Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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As we approach the centenary of Northern Ireland, one thing we can be sure of is that official ‘celebrations’ will be absent any mention of the century-long state-sponsored suppression of the Irish language.
To be clear, suppression of the Irish language did not begin with the Unionist one-party regime, which gained control of the six county ‘state’ following the partition of Ireland in 1921. Rather, it formed a core component of a longer process of colonisation in Ireland. As would prove the case globally, the English conquest promoted the obliteration of native culture.
After two centuries of such cultural imperialism and in the wake of the catastrophic Great Hunger – which led to the death and emigration of millions of mostly Irish speakers – by the late nineteenth century the language teetered on the brink of extinction, confined to remote and rural areas, mostly on the west coast of Ireland. By 1901 it is estimated that only 15% of the population spoke Irish, a figure declining at a rapid pace.
It's going to make a comeback pretty quickly.
To be clear, suppression of the Irish language did not begin with the Unionist one-party regime, which gained control of the six county ‘state’ following the partition of Ireland in 1921. Rather, it formed a core component of a longer process of colonisation in Ireland. As would prove the case globally, the English conquest promoted the obliteration of native culture.
After two centuries of such cultural imperialism and in the wake of the catastrophic Great Hunger – which led to the death and emigration of millions of mostly Irish speakers – by the late nineteenth century the language teetered on the brink of extinction, confined to remote and rural areas, mostly on the west coast of Ireland. By 1901 it is estimated that only 15% of the population spoke Irish, a figure declining at a rapid pace.
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It's going to make a comeback pretty quickly.