Saying Slan to An Ghaeilge

Earlier this evening, Questions and Answers flirted briefly with the issue of the Irish language, following the leaking of a report which predicted the end of Irish as the Gaeltacht's lingua fraca within twenty years. Eamon Ó Cuív was asked whether he was embarrassed that only 46% of students in Gaeltacht schools can speak the mellifluous Gaeilge. The Minister fudged admirably, and was at pains to point out that the figures were in line with previous census findings. That may be, but the point is hardly whether or not they came as a surprise. It is rather that the Irish language is in terminal decline, and has been since the 19th century.

Mr. Ó Cuív points to the total number of Irish speakers, which has risen by over a million people since the turn of the century. Granted, but of those 1.7 million people only about 85,000 claim to speak the language on a daily basis outside of education, with a further 100,000 reporting weekly use. There are 64,000 Irish speakers left in the Gaeltacht, and even there they are only 70% of the total population. With this in mind, it hardly seemed necessary to spend over €500,000 euro to reach the conclusion that the language may be in trouble.

The strength of the consensus among Irish politicians of all stripes, that Gaeilge must be cherished and preserved at all costs, is matched only by their total inability to do anything about it. No policy has yet been successful in halting the decline of Irish as an everyday spoken language. It is unlikely, at this stage, whether any top-down government initiatives can have the desired effect. However, if radical steps are taken, there may be life in the old teanga yet.

This does not mean that Irish and Irish speakers should be showered with ever more resources and benefits. The status already afforded Irish by the State means that fluent speakers are well endowed with ways to profit by their native tongue: exam bonuses at Leaving Certificate, grants for those living in Gaeltacht areas, any number of jobs in government-subsidised state bodies, newspapers and broadcast media. The argument that Irish speakers get a bum rap- the rationale behind the Official Languages Act- does not really stand up to scrutiny.

Irish language policy needs a good dose of reality. Irish may be the first language of the state under the constitution, but in reality it is a minority persuation, and needs to be recognised as such. Compulsory Irish for the Leaving Certificate, for example, is completely counterproductive. The education system churns out people able to speak the language, but with no desire to, and often harbouring resentment towards it (the name of Peig Sayers still sends a chill down the spine of a generation of school-goers). This report by the European Commission notes that:

"All Irish children continue to learn Irish in both primary and postprimary school as a subject, but despite some thirteen years experience in the case of the average child, these programmes do not generally produce highly competent active users of Irish". (section 2.1)

Indeed, enforcing Irish through total immersion in primary schools was persued vigorously by successive governments up until the 1950's, when it was realised that such methods were failing abjectly in making us all "not free merely, but Gaelic as well". The lesson we should learn from past experience is that pushing Irish too hard does nobody any favours.

So by "radical steps", I really mean take Gaeilge off the life support machine, and see what happens. Remove it as a compulsory subject in schools, end preferential treatment for Gaeltacht areas and Gaelscoileanna, stop subsidising Irish-language media, and see what happens. The results can't be worse than previous policies of compulsion and hysterical promotion. A language only dies out if people don't wish to speak it any more. Charles Flanagan of Fine Gael, speaking on Q&A tonight, noted that an MORI poll (also mentioned here) in 2004 found that "92 per cent of Irish people say promoting the Irish language is important to the country, themselves, or both". If the people are serious about rescuing Irish, then let them step up to the plate now. Government throwing money at the problem is a tried and tested failure.

Edit: There's a similar but more well-developed argument for the "disestablishment" of Irish here.