Mehrsprachigkeit in Europa: Plurilinguismo in Europa ... - EURAC

The Irish language – its prestige and the attitude of its speakers
This is called the three-generational pattern of language shift (Nettle et.al 2000: 136).
Bearing in mind the stages through which Irish has passed, it would seem as if the language has
now reached the third stage. Generally speaking, at this stage, as Crystal asserts, it is too late
for most of languages to survive. “It is the second stage – the stage of emergent bilingualism
– where there is a real chance to make progress. If the process of language decline is to be
slowed down, stopped, or reversed, this is where attention must be focused” (Crystal 2000:
78).
An additional contributory factor in the decline of the Irish language was the Irish Famine
which from 1845 to 1849 caused the starvation of at least one million people and the emigration
of another 1.5 million people (out of more than 9 million people). Because the famine was
more severe in the poorer western regions, its impact was greatest among the Irish-speaking
community, since most of the Irish native-speakers lived there.
After the Famine a more active concern with the decline in the numbers of Irish-speakers
developed. The society for the Preservation of the Irish Language was established in 1876, and
the most infl uential language organization of this period, the Gaelic League, was established
in 1893. In 1922, with the adoption of the Irish constitution (and the division of Ireland into
2 States), Irish was defi ned as the national language, but English was equally recognized as
an offi cial language (O’Riagain 1997: 14). The aim of the government was to rescue Irish und
to reestablish it. Over the more than 80 years of language policy planning, many measures
have been taken to preserve and promote the Irish language. It has to be highlighted that the
situation of the Irish language in the Republic of Ireland in contrast to the situation in Northern
Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, is a completely different one, and this paper will mainly
address the case of the Republic, however it will refer to the case of Irish in Northern Ireland
as well.
Language has been understood as an identity marker and in Ireland it was a tool of suppression.
The suppression started off with the suppression of people who had more power in the society
and with a more marked infl uence on places which had more administrative importance, such
as towns. Along with the social and administrative takeover grew the perception of Irish as an
unsuccessful tool in society. It was seen as having links to poverty and failure and as being based
in rural i.e. non-cosmopolitan districts. Over the four centuries a distinct hierarchy between
the Irish and the English language was established, with English at the top and Irish at the
bottom. Daily life refl ected that English out valued Irish; a negative attitude towards Irish was
stimulated.
Dr Ciarán Dawson, currently lecturing in Irish at University College Cork, when commenting
on Bordieu’s theory of the acceptance of the language hierarchy, emphasizes that if you link
English with economic success and if you link Irish with economic repression than the introduction
of English will be successful. That is exactly what happened. Furthermore he states that there
wasn’t a great awareness of cultural diversity among Irish people as the economic situation
didn’t attract foreign workers till early to mid 1990s. Hence he refuses to believe in the idea
that Irish people were active accomplices, but he considers them as victims of circumstance.
“If we haven’t been taken over by our neighbors, we would still speak Irish. We would also
speak English, the language of our neighbors” (Dawson 07/07/06) he asserts. Considering the
history of the language one notices that the use of a particular language, in this case English,
Multilingualism.indb 469 4-12-2006 12:29:52
469