The Gaeltacht and the
future of Irish

Nollaig O Gadhra

Issue 360, vol.90, Winter 2001

The required proactive approach will need to be two-pronged : (1) Local population-units will have to be targeted which are large and homogeneous enough to be developed administratively as viable communities. (2) Resources will have to be canvassed which can function as a counterweight to the cultural pull of English as a world-language. This in turn will depend on these communities being declared eligible for separate as well as equal treatment - both before the law as well as in terms of funding; both within Ireland itself and within Europe.

None of this should be considered as privilege for the sake of privilege (and, in any case, some of the districts are comparatively prosperous already). What is contemplated, rather, is a legal and financial capablility which could be used to off-set the appeal which such localities have to, e.g., (non-Irish speaking) outsiders seeking planning-permission for homes - and also as a disincentive to the encroachment of industry and its human infrastructure (operating through English).

We have reached the present pass because, perhaps, the revival-measures from the beginning of the 20th century focussed too narrowly on the teaching of Irish in the schools - and because so many of those who were awarded State positions on the basis of being native Irish speakers, migrated to the towns.

The whole story might of course have been different were it not for the Famine. There had been a huge increase of population in the (Irish-speaking) countryside in the first half of the 19th century.

Nollaig O Gadhra is author of several prize-winning books in Irish and English. His paper on "The Future of the Irish Gaeltacht Communities in the third millennium was delivered at the 19th Harvard University Celtic Colloquium.