Irish in modern times

During the 19th Century, many educated people began to take a keen interest in the fortunes of the Irish language. Revival movements began in both Dublin and Belfast. The most significant and successful of these movements was The Gaelic League, Conradh na Gaeilge, which sought to preserve Irish as the national language of Ireland and to extend its use as a spoken tongue. The League also wished to promote the study and publication of existing literature, as well as to cultivate a modern literature in Irish.

To the dismay of some of its members, the Gaelic League became closely associated with Irish nationalism and when, in 1922, the Southern part of Ireland gained its independence from Britain, the new government adopted many of the League's policies as its own. Irish became the first official language of the State, and for many years it was a compulsory subject in schools. Despite independence however the numbers of native speakers continued to decline. Some commentators believe that while the government promoted the language on a symbolic level, it did not do enough to allow native speakers, or those who had learned the language at school, to actually use Irish in their dealings with the state or in their daily lives.

In Northern Ireland, speakers of Irish were in a very different situation. The government saw Irish as a threat. Official policies were hostile to the language with the result that Irish received no official recognition. Attempts were made to restrict Irish being taught in schools, street names in Irish were banned and Irish could not be used for any official business. Officially held negative attitudes to Irish, and distrust of Irish speakers, was maintained until the 1970s.

The linguistic situation in Northern Ireland has improved greatly since the 1970s. Although Irish speakers would like more support and recognition, there is no official hostility to the language. The government views Irish as an important part of everyone's heritage and has made commitments in international agreements to support and actively encourage the use of Irish.

Find out more...
You can get lots of material on the BBC's Irish language site, or learn Irish on the Blas site.