More than 1 year ago, on my blog I asked the question “is Gaeilge the Irish Language?”. I have found only a few people who could speak Gaeilge and among them only 4 or 5 were speaking Irish in the daily life. The only city in the whole Ireland where I could hear Irish on the streets was Falls road, West Belfast. For us - Polish - language and history are most important elements of our national identity. So even after my 1,5 year of staying in Ireland I can not understand why Irish people don’t take care about their (or at least grand sons of the Gaelic population) own language. Of course I know all of the stroy about famine, extinction of the Gaelic population of Ireland and the massive emigration to America. Further, I know that it was much more needed to learn English than Irish, since people could emigrate to other English countries (I mean the language spoken). I know that Irish language was forbidden for centuries. It is all clear. However I found that in general Irish society doesn’t care about their language. At present “Celtic Tiger” is the leading European economy and power, and this is the time when you - Irish, could think about bringing back to life Gaeilge, but unfortunately , almost nobody is interested in that.
Thanks to one of the users of newly opened Irish-Polish discussion board I found a great film story by TG4 about one Chinese lad who learnt Irish and came to Ireland, and he was rather disappointed since he didn’t speak English at all.
AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central
Being conversant in Polish and Irish, I have always seen Poles and the Irish as two very similar peoples, both Catholic, both scarred by struggles against stronger neighbours, but this is indeed the big difference between them - for Poles the language is the homeland, ojczyzna-polszczyzna, but for the Irish it is more like an old demented grandma (Peig Sayers?) whom they are ashamed to show to the guests.
Irish’s problem is that, post Famine, it became associated failure and backwardness. Now, 160 or so years later, it still has that veneer, which, combined with the way it’s taught in schools, is the reason why you’ll find so many people, especially on the east coast, who are hostile towards the language. However, things are starting to change a little, and, while I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the negative associations people have had with Irish have gone, it’s certainly not as bad as things were for the language ten or twenty years back. Hot weathergirls on TG4 hasn’t hurt the langauge…
There’s hope for it yet, but I seriously doubt it’ll ever have the prestige it once had.
Interesting development on this issue has popped up over here in the media where Marcin Wrona, publisher of Sowa or Owl magazine has been quoted on Thenews.pl portal as saying:
“We are the most numerous ethnic group, hence we should be granted more rights, like, for instance, the right to use our mother tongue in offices”
Allegedly he is trying to spearhead a campaign to have Polish considered the 3rd official language of Ireland.
Which, if it transpired, would leave me in a bizarrely ironic situation where I would know more Polish than Irish.
I understand the points you make MacKozer and acknowledge it must seem bizarre for people like yourself. Panu and Keith generally touch on points which go to the core of why Irish is not widely spoken.
I think there is only 2 or 3 people in my extended family, which has about 50 members, who speak Irish. None of 4 brothers, one sister, mother, father or I speak Irish. I have absolutely no emotional or spiritual connection the language - the only memory I have when I think of my Irish education were the assholes who tried to ram it down my throat in school. I was anti-authoriatarian from a young age so there approach didn’t help. But I think the key issue boiled down to nobody in family really giving a fuck whether I learned it or not.
Very few people from my primary and secondary school had parents rich enough to send their kids off for the summer to learn Polish in a summer school. I and many others like me, and I would suggest we don’t regret it a bit, worked at shitty jobs like turning turf in the bog or washing boats, etc. all throughout our summer breaks. I’m not trying to give a class analysis of the difficulties that face Irish society in terms of ensuring each and every child has the best possible oportunity to fully appreciate their native language, but my experience from the midlands of Ireland is that an elect few were able to grow enjoying the language. The rest of learned to detest it’s every sinew and bone -even though we knew little or nothing of it to hate, but those who represented the language in our daily lives were just sheer elitist, domineering bags of horse dung.
Jaysus, just look at the venom I’ve spouted out here. I evidently need counselling to resolve my issues with the Irish language and those who tried to teach me.
Paddy. Regarding Polish as a 3rd official language in Ireland would be the most ridiculous and would do a lot of harm to the Polish emigrants in Ireland. I am completely against it. Majority of us is more or less temporary emigrants, even if we are going to stay for 10 years it doesn’t mean for ever. More over, if we are going to stay for long term, then we have to, we must to speak English. This is Ireland not Poland.
“I evidently need counselling to resolve my issues with the Irish language and those who tried to teach me.”
I’m busy writing pornographic stories in an old-fashioned Ulster Irish. As soon as I get them published with explicit illustrations, I think people like you will change your mind.
I want to follow up on what Paddy was saying.
I am a speaker of Irish, and would love to see it more in use in everyday Ireland.
For the “rammed down our throats in school” argument, I feel that this Ireland-wide argument is some kind of excuse that everyone likes to lean on. I don’t hear it about French. I don’t hear it about English poetry. Neither for accountancy, history, geography, maths, etc, etc, etc.
People should stop using an excuse, and do something to learn and use the language in their daily lives. You’re no longer in school, get over it.
But there’s a catch. As Paddy said, he has not emotional or spiritual connection with the language. In other words feels no personaly connection with it. Nothing to do with him. In that case, why should someone want to learn/use the language? You have no reason to want to do something in which you have no interest.