The Irish Language

Long ago, it was spoken all across Ireland, andAlso, the Irish Potato Famine hit the poorer,
was even used as a literary language in parts ofIrish-speaking areas of the country the hardest,
Scotland. Today, the language has diminished. It iskilling many native Irish speakers or driving them
commonly used in daily life in only a small portionto emigrate from Ireland to other countries.
of Ireland itself, a collection of counties known asThe Gaelic League
the Gaeltachtaí. What happened, and isThe Irish language began to experience a revival
there any hope that it can experience a revival onin the late 19th century, when the Gaelic League,
par with that of the Welsh Language?or Conradh na Gaeilge, was formed to promote it.
The Origins of the LanguageThis coincided with a revival of Irish Nationalist
Irish was brought to Ireland by the Celtic people,sentiment and traditional Irish Culture. During this
who arrived sometime between 3000 and 1200time period William Butler Yeats and others wrote
BC-no one is quite sure.poems and plays in English about traditional Irish
The first remnants of the written language areheroes and myths.
mostly memorials inscribed on stones in OghamAfter the Irish republic gained independence in
script, which date from 5-6 AD. After Christianity1922, Irish was declared the first official language
took hold, Old Irish inscriptions and footnotesof the Republic. However, the new government
appear in Bibles and illuminated manuscripts copiedstill continued to use English as its primary
by monks.language and the percentage of native speakers
Starting in the 8th century AD, the Norse Vikingscontinued to fall.
began pillaging England and Ireland, and IrishFor example, since Ireland gained independence
monasteries proved to be an almost irresistiblethe number of fluent Irish speakers has fallen
temptation to the gold-hungry Norsemen. After all,from 250,000 to 20-30,000. The government of
monasteries contained great stores of gold andthe Republic of Ireland has made many attempts
other shiny treasures, guarded by men whoto preserve the language, including requiring it as a
devoutly believed in the principle of 'Thou Shaltschool subject. Some people feel that the way
Not Kill.' The Vikings found Ireland so congenialIrish is taught in schools has actually hastened the
that they even founded the city of Dublin indecline of the language, as students see it as a
Ireland.difficult, boring subject to master instead of an
Middle Irishexciting part of their cultural heritage.
The result of all of this pillaging was that by theIrish in the 21st Century
10th century AD, Old Irish had evolved into MiddleHowever, many Irish citizens at least have a
Irish, which showed some Norse influence.passing acquaintance with Irish due to these
Some words that Middle Irish borrowed from Oldlessons, and there have been some encouraging
Norse include: bord, for table; scuird, which meantdevelopments in recent years. For example, in
'skirt, tunic or cloak' and comes from the Norse2005 Irish was made an official language of the
word skyrta, brog, for shoe; and mardagh forEuropean Union, meaning that all legislation now
market. Middle Irish is the language that a lot ofhas to be translated into Irish.
traditional Irish literature was written in. ForIn 2006, the Irish government released a plan to
example, the Ulster Cycle, Irish mythology'sencourage the use of Irish so that "in public
answer to the Iliad, was written in Middle Irish.discourse and in public services the use of Irish or
The Decline of the LanguageEnglish will be, as far as practical, a choice for the
Early Modern Irish, also called classical Gaelic, wascitizen to make and that over time more and
the standard written form of Irish from the 13thmore people throughout the State will choose to
to 17th centuries, and was used in Scotland asdo their business in Irish."
well as in Ireland.In everyday life, many computer programs, such
During the 17th century, poets began writingas Mozilla Firefox and Windows, have an
poems in their own dialects instead of usingIrish-language option. There is also an
classical Gaelic. After the 17th century, EarlyIrish-language radio station available in The Republic
Modern Irish was no longer used. Poems andof Ireland, as well as an Irish-language TV station
stories were written in regional dialects, andcalled TG4 that broadcasts in both the Republic of
writing in Irish became a lot less common duringIreland and Belfast in Northern Ireland.
this period of time.Additonally, there is an increasing number of
The single most important factor in the decline ofschools called gaelscoileanna that teach students in
the Irish language was the influence of the EnglishIrish, even outside of the Irish-speaking regions of
government. Ireland and England had an uneasy,the country.
conflict-driven relationship starting in 1171 whenIrish words also survive in a surprising place: the
King Henry II of England invaded Ireland.basis for many American slang words.
Over time, the English government began to ruleFor example, author Daniel Cassidy compiled a list
Ireland with a stronger hand, and also set upof American slang words that have Irish origins:
policies that favored English Protestants over"scram" comes from scaraim, which means "I get
Catholics. These policies favored the use ofaway;" "dig" comes from "tuig," which means "I
English, the language of the ruling class, over Irish,understand" and "dude" comes from
leading to a long, slow decline in the use of Irish."dúid," which means a fool or a dolt. So
In 1831, England set up a National School systemremember, next time you call somebody "dude,"
in Ireland. These schools provided education inyou are actually insulting them. Also, the
English only, and students discovered speakingexpression "Say Uncle" becomes a lot less puzzling
Irish were harshly punished. Many Irish parentswhen you realize that "anacal" means "mercy" in
encouraged their children to learn English andIrish.
abandon their native tongue because they sawHopefully, Irish will continue to slowly creep back
speaking English as the only way to a better life.into use in Ireland itself.