The Irish Government Remains the Greatest Foe of the Irish Language

Irish Gaelic is a language that is “threatened” according to most linguists.  However, the numbers don’t seem to support that conclusion at first glance. In 2016 the Irish Government’s Central Statistics Office estimated that 1,761,420 Irishmen over the age of 3 could speak Gaelic, statistically a scant change from the 2011.

Ethnologue, the web page which specializes in monitoring the status of the world’s languages, breaks down the Irish speakers into two groups. There are the native speakers whose first language is Irish (141,000) and those speakers who learn the language in school (1,620,000). How many of the second larger group are fluent in Gaelic is problematic.

Polling over the past decades shows the Irish people strongly support the language. A 2013 poll commissioned by The Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaelige) showed huge majorities support the provision of State services in Gaelic on demand. Opinion in the Republic was 7 to 1 in favor of Gaelic on demand with support exceeding 50% in favor as shown in a separate polling district in Ulster. An additional 62% of respondents agree that there are not enough opportunities for young people to use the Gaelic tongue beyond the formal education system.

When it comes to the future health of Irish the concern focuses on the Gaeltacht. Gaelic’s future is closely aligned with  the fate of the Irish Gaeltacht.

The Statistics Office reports 64,000 native Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht.  An analogy might be that these are the last trees standing in the Irish language forest which once blanketed Ireland from coast to coast. If you accept that language is the soul of a culture then the Gaeltacht is the soul of Ireland.

In 2017 the Irish Times reported on an “alarming drop” in the number of Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht over the previous 5 years.  The Irish Times went on to conclude that the numbers indicated that “…Irish is in danger of becoming extinct as a native language.” The drop in native speakers in the Gaeltacht provoked criticism from language activist groups over the Government’s approach to the protection of Gaelic culture and language. Conradh na Gaeilge said the Government had refused to invest in the 20-year Strategy for the Irish Language over the past six years, rendering it "completely ineffective”.

Indeed the culprit in the demise of the “Soul of Ireland” is the Irish Government which refuses to fully fund the Gaeltacht so that it can prosper and grow.  This is in spite of the lofty commitments made to the language, and to the Gaeltacht, as part of the governments much ballyhooed 20-year strategy language plan objective of increasing the number of native speakers to 250,000.

In 2017, six years in to the “20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030", the Gaelic League condemned the lack of progress by the Irish government in providing State Services in Gaelic as is required by law. Quoting from the press release issued by the Gaelic league leaves no comfort for supporters of the tongue:  “The quantity of complaints made to the Language Commissioner during 2015, the largest amount since the office’s inception in 2004, is proof that the state service is continuously failing to provide fitting services in Irish to citizens of this country. Conradh na Gaeilge insists that this fact must be accepted and that focus must be immediately directed to strengthening the Official Languages Act…”

The frustration and disgust with the Irish governments duplicity in its language policy had boiled over in 2014 when Ireland’s first Language Commissioner, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, resigned citing the failure of the Irish Government to support the Irish language and adequately fund the 20-year strategy.

The Irish Times reported on the final testimony of the Irish Language Commissioner (An Coimisineir Teanga) before the National Parliament's Sub-Committee on the 20-Year Strategy for The Irish Language".  The Times described the Language Commissioner's testimony as “...a comprehensive and wide-ranging condemnation of the State and Government's record on the Irish language."  The article goes on to quote Mr. O' Cuirreain as portraying the Irish language as “...being continuously driven out to the margins of Irish society in a process accelerated by the inaction of Government, the civil service and the public sector."

Sadly, not much has changed in spite of the drama surrounding the nation’s first Language Commissioner’s resignation.  The Irish government doesn’t seem to have cared.

Last month Language Commissioner Rónán Ó Domhnaill, successor to Mr. O' Cuirreain, issued the following condemnation of the Irish Government’s failure to support Gaelic at all levels. The Irish Times reported as follows: “ An analysis conducted by the Irish Language Commissioner has made scathing criticism of many Government departments, local authorities and State agencies for completely ignoring their obligations to the Irish language. An Coimisinéir Teanga, Rónán Ó Domhnaill, has concluded that language schemes for public bodies have failed to achieve their goals and need to be urgently replaced. The schemes, under the Official Languages Act, were introduced to ensure that at least some services in councils, local authorities, State agencies and departments would be available in Irish. This was to be particularly so in Gaeltacht areas, where native speakers would have access to services through Irish. However, Mr Ó Domhnaill’s report has found that almost half (56) of the 116 schemes have expired. Six of the schemes have been expired for seven years or more.”

It is unspeakable to think that the Irish support the language 7 to 1, that 1.7 million Irish speak the language and the law and constitution recognise the language as equal to English, yet the government doesn’t care.  Not only doesn’t the government care but acts against the survival of the Irish language.