Signposts saying ‘Béal Feirste’ will neither save the Irish language nor promote partnership in the North
IT’S certainly not going to be a case of the ‘Chuckle Sisters’ next time Arlene, Mary Lou, and Michelle get together, despite the Northern Ireland ship of state drifting towards treacherous waters.
We can still look back with some incredulity to when former sworn enemies Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness were at the helm. This quixotic relationship certainly had its oddities. But in the tremulous early days of power-sharing, it maintained the faintest of threads as we dared to hope the old quarrel had moved on to a new era of give and take.
But now the hard winds have returned once more. The mood music in Stormont this week was very different to that in what was dubbed the Paisley and McGuinness ‘Chuckle Brothers’ phase.
The latest dispiriting exchanges over the Irish language are a reminder of just how nakedly sectarian Northern Ireland politics remains.
Those of us in the Republic probably suffer from recurring bouts of wish fulfilment. Clinging to the hope ‘things have really moved forward’ can seem like the height of foolishness.
The tragedy is that the Irish language has been ‘weaponised’ by both sides in their endless quest to wangle any advantage over an opponent. For example, having Irish used as part of court proceedings – as is mooted in the Sinn Féin proposals – would be of absolutely no use in advancing the cause of our native tongue. And the suggestion that road signs and place names in the North should be bilingual is of little relevance by way of getting more people to actually speak the language.
In any case, it’s inevitable such a scenario would lead to a glut of defaced signage in hardline loyalist areas.
This week’s debacle is once again a reminder of the potency of symbols for both nationalists and unionists. Surveys have shown there is greater antipathy among loyalist voters to a higher profile for Irish than there is to same-sex marriage, or even abortion. The image of Béal Feirste – as distinct from Belfast – on a road sign is seen as an unacceptable cultural assault on their perceived sense of Britishness.
Various reports have suggested Arlene Foster is not especially hardline on the language issue, and would have been happy with some kind of fudge between all concerned.
But the groundswell of opposition out in the unionist long grass was evidently more than she could bear. In addition, it seems some of her party’s MPs, currently cock-a-hoop holding the balance of power in the House of Commons, are of the view it must be ‘not an inch’ when it comes to any Irish Language Act.
Overall, it’s unfortunate the language has become a pawn in this latest round of one-upmanship. Sinn Féin, for its part, should surely realise that, south of the Border, the historical mixing of politics with the battle to promulgate spoken Irish has been counterproductive. It has resulted in a kind of schizoid national hypocrisy when it comes to one of our central cultural canons.
It is also ironic this latest Stormont-centred bout of brinkmanship should follow last week’s report, which provides a sobering reality check on the state of the language in the Republic. Its findings were ominous – but largely went unnoticed. The bottom line by the Department of Education’s chief inspector is there has been a marked decline in primary school Irish. This downward trend has accelerated in the last four years. The findings suggested 28pc of lessons to be “less than satisfactory”.
This is but the latest reminder of how the battle to ‘revive Irish’ has been beset by setbacks. The rooted rhythms of traditional music and dance have proved much easier to preserve in the panoply of our culture; in the sporting sphere, the old game of hurling continues to thrive in its heartlands.
But the Irish language has been up against it since the days of post-Famine Ireland. Its accelerated decline was due to multi-layered economic, social, and other factors. The incentive to converse in English simply became overwhelming for much of the population.
It’s no coincidence that even the Blasket Islanders realised the importance of becoming fluent in the language spoken in Springfield and Northampton, their places of destination when emigrating to the US.
For those who would like to see more spoken Irish, reading through the 1911 Census is a chastening experience. A huge swathe of the population classed themselves as basically bilingual. But the tide was already going out. The number who could accept they were fluent in Irish would soon go into rapid decline.
It was always going to be an uphill battle to protect our native tongue against the powerhouse that is English. Over the last couple of centuries, English has evolved as one of the most potent linguistic forces on the planet. Given our proximity to Britain, perhaps it was inevitable the language of our nearest neighbour would eventually swamp Irish as the main mode of communication on this island.
But since independence, many mistakes have been made in the battle to try to protect the language. For too many, learning Irish was a dour discipline during their schooldays. This often left a legacy of justifiable bitterness. The overwhelming emphasis on the written, rather than the spoken, word was obviously misguided.
On the plus side, the ever-rising popularity of Gaelscoileanna in recent years provides a cheering note. And TG4 is a television station always capable of intelligence and imagination.
But the reality is that even casual observation on a visit to any Gaeltacht area will show the level of spoken Irish is in accelerating decline.
DR John Robb, a Co Antrim unionist who did much to try to bring about reconciliation between the two tribes in the North, died this week.
For a number of years, he was a most unlikely member of the Seanad. His was often a unique voice proclaiming the peaceful ‘middle way’ when trying to reconcile differences rooted in the Northern psyche. Classed as coming from the ‘liberal Presbyterian tradition’, he decided in his middle years to teach himself to read, speak, and write Irish. It was an attempt to better embrace the old Gaelic tradition, and how it influenced Catholic, Protestant and dissenter.
But unlike Dr Robb, Sinn Féin leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill have forsaken all such opportunities to achieve a similar style of fluency in the language they profess to love. By such double standards has the fate of Irish, and all it stands for, suffered for far too long.
A visit to any Gaeltacht area will show the level of spoken Irish is in accelerating decline