cohesion - European Centre for Modern Languages

12. Taking the minority language beyond the minority
Ciaran Dawson
Introduction
Although there has been a long tradition of Irish language being studied in continental
Europe and the United States, this has always tended to be motivated from an academic
interest. Being one of the oldest written vernaculars in Europe has meant that the
language provides valuable insights to linguists, folklorists and social historians. In the
last decade, however, there has been a noticeable change in the profile of those arriving
in Ireland from abroad interested in learning Irish. Rather than studying it for academic
purposes, learners seem more altruistic in their approach to the language. This is true of
both those learning it in Ireland and in various institutions abroad.
The purpose of this paper is to explore this phenomenon. It will begin with a brief
description of the language itself. It will then describe Ionad na Gaeilge Labhartha (The
Centre for Oral Irish) in University College Cork and the context in which it teaches
Irish language to a diverse body of learners. Following this I will outline a survey
carried out among non-Irish learners and the results attained. I will finish with a
description of the implications of this to those tasked with promoting and teaching the
language together with plans for further research and study.
Irish
Irish is one of the Celtic branch of Indo-European languages. More specifically it is one
of the three q-celtic languages. It is estimated that in 1841 4,100,000 people out of a
population of 8,100,000 spoke the language. By 1901 this figure had dropped to
619,710 of a population of 4,458,775. Today 1,731,915 speak the language out of a
total population of 5,675,603 in both jurisdictions in the country. However, in the
Gaeltacht, where Irish is the everyday language, it is estimated that 60,000 out of a
population of 80,000 are speaking the language. Some more recent assessments put this
number at between 20,000 and 30,000. One other significant statistic is that in the
United States Census of 2000, 25,870 people said they use Irish at home.
Article 8 of Bunreacht na hÉireann, the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland, states:
“The Irish language as the national language is the first official language”. The Official
Languages Act 2003 sets out the use of the Irish language by public bodies, sets up the
office of An Coimisinéir Teanga and revokes the official status of English place names
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