The State’s Irish-speaking regions have been allowed dwindle so much they have been reduced to “Indian reservations” ignored by the State and by successive governments, according to a new TG4 documentary on Gaeltacht.
Gaeltacht 2020 is a two-part investigation on the state of the country’s last Irish-speaking regions where the combined populations number no more than that of a large Irish town.
Presenter Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile visits all the remaining regions – from the smallest, Rinn in Co Waterford, to the largest, south Connemara. The others are south Kerry, west Kerry, Baile Bhúirne, the Donegal Gaeltachtaí and Belmullet in Co Mayo.
The number of people living in regions where Irish remains the dominant tongue has shrank to 17,000, it says. That stark number is a “national emergency” and needs an immediate and concerted response, says Prof Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh.
Language activist Donncha Ó hÉallaithe sets out how the Irish revival movement failed after the foundation of the State. In a series of maps he demonstrates how the Gaeltachtaí, in real terms, have shrunk from large tracts all along the western seaboard in 1926 to small slivers of land in 2020.
These are areas when two-thirds of the people still use Irish as a first language. When the number of Irish speakers drops below 50 per cent, he says, decline happens precipitously, as has happened in areas still designated as Gaelteacht regions but where few people speak Irish.
He says the official Gaeltachtaí bear no relation to reality any more. Areas such as Tirellan and Menlo in Galway city are still officially designated even though there are few or no native speakers in either area.
Ms Ní Chonghaile and director Seán Ó Cualáin visited all the Gaeltachtaí to ask local communities about the roots of the decline and what could be done to save Irish as a primary language.
Their remote geographic locations means Gaeltachtaí have long been economically deprived and adversely affected by unemployment, rural depopulation and emigration. In the small Gaeltacht on the Iveragh peninsula in south Kerry, some 80 Irish speaking townlands have now deserted over the past 50 years.
Udarás na Gaeltachta, which promotes development in these regions, has helped in stemming the flow. But many of the manufacturing jobs have been lost because they could not compete on a cost basis with China.
Senator and entrepreneur Pádraig Ó Céidigh from An Spidéal in Connemara does not pull his punches. “I do not think the State has the remotest interest in the Gaeltacht, its people or in the culture of the country”, he has told the programme.
“The Gaeltachtaí are like an Indian reservation. We will throw them a few pennies to keep them happy and that will tick a box for us.”
From the perspective of Gaeltacht people, the need to create meaningful jobs is highest on the agenda. So are house prices where locals cannot afford to buy against wealthier families buying holiday homes. In Rinn, an affordable housing scheme for Irish speaking families is now being promoted. Poor infrastructure, including roads and broadband, are also mooted, as are adverse planning and environmental laws.
However, the documentary also looks at some of the newer success stories such as a digital hub in Gweedore called G-Teic which has superfast broadband and has helped people work from there. Údarás na Gaeltachta also attracted a high-tech medtech company, Randox, to Gweedore. There have been some great local innovations using natural resources such as the highly successful Folláin jam company in Cúil Aodha, Cork. Also Louis Mulcahy’s pottery shop in Dún Chaoin, Kerry, the Uisce water-sport summer school in Belmullet, as well as the aquarium in Dingle.
‘Huge resource’
Ms Ní Chonghaile says that some of the great resources are not used enough, including the sea. A marine expert, Séamus Breathnach, states: “Feamainn, tá sé gnéasach faoi láthair (Seaweed, it’s sexy right now).”
The language itself, argues Ms Ní Chonghaile, is a huge resource – its preservation, ironically, is in itself a creator of employment.
The message from the communities is that they themselves must fight for the survival of the language as nobody else will do it. Harking back to Gluaiseacht Chearta Sibhialta na Gaeltachta 50 years ago, NUIG historian Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh says the Gaeltachtaí are now facing their own emergency.
“It angered me that the State has not recognised this emergency,” he says. “We need an emergency authority that will set out a plan that will save, preserve and revive the language for the [Gaeltacht] community.”
Gaeltacht 2020 begins on TG4 on Wednesday, April 22, at 9.30pm.
