The Irish Language in 2013
Intro to Irish Language & Culture
Seamus O Diolluin
April 26, 2013
The Irish Language in 2013: Ireland’s Most Important Cultural Asset
The Irish language has become a martyr of the desperate attempt to make a clear division between Ireland and the United Kingdom. This is because of the rough history between the two countries. Ireland was under the British government up until the rising of Easter 1916, where a desire for independence was sought after. Not until the 6th of December 1921 was the Anglo-Irish treaty signed granting the Irish their independence. The attempt to abruptly switch the national language from English to Irish caused people to resent the language since it was forced upon them, just like English was forced in the occupation of Ireland by the British (Irishlanguage.net).
Irish dates back to the 4th century in the ogham inscriptions. Ogham inscriptions were carvings of primitive Irish on stone. Later on in the 6th century Old Irish developed and appeared in Latin manuscripts as glosses in the margins moving forward into Middle Irish by the 10th Century. Modern Irish, which is the closest to the one we know today, was developed not until the 16th century (Carney).
Up until the 19th century Irish was the predominant language in the island of Ireland. Then in 1831 the British passed through the Stanley Letter which gave legal grounds for the national schools to be put into motion (Milne). These national schools were basically state funded schools but administered jointly by the state, a patron body and local representatives. The issue these schools brought up to the Irish language was that it was forbidden to speak Irish within them and only English was taught by order of the English government. This was the first sharp drop in number of people who spoke Irish. Shortly thereafter in 1845 the Great Famine struck Ireland. Because of a potato blight, a large number of the potato crops were contaminated and ruined causing a famine due to the fact
Seamus O Diolluin
April 26, 2013
The Irish Language in 2013: Ireland’s Most Important Cultural Asset
The Irish language has become a martyr of the desperate attempt to make a clear division between Ireland and the United Kingdom. This is because of the rough history between the two countries. Ireland was under the British government up until the rising of Easter 1916, where a desire for independence was sought after. Not until the 6th of December 1921 was the Anglo-Irish treaty signed granting the Irish their independence. The attempt to abruptly switch the national language from English to Irish caused people to resent the language since it was forced upon them, just like English was forced in the occupation of Ireland by the British (Irishlanguage.net).
Irish dates back to the 4th century in the ogham inscriptions. Ogham inscriptions were carvings of primitive Irish on stone. Later on in the 6th century Old Irish developed and appeared in Latin manuscripts as glosses in the margins moving forward into Middle Irish by the 10th Century. Modern Irish, which is the closest to the one we know today, was developed not until the 16th century (Carney).
Up until the 19th century Irish was the predominant language in the island of Ireland. Then in 1831 the British passed through the Stanley Letter which gave legal grounds for the national schools to be put into motion (Milne). These national schools were basically state funded schools but administered jointly by the state, a patron body and local representatives. The issue these schools brought up to the Irish language was that it was forbidden to speak Irish within them and only English was taught by order of the English government. This was the first sharp drop in number of people who spoke Irish. Shortly thereafter in 1845 the Great Famine struck Ireland. Because of a potato blight, a large number of the potato crops were contaminated and ruined causing a famine due to the fact
Cited: Broderick, George (1993). "Manx". In Ball, Martin J.; Fife, James. The Celtic Languages. London: Routledge. p. 228. Carney, J "The Invention of the Ogam Cipher" 'Ériu ' 22, pp. 62–63, 1975; MacNeill, E. "Archaisms in the Ogham Inscriptions", 'Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy ' 39, pp. 33–53, Dublin Milne, Kenneth. Irish Educational Documents, vol. 1, Áine Hyland, Church of Ireland College of Education, pp.98-103 Irish Language. History of Irish Language .http://www.irishlanguage.net/irish/history.asp Nic Pháidín, Caoilfhionn and Seán Ó Cearnaigh (2008) A New View of the Irish Language, Cois Life: Dublin Ross, David (2002), Ireland: History of a Nation, New Lanark: Geddes & Grosset. Coughlan, Gerry. Irish Language and Culture. Lonely Planet Publications, Australia. 2007.