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Bliain na Gaeilge 'My mother made a choice to speak to us in her mother tongue'

The best news story as regards the language, though, is the emergence of what I see as a new movement, writes Róisín O’Hara.

HAVEN’T WE COME a long way, lads? A long way. When my grandmother was a little girl she wasn’t allowed speak Irish in school. She’d get a belt of a stick if she did.

Oh God no, she daren’t speak it. They were taught everything through English.

And that was hard for her because English was a foreign language. They spoke Irish, only Irish – at home and in their community. It was their native language, their mother tongue. We now call that place An Ghaeltacht.

They kept it alive amongst themselves because it was unnatural to do otherwise. And she, in turn, passed it on to her children because it was the natural thing to do and her children passed it to theirs.

Culture and identity

And that’s what they call culture. Identity. In its purest, natural sense.

I was once told by a prominent Irish radio host that I was “lucky enough to have grown up with a different experience of Irish than the vast majority of people who were force fed poetry and Peig in a language no one thought they should actually be learning”.

Of course, that’s the difference, I didn’t have to “learn” the language – it was passed onto me by my mother, and her family, and her community – the Gaeltacht community into which I was born, in the late 1970s. But, luck had nothing to do with it either.

My mother made a choice to speak to us in her mother tongue. Of course, to do otherwise would have been unnatural for her, but there were outside pressures to follow a different path.

Raising children

On returning home for good from London, a local elderly woman advised her not to speak Irish to her child as, she said “he would need English when he grows up”.

It’s a lot harder for parents in Gaeltacht areas now to raise children through Irish. According to linguists, minority languages throughout the world are under greater threat due to the globalisation of the English language and the prevalence of the internet.

Communication between parents or grandparents and children has been disrupted by digital devices, so much so that children are simply not acquiring verbal or linguistic skills like they used to, according to the experts.

The language of the internet is predominantly English. The impact all this is having on the acquisition of a minority language in a once ‘protected’ community has been detrimental, with one report stating that Irish will no longer be the primary language in any Gaeltacht community in ten years time.

New movement

Community groups like Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta, however, are rising to the challenge but support is needed and this week’s announcement from the government that they are to invest €33 million to support the Gaeltacht Language Planning Process is welcome, and hopefully not too little, too late.

The best news story as regards the language, though, is the emergence of what I see as a new movement. They are the generation who’ve come through na Gaelscoileanna in Dublin and Belfast and elsewhere.

They’ve thrown off the baggage and reclaimed the language. They are active on social media, on the pitches, on the music scene and in the pubs of Dublin. They are inclusive and welcoming. They are innovative, intelligent and provocative. They are self-assured and confident.

They are An Pop Up Gaeltacht; they are Na Gaeil Óga; they are KneeCap. They have emerged as bastions of a new Ireland and in an era of globalisation they are claiming their identity and their place in the world with the language as their connecting force.

This Saturday we will see thousands on our capital’s streets – students, young families, young people – celebrating this moment in time, celebrating this movement, celebrating our language. Beo, Bródúil agus Gaelach. We’ve come a long way, sin cinnte.

Róisín O’Hara is a freelance broadcast journalist and social media consultant. Gaelach agus Bródúil, the biggest Irish language street festival of Bliain na Gaeilge 2018 will be held this Saturday, 14 April in Dublin city centre to celebrate our pride in the Irish language. More information available at Gaeilge2018.ie.

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    Mute David Higgins
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    Oct 9th 2011, 9:32 AM

    Disobey the rules, don’t except our sympathy when the consequences arrive!

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    Mute Mack O'Connell
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    Oct 9th 2011, 9:47 AM

    The Nazis were just following the "rules" also.

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    Mute James Quirke
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    Oct 9th 2011, 9:55 AM

    ever heard of a thing called civil disobedience at all?

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    Mute Ronald
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    Oct 9th 2011, 12:40 PM

    You say ‘civil disobedience’ as if it was the equivalent to peaceful protesting!

    Jeeez, some people seem to think that their self-righteousness justifies breaking the law!

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    Mute Conor Murphy
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    Oct 9th 2011, 1:04 PM

    If I was working as a security guard for A MUSEUM and some self righteous twit held down my co-worker I’d get them off pretty sharply too.

    Now not saying that’s definitely what happened but they have no right to physically restrain a working member of the public.

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    Mute Cormac Flanagan
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    Oct 9th 2011, 10:10 AM

    They called medics caused they were peppered sprayed. Should be done for wasting their time.

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    Mute Noel Peare
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    Oct 9th 2011, 11:31 AM

    Have you ever seen the results of pepper spray? I worked in a nightclub where a girl was pepper sprayed. She was in agony afterwards. I found it hard to stay near her as the residue on her face was enough to cause my eyes and face to have the same symptoms. She was taken away by ambulance & I assure you it was necessary.

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    Mute Cormac Flanagan
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    Oct 9th 2011, 12:53 PM

    While never been pepper sprayed myself I have seen the effects of those who have numerous times(actually more than numerous) and ALL just had to wash out there eyes with water.

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    Mute joseph mcgee
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    Oct 10th 2011, 12:58 AM

    more than numerous? how many is more than numerous? is it, loike, a lot?
    do tell flanagan, how and where did u see the effects of those who’ve been pepper sprayed
    numerous times. sorry i mean more than numerous times
    CSI or some other show?

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    Mute steve white
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    Oct 9th 2011, 9:54 AM

    Conservative Spectator Magazine Brags of its Agent Provacateur’s Role in Provoking Attack on DC Museum http://t.co/Gsm8wqTK

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    Mute Niall Carson
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    Oct 9th 2011, 10:56 AM

    Sounds pretty damming

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    Mute Ronald
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    Oct 9th 2011, 12:43 PM

    They rushed and held down a security guard… A normal Average Joe doing his job… Not an SS Officer!

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    Mute willy pearse
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    Oct 9th 2011, 11:43 AM

    Heil Obama!

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    Mute Oscar Brophy
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    Oct 9th 2011, 12:11 PM

    bloddy yanks

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    Mute Pete Gibson
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    Oct 9th 2011, 12:09 PM

    Amazing how they don’t object to war aircraft which carry a living pilot!
    They seem to have a superstitious fear of automation.

    Drones are just the start of the automation.
    Google Earth can tell me the difference in latitude and longitude between the front and the back of my car parked in my driveway.
    Within 20 years piloted warplanes will look as antiquated as the Wright Brothers plane in Kitty Hawk in 1903.

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    Mute Saffron Marriott
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    Oct 9th 2011, 11:26 AM

    I got chili in my eyes making a curry recently and it was truly awful – poor people

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