrca, príomhfheidhmeanach (chief executive) of Gnó Mhaigheo, says: “Businesses are interested in seeing how the language adds to their business and they like to see the language being promoted and used. From the customers perspective, they simply love to see the language whether it is in the branding, on signage, on the menu.”
She too is concerned about the fall in daily speakers recorded in the latest Census and believes more can be done to promote the language. “I don’t believe that we, as a nation, are undertaking the task of promoting the language as we should. I see a lot of gaps in how the language is being promoted across all spheres of society – education, business, youth affairs, the arts, sport, among others. There is some great work being done but there are a lot of gaps also.”
And this is why language legislation is so important. Since the State was established in 1922, and despite the role of the Irish language in the national renaissance, resistance to accommodating Irish speakers often led to exclusionary practices which helped create a discouraging environment for its use: those wishing to interact with the State had to use English instead.
The resultant social norms, which are essentially deep-rooted social rules internalised over time, restrict Irish usage to very limited circumstances and settings. They have been acknowledged since the mid-1970s, yet a concerted public campaign to directly challenge and change them has never been conducted.
Milestone achievements such as the establishment of Raidió na Gaeltachta, the success of the naíonra and Gaeloideachas movements, the establishment of TG4, and official recognition of Irish at EU level were all hard-won achievements. Yet most came about as a result, not of political or Government initiatives, but because of intensive grassroots campaigning, which included protest as well as direct capacity-building.
The emergence of Irish-speaking GAA clubs such Na Gaeil Óga in Lucan and Belfast’s Laochra Loch Lao, along with Pop-up Gaeltachtaí, are creating new spaces and opportunities for people to connect with the language outside of traditional settings.
While the recent language legislation was broadly welcomed, there are other steps that could be taken to further support the language – improving access to Irish-medium education and a concerted public campaign to challenge and change those deep-rooted social norms that restrict Irish usage are obvious first steps. Another obvious step is to elevate the language’s presence and prominence in the media. Why not employ an Irish language journalist in every newsroom in the country? Bilingual presenters, researchers and producers could be recruited and their output, but not its content, tied to Government support.
In the absence of State support, grassroots movements have demonstrated the power of organic language networks. Initiatives such as Stádas, the campaign for EU status for Irish, An Dream Dearg’s campaign for an Irish language act, the role Gluaiseacht Chearta Sibhialta na Gaeltachta had in establishing Raidió na Gaeltachta, Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta, An Cheathrú Ghaeltachta in Belfast, na Naíonraí Gaelacha, and the ongoing vocal BÁC 2, 4, 6, 8 campaign for a Gaelcholáiste in Dublin among many others highlight their transformative potential.
Earlier this month, the newly appointed Irish Language Commissioner, Séamas Ó Concheanainn, said a “national effort” will be required to ensure public services are provided to the Irish-speaking community.
While the language act contains targets, checks and balances, and despite some progress in recent years, experience of the State’s willingness to “normalise” the Irish language and its historical ambivalence towards respecting the rights of Irish speakers would suggest that the newly-appointed Coimisinéir will have his work cut out for him. Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
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