E. De ValeraE. De Valera

The Post Office, Dublin The Post Office, Dublin 19161916

Following attempts by the British to destroy Sinn Fein, a War of Independence broke out in 1919-21. the Irish forces were led by Michael Collins. (Sometimes called Anglo-Irish War)

Twentieth centuryTwentieth century

Michael Collins (1890-Michael Collins (1890-1922)1922)

Republican purists saw it as a sell-out, with the replacement of the republic by dominion status within theBritish Empire, and an Oath of Allegiance made (it was then claimed) directly to the King. The actual wording shows that the oath was made to the Irish Free State, with a subsidiary oath of fidelity to the King as part of the Treaty settlement, not to the king unilaterally.

Anglo-Irish TreatyAnglo-Irish TreatyGuerilla war. A truce was signed

leading to the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty.

The 26 counties gained independence as the Irish Free State (Saorstat na hEireann).

Six Ulster counties opted out of the Free State and were given their own parliament in 1920, and remained in the United Kingdom.

This treaty led to a civil war which lasted until 1923 between those who accepted the Treaty and the partition of Ireland, and those, led by Eamon De Valera who were opposed.

The first government of the new State was headed by William T Cosgrave (Cumann na nGaedheal, later Fine Gael).

De Valera’s opposition party was called Fianna Fail and they came to power in 1932.

Twentieth centuryTwentieth century

An economic ‘war’ broke between Ireland and the UK between 1932-38 following dispute over continuous land payments.

In 1937, De Valera introduced a new constitution which declared Ireland to be sovereign, independent and a democratic state.

Ireland remained neutral during WWII.

In 1948 the Republic of Ireland Act was passed, severing the last constitutional links with Britain.

Twentieth centuryTwentieth century

In 1955 Ireland became a member of the United Nations

1959 Eamon De Valera became President of Ireland.

In 1973, Ireland became a member of the European Community, later known as the European Union.

Twentieth centuryTwentieth century

The Irish Language The Irish Language An Ghaeilge

The Irish LanguageThe Irish LanguageA cursory visit to Ireland today

would give the impression of a very largely anglophone island.

Even 150 years ago, this would not have been the case, when still a good proportion of the Irish were native speakers of Irish. (Also known as Irish Gaelic, Gaelic). In Irish=GAEILGE.

The Irish LanguageThe Irish LanguageThe growth of ideas about

independence in Ireland, are inextricably associated with the Irish language.

The decline of Irish was seen as a consequence of a series of colonialist policies since the Tudor period, which led to the loss of the traditional Irish elites who had led the country for generations- and who were all Irish speaking.

The Irish languageThe Irish languageThe loss of that class in effect

brought an end to Irish as a written expression of Irish culture rendering it mainly an oral medium until the 19th century.

Irish would have no status between c1590-1920.

The Irish Language-An The Irish Language-An Ghaeilge. Growth and Ghaeilge. Growth and DeclineDeclineFrom the late 18th century, the

population of Ireland rose substanciallyThis occurred mainly amongst the rural

population, and led to a large increase in the numbers of Irish-speakers.

C1820 there were likely some 3.5 million speakers of the language.

1835 probably about 4 million.These are approximations.

The Irish Language-An The Irish Language-An GhaeilgeGhaeilgeIt appeared that the Irish language

was making a remarkable recovery.At the same time, it’s clear that the

Irish speakers at this time lacked any economic or political power.

But not even the political leaders of the time like Daniel O’Connell did anything to promote the status of the language.

The Irish Language-An The Irish Language-An GhaeilgeGhaeilgeNot surprisingly, many Irish-

speakers sought a knowledge of English which would allow them to find work in England, Wales, Scotland and the United States as well as Canada.

The incipient school system set up in 1831 (National Schools) allowed for a basic knowledge of English.

The Irish Language-An The Irish Language-An GhaeilgeGhaeilgeWithout question the Great

Famine (1846-8) effected the poorest classes in Ireland, and it was there that the majority of Irish-speaking communities were to be found.

It is hard to give accurate figures about Irish-speakers until 1851 when the census began to include a question about language.

The Irish Language-An The Irish Language-An GhaeilgeGhaeilge1851- the number was 1,524,286

speakers of Irish.In other words close to 25% of

the population of Ireland.However, if we analyse the age-

range of Irish-speakers at that time, it is possible to see tendences that will lead to decline in the future.

18511851

Yellow=10-25%

l.green=25-50%

Green=50-80%

Blue=over 80%

The Irish Language-An The Irish Language-An GhaeilgeGhaeilgeNo more than c13% were Irish-

speaking of those who were ten years old or under in 1851.

By 1891only 30, 785 of those under the age of ten were Irish-speaking (compared with 166, 839 in 1851).

18911891Yellow=10-25%l.green=25-50%Green=50-80%Blue=over 80%

The Irish Language-An The Irish Language-An GhaeilgeGhaeilgeThe regions in which Irish has

survived as a community language are termed collectively as Gaeltacht.

Although their population has been in decline, these areas have remained relatively stable re the language for most of the 20th century.

The restoration of IrishThe restoration of IrishThe first signs of an interest in the

revitalization of Irish goes back to 1789 when Charlotte Brooke’s Reliques of Irish Poetry was published.

This was the first anthology of secular literature in Irish to appear in print.it is eveidence of an awakening academic interest in Irish language and literature on the part of the English-speaking Ascendancy.

The revitalization of IrishThe revitalization of IrishAs the century passed and the

accelerating decline of Irish as a community language became evident, focus turned to spoken Irish as a precious heritage.

Societies which had primarily language maintenance objectives began to be formed.

The revitalization of IrishThe revitalization of Irish1876-The Society for the

preservation of the Irish Language.1878, a more radicalized group

broke away and formed the Gaelic Union. They were especially involved in the beginnings of a new Irish-language literature.

1893-The Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge), founded by Douglas Hyde and others.

The Gaelic LeagueThe Gaelic LeagueThe League took up with greater

vigour the revivalist aspects of the Gaelic Union.

Unlike earlier movements concerned with antiquarian and folkloric studies, the league sought to revive Irish as a spoken and literary language.

The Gaelic LeagueThe Gaelic LeagueThe declared aims of Conradh na

Gaeilge (Gaelic league) were the preservation of Irish as the national language of Ireland and the extension of its use as a spoken tongue, together with the promotion of historic Gaelic literature and the cultivation of a modern literature in Irish.

The Gaelic LeagueThe Gaelic LeagueIt ran language classes and Irish-

speaking social gatherings, including from 1897 a national festival, An tOireachtas, modelled on the Welsh Eisteddfod.

It published a newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis.

It campaigned (often successfully) where Irish was seen to be oppressed.

The Gaelic LeagueThe Gaelic LeagueThe membership of the League was

drawn mainly from the urban lower middle classes of English-speaking Ireland. At first there were few native speakers of the language in the organisation.

Need for cultural roots, as experienced by many after a period of rapid social change.

Idealization of Gaeltacht culture.For some though, the GL represented

the possibilities of a Gaelic Ireland that could enter the modern world without losing its identity.

The Gaelic leagueThe Gaelic leagueBy 1904 the League was attracting

around 50,000 members to its almost 600 branches.

In many ways they should be seen as a pressure group, as much as a movement for teaching Irish.

By 1926 the Gaelic League and the schools had succeeded in speading a knowledge of Irish to around 10% of the people in the eastern parts of Ireland.

Conradh na Gaeilge Conradh na Gaeilge advertisementsadvertisements

Douglas Hyde (Ó hÍde)Douglas Hyde (Ó hÍde)

Language statsLanguage statsThis leads to some strange

statistics, for instance in Leinster (SE Ireland):

In 1891 they returned 13.677 speakers of Irish in the census, but by 1926, there were 101, 474.

The point is usually made that census figures represent self-estimates of language ability.

The Gaelic League and The Gaelic League and Douglas HydeDouglas HydeHyde insisted that the League

should not be political.The movement had begun by

attracting members from all communities. But there were debates about creating links with other parts of the UK through the Pan-Celtic movement.

By c1914, the movement was mainly made up of IRB members.

The Gaelic League and The Gaelic League and Douglas HydeDouglas HydeHyde resigned a s a consequence

(1915).League members took a prominent

part in the Rising of 1916, and in the growth of Sinn Fein and the IRA.

The Gaelic League was declared an illegal organisation in Sept 1919.

The League continues to exist today.

Gaelic league in North Gaelic league in North AmericaAmerica

In 1902, there were approx 42 branches of the Gaelic league

in Canada and the US.

Gaelic league: language and Gaelic league: language and separatismseparatismIt is not surprising that the Gaelic

League under the leadership of Douglas Hyde became a nationalist force and that it contributed significantly to a renewed separatist ideology, which led eventually to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922.

The Gaelic leagueThe Gaelic leagueThe Irish language cause, and the

cause of political separatism became for a while almost indistinguishable, and consequently, in the constitution of Saorstat Eireann (Irish Free State), Irish is proclaimed as the ‘National language of the Irish Free State.

This would be reinforced in the 1937 Constitution of Ireland.

Irish and the StateIrish and the StateOne of the great successes of the

League was to ensure that the Irish language became integrated into the new fledgling State in 1922.

In the early years of the Free State, a steady increase in the use of Irish took place in the public domain.

Irish and the StateIrish and the StateIrish was made an official

language, Irish signage was universally posted, the new Irish coins, stamps, and banknotes employed Irish.

The Gaeltacht was given economic assitance. A new Ministry was created to attend to its needs.

Coins and stamp of the Irish Coins and stamp of the Irish Free State 1920sFree State 1920s

Irish and the StateIrish and the StateBy 1925, Irish had been made

compulsory for admission to employment in the Civil Service.

In 1945, competence in irish became part of the assessment for advancement within the Public Service Sector. (This lasted until c1975).

In this sense, Irish has a more prominent place than in the community at learge.

Irish and the StateIrish and the StateFrom the 1930s until recent

decades, a good proportion of the internal business of the Public Sector was conducted in Irish.

This eventually had a knock-on effect by creating a modern usage used in broadcasting, publishing.

Obvioulsy this has had a small impact on the public at large.

EducationEducationFrom the late 19th century, Irish had

been gaining recognition as a subject in primary and secondary education.

The teaching of Irish was permitted from 1879 as an extra-curricular subject (and then from 1900 as an optional subject).

In 1904, a ‘bilingual programme’ was authorized for schools in Irish-speaking communities.

EducationEducationThis allowed Irish to be taught as

part of the surriculum and also used as a medium of instruction for other subjects. (but few students).

By 1913, a qualification in Irish was obliagtory for matriculation in the national University of Ireland.

This led to its becoming almost universally a subject in Roman Catholic secondary schools.

EducationEducationBy 1925, before the Irish Free State

had proclaimed its new regulations, Irish was being taught in 266 of the 278 recognized secondary schools (not free).

Already the Freestate had decided that Irish was to be taught in all primary schools.

By 1934 Irish was compulsory for the leaving certificate.

Education in IrishEducation in IrishHere we are witnessing the teaching

of Irish as a ‘subject’ to mainly non-Irish speaking high-school students.

In addition to its being taught as a subject, there was also a determined effort by the State to promote Iriish as a medium of instruction.

Such attempts in the 1920s faced problems with untrained teachers.

Education in IrishEducation in IrishIrish as a sole means of instruction

had some success in the early 1940s but gradually faced growing opposition from parents.

1960s-‘the detrimental effects of excessive emphasis on a second language’.

By 1980-1, approx 3% of primary school children were being taught entirely through Irish.

The GoalThe GoalBy the time of the Free State in

1921, the number of fluent speakers had fallen to approximately 250,000.

The goal of restoring the Irish language (‘Ireland nor merely free, but Gaelic as well, not merely Gaelic, but free as well;- Patrick Pearse).

The GoalThe GoalPlanning for Irish during the first

80 years of independence was not very well thought out- there was little in the way of theoretical maaterial available from socio-linguists for example.

How to resuscitate a language which 90% of the population had ceased to speak before national independence (Freestate).

The crisis in Irish language The crisis in Irish language educationeducationBy the mid 1950s, there was

considerable parental resistance to Irish-medium education.

They considered that the education of their children was being obstructed by being taught in a language they did not know well enough.

They also did not see such an education as leading to specific jobs.

Unless they were in the minority who could afform secondary education.

The crisis in Irish language The crisis in Irish language educationeducationAlthough the teaching would

remain, and does remain as a subject in all state-funded schools, Irish-medium education has now reemerged (since the 1980s) in state-supported voluntary schools.

In other words, Irish-medium occurs mainly in special schools.