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

Barbara Siller
that something has to be done by others, and not by them. Maybe this can be seen as a weak
commitment to their native language, the reasons for which are, according to my survey, that
fi rstly, 37 out of 48 respondents consider English as their mother tongue. 8 of them consider
both of the languages to be a mother tongue. Half of the respondents consider Irish as their
next language. Not to mention that fi gure of the – undoubtedly - dominant daily use of English
in contrast to Irish.
The afore mentioned Irish Times article quotes the reply of a 25 - year old Russian student
of linguistics and Irish in Trinity College/Dublin, to the question: “How do you fi nd Irish people’s
attitudes towards the language?” He states: “The only word is unfortunately a harsh one,
hypocrisy” (Irish Times 05/07/06).
Regarding other modes of perception of the Irish and English languages among the Irish
population, the results of my survey suggest that: Besides perceiving Irish as a part of the
identity and as the language of people who are aware of being Irish, the respondents consider
it as: connected to love for their country (20), nicer than English (19), nice (14), diffi cult (12)
and old-fashioned (11). Contrary to that, they link English to success (21), see it as the language
of the young people, as a complete language, nice, yet less than one third of the respondents
consider the English language as part of their identity.
It has to be highlighted, that seeing English as connected to success was the most widely
chosen answer, and seeing Irish as the language of the farmers was only chosen by one
respondent. The linking of English with success, of course, has to be seen in a broader context:
the importance of English within Europe and around the world, together with the economic and
political importance of America. And whereas “Irish-speakers [in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century] were primarily to be found both among the poorest farming classes and,
within that class, in the most remote regions” (O’Riagain 1997: 171) and people for a long time
held on to that image, nowadays that image seems to have altered.
Dr. Dawson, points out that in the South Irish is strongly connected to the middle-class,
whereas in the North it is a phenomenon of the working-class (Dawson 07/07/06).
Keeping in mind the Irish Census fi gures of 2002, carried out by the Central Statistics Offi ce
within the Republic of Ireland, the following results confi rm Dr. Dawson’s statement. The table
which refl ects the classifi cation by Intermediate Occupational Group and the ability to speak
Irish, ranks it as following: the largest Irish speaker group (within the Gaeltacht and outside) is
found among teachers (90% in the Gaeltacht, 76.7% outside), followed by the policemen (87.7%
vs. 79.3%), and people with religious occupations (81. 2% vs. 65%) (Census 2006).
Whereas in Northern Ireland the question seems to be “Am I allowed to speak Irish?” in the
Republic the question is very often: “What’s the point?” as John Barker, a teacher at Conradh
na Gaeilge Irish night classes in Dublin asserts (Irish Times 05/07/2006).
Though nobody wants to see a language – dying, everybody asks of what use the language
which one is studying will be. Obviously, Irish citizens who don’t see the point of Irish, mention
reasons which are comprehensible to them and most probably comprehensible to many others
around them: lack of interest and motivation, constraints of time, other priorities, no career
advantage, little relevance to daily life, lack of domains for using the language.
Taking into consideration these reasons given by people, the reasons might be comprehensible,
looking at the effective use of the language in society. The 48 respondents used Irish mainly
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