The Daltaí Boards: Frith-Ghaelachas.

Cuirfidh mé mo theanga sona ina luí nuair a scríobh mé i mBéarla.

With those sorts of articles I fell drawn one way then the next. The stat on Mayo, Cork, Waterford and Meath is truly shocking. It does though, demonstrate, that the consensus langue of Ireland is English. It also shows that the governments of the past have been duplicitous in allowing and aiding gaeltacht contraction.

However, the removal of Irish as a main subject may be coming. Sensing the waves, Enda Kenny, has begun to put out feelers to that effect. (So Enda, can you feel me raging for broadband?).

Is this a bad thing? Well one idea floated about at the dawn of independence to make it the langue d'élite with the lower classes ag caint as Béarla may have been just the ticket. There would have been, to appropriate a biological metaphor, 'positive selection pressure' vectoring society towards Gaelic. With all state and high business jobs as gaeilge, it would have had de facto prestige due to the co-related resource allocation. Want some pie? Speak some Irish!

This was not the case, and as the 20th century rolled on, and with German and French losing their pre-eminence, in science and international diplomacy, English came to centre stage. Ireland stood between the two most powerful Anglo nations, and with a large English speaking population within its borders it was never going to be smooth. Commerce, government, and schooling: all were in the soon to be 'power language'.

So today, we live in an economic reality where 1 on 1 competition with English is not possible. To set up a parallel state with governance, universities and publications would be outrageously expensive. The days for that were pre WW2 where cheap labour and goodwill were in large supply. Today shopping, drugs, drink, and general consumption are so much easier than development of an indigenous culture. Who would bother? Isn't that fascist anyway? ask the British owned newspapers.

Perhaps it is a good thing. After all, if a consensus of people wishes to live one way, they can. Unionists and Travellers have been doing their thing for themselves for quite some time now. There is nothing to stop a gaeilge-nua stream of society with its own norms and features developing. 2 other groups on this island have bucked the trend towards homogeny. Why not a Gaelic consensus? Why worry about the schools?

The fact is that with Irish off the curriculum, there will be a new search for a whipping boy. Why is Irish so badly taught? Simple. Because there is no culture of learning existent in state run schools, and private ones been class driven, are concerned with university placements only, not content of syllabi. Most kids cannot write properly in their native tongue, English, or engage in abstract thought to the degree mathematics would be possible. Schooling is about rote and just doing it as it always was done, not about the essentials of training and faculty dispersal.

My opinion is why lament if one consensus wants to throw off one of the dogmas of its past? (Irish for all). It is still tied down by the machinery of that past (central government, bad schooling, one size fits all dogma) and may be able to see what is wrong with it, once the excuses are gone.
If people want Irish if must become a consensus langue, which means a community langue. Sociologically, a network must operate. It can be on the net, or face-to-face or on a piece of land, but whatever form, those involved must believe in it, and it must have an attendant economy that relies on it. It must also be the langue of choice when members meet, even if they use other norms and tongues outside the group.

In other words, it must be tied into how people imagine themselves, must allow them to project their values, and must be associated with how they make their living. Esteem, perception and livelihood are wrapped up in a community and until been a gaelgeoir becomes more than a few night classes, or a few books, it will not carry weight, inside or outside the gaeltacht.