The battle for Gaeilge

There is a great joy in being able to speak Irish. My conversational Irish is still quite limited. But I try to learn a little bit every day. Even one word or a phrase. When I first started to try to make public remarks through the medium of Irish, I was ridiculed by many of my detractors. But I persevered. I'm still not proficient, but I get great satisfaction in the number of strangers who speak Irish to me. In west Belfast, which has its own thriving Gaeltacht quarter, it is possible to do business through the medium of Irish in local shops, pubs and other places. Some neighbours' children have never spoken to me except in Irish.

Language is not a spectator sport. Language requires learning, whether it is done as a child, in school or as an adult. The almost complete destruction of the Irish language took place as part of a policy decision by the British to eliminate the Gaelic way of life in their first colony. The belief that "as the tongue speaketh so the heart thinketh" decreed that any social or political discourse in Ireland must be in English. Despite this, elements of the Gaelic way of life persisted in many parts of Ireland up to the 19th century in one form or another, but by then the language had become the language of the poor, mainly rural and marginal regions.

Languages die out when fewer new speakers replace those of previous generations. Irish used to be in that category, but today interest in the Irish language is growing and many young people, North and South, want to speak Irish. The census figures published in 2004 record that there are 1.5m Irish speakers in the 26 counties, an increase on the 1.43 million Irish speakers identified in 1996. The last census in the six counties recorded Irish-speakers at 23 per cent in west Belfast and 16 per cent in Derry.

The traditional difficulty for many people with Irish is not that it is a hard language to learn but that the state failed utterly to ensure that it was taught well, using the most modern methods and contemporary learning aids.

Despite this, the greatest success story in recent times has been the growth of the Gaelscoileanna, Irish language schools. There are now Gaelscoileanna in every county in Ireland and increasingly they reflect the multicultural mix modern Ireland has become.

There are now over 400 naíonraí (pre-school projects) across the island. And hundreds of bunscoileanna (primary schools) and iarbhunscoileanna (secondary schools). This development of the Gaelscoileanna has been driven by communities and not matched by government resources. Because of the lack of government support, the children of the Gaelscoileanna often spend their formative years in schools whose physical conditions leave a lot to be desired.

In 2004 the enactment of the Official Languages Act in the South, with legislation to empower the language, provided it with a much-needed economic status. Through this act, more than 640 groups and bodies are now obliged to deal with Irish-speakers through the medium of Irish and hundreds of new positions have been, or are in the process of being, created. In the next decade or so, we can expect many businesses to have a dedicated section working through Irish. Banks and other institutions will have to provide services in Irish for their customers.

The decision in June 2005 by the EU to accord official working language status to the Irish language was due in no small part to the campaigners, and particularly Stádas na Gaeilge, for their determination, commitment and perseverance. They are to be congratulated.

Under the Good Friday Agreement, Foras na Gaeilge was established to promote Irish on an all-island basis. This gave a new impetus to the myriad strands of the language revival. For the first time, key decisions on the future of the language were being made on an all-Ireland basis, freeing Irish-speakers in the North from the straitjacket of pro-British decision-makers, and allowing Irish-speakers to plan ahead on a strategic 32-county basis.

Though the on-again-off-again nature of the Good Friday institutions has hampered the work of Foras, it has now found its feet and is providing leadership to the resurgent Irish-speaking lobby.

The Gaeltacht areas not only deserve to be protected, but since they remain the source of a wealth and tradition of spoken Irish, they need the support of the state in ensuring that the next generation have a source of Irish to be drawn from.

Little has been done to strengthen the economic foundation of these areas since the 1920s and 1930s. The result of this has been the worsening of the economic situation in the Gaeltacht areas.

The way forward is through ensuring that the Irish language is retained and strengthened as the spoken language of the Gaeltacht areas, while promoting Irish-language programmes and developing Irish-language cultural centres in all parts of the country. The government has the responsibility to put in place the architecture to promote and sustain the language. However, it is up to communities to take ownership of the language and to make it living and vibrant.

The language decline is reversible. With planning and resources, including language planning and physical planning, the current pressure on the Gaeltacht areas can be overcome and the language promoted throughout Ireland.