‘It’s what led me to learn that Irish, spoken daily by 73,000 people, is far from dead’
AS A NATIVE SPEAKER, TADHG EVANS GIVES HIS VIEW ON IRISH
IF you want an English speaker to appreciate Irish, you send them to the Gaeltacht. If you want someone from a Gaeltacht area to appreciate Irish – send them away from the Gaeltacht. For a while, at least. I say that only half-jokingly and base it only on personal experience – but that’s the only kind of experience people understand.
Growing up in Corca Dhuibhne, I did the vast majority of my school work, written and spoken, through Irish. I hated every second, bar the seconds that gained me extra marks in my Leaving Cert. I liked those seconds.
They got me to college, where I was treated as special for being an Irish speaker. Some people don’t like being treated as special. I’ll never understand those people.
My mom and my teachers told me that having Irish made me special. I didn’t feel so, given that everyone else around me also understood this language of the Gods.
My very good teachers in Lios Póil and Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne were rarely wrong – but there was one point they did not understand. They thought people were logical. They thought a person’s natural response to being told to love something is to love that thing.
Wrong. When a person is told to love something, that person’s natural response is to hate that thing. Because people are stupid.
When I left Corca Dhuibhne, I finally met people who had no Irish – lots of them. “Why do you study Irish?” they asked. I said I was from a Gaeltacht and would sweep up easy marks.
They couldn’t believe I spoke this language. They treated me as special. I felt special.
The rest, a minority, told me Irish was useless. Some in Corca Dhuibhne had told me the same – and I’d agreed with them.
But it felt different coming from a mere English speaker. For the first time, I defended “my” language. He ain’t heavy; he’s my brother.
Those were the two main reasons why I fell in love with Irish – it wasn’t by being told it marked me out from the majority of Irish people. It was through seeing that it marked me out from the majority. It was by being treated as though I were different – and not in the weird way, for once.
That’s how I saw the idea of hating a language is stupid. I realised how daft it would seem to hate Chinese, Dutch – or English. I realised the language was not at fault for a pesky Gaeilgeoir forcing me to use it. It’s what led me to research and learn that Irish, spoken daily by 73,000, is far from “the deadest” language. A quarter of the world’s 7,000-or-so languages are spoken by less than 1,000 people.
My original intention was to take my usual approach and hit the reader with stats. The “clever thing to do”, in other words.
But people are stupid. If they want to believe Irish is useless, they will. If they’re told they should be proud of Irish, they won’t be. I know this, because I’m also stupid.
I could pretend I know how to reverse a decline that saw the number of daily speakers in Gaeltachts fall by 11 per cent between 2011 and 2016.
I could also pretend I know why the number of daily speakers remained steady outside of Gaeltachts during the same period, or why many Gaelscoileanna are wanted to the point of being oversubscribed. I don’t. I’m just glad
IF YOU WANT AN ENGLISH SPEAKER TO APPRECIATE IRISH, YOU SEND THEM TO THE GAELTACHT. IF YOU WANT SOMEONE FROM A GAELTACHT AREA TO APPRECIATE IRISH – SEND THEM AWAY FROM THE GAELTACHT. FOR A WHILE, AT LEAST.
it’s happening.
I love Irish because I went to an English-speaking area and met people who finally convinced me that having Irish made me special. Good, old-fashioned vanity.