A central term introduced already is that of âthe Gaeltachtâ. In 1926, the Irish State established the boundaries of the districts to which this anglicised collective noun referred. By then, however, it had only been in use in the sense of referring to defined geographical areas for about 25 years. Accordingly, it is apposite to present in this chapter an outline of its evolution as a construct. A brief overview follows of the social, economic and education realities of the lives of the people of the Gaeltacht at the turn of the twentieth century, which was a time when Irish language preservationists and revivalists were showing mounting concern that children residing there were not benefiting from education because English was the medium of instruction. Equally, these preservationists and revivalists came to highlight for the majority English-speaking population the actual existence of the Gaeltacht as a distinct place and to involve them in the learning of Irish, including in new âIrish collegesâ that largely were located in Gaeltacht districts, and that came to give these a particular defining property in succeeding decades.
The Construction of âthe Gaeltachtâ as a Term Referring to a Defined Set of Places
In a pioneering work published in 2005, Ă Torna detailed the results of an in-depth investigation she had conducted on the use of the term An Ghaeltacht (the Gaeltacht) in Ireland. 1 In it, she argues that while today we use the term to denote the geographical location of communities whose normal everyday language is Irish, matters were not always thus. Rather, she points out, the term was for long associated largely with such notions as âlucht labhartha na Gaeilgeâ and âan dĂșchas Gaelachâ. 2 The former referred to speakers of Irish regardless of location and the latter referred to those who had a Gaelic nature or a Gaelic outlook on life shaped by the fact that they made sense of the world through the prism of the Irish language.
The lexicographer, Fr. Ă DuinnĂn, in the original 1904 edition of his Irish-English dictionary, implied in the following definitions that the âmodernâ version of the term âthe Gaeltachtâ, or An Ghaeltacht, had still not come into common usage in Ireland by this point in time:
Gaedhealcht, -a, f., the state of being Irish or Scotch: Gaeldom, Irishry, the native race of Ireland; bean deân Ghaedhealcht, a woman of the Irishry (Art MacC.); G. Alban, the Highlands of Scotland. 3
The situation was different in Gaelic-speaking Scotland and had been so since the beginning of the eighteenth century. There, the term An Ghaeltacht had long been in use, not only in the sense outlined by Ă DuinnĂn in the extract presented above, but also to refer to geographical areas where those who spoke Scottish Gaelic resided.
Ă Torna identified the following extract as being the first instance in print of use of the term in Irish to refer to a geographical area:
âŠ.whether the object be to see beautiful scenery or to obtain a period of salutary rest, there are no places within reach better worth visiting than those which the Gaodhaltacht [sic] of Ireland abundantly provides. 4
This statement appeared in an article written in the English language and entitled âThe Gaelic Leagueâ, that was published in an issue of the Leagueâs magazine, Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge. Ă Torna also went on to say that the first time the term An Ghaeltacht may have appeared in an Irish language piece of writing in the sense of referring to a geographical area, was in a note in a 1902 issue of the Gaelic Leagueâs newspaper, An Claidheamh Soluis. This contained an announcement that a branch of the organisation had been established in the BĂłthar BuĂ (Boherbue) district in County Cork, which was described as being âistigh i gceart lĂĄr na Gaedhealtachtaâ 5 (âlocated in the heart of the Gaeltachtâ).
Over the next 25 years, speakers of both Irish and English came to use the term An Ghaeltacht, or âthe Gaeltachtâ, to refer almost exclusively to a particular place or set of places. Indeed, acceptance in this sense was such that, by 1927, Fr. Ă DuinnĂn, in a new edition of his dictionary published that year, felt confident enough to offer the following definition, which was different to the one he gave in 1904:
Gaedhealcht, -a, f., the state of being Irish or Scotch: Gaeldom, Irishry, the native race of Ireland; Irish-speaking district or districts; the Gaeltacht; bean deân Gh, a woman of the Irishry (Art MacC.); G. Alban, the Highlands of Scotland. 6
The extension of meaning in this definition over the earlier one was inspired by international as well as national developments, including the European-wide âRomantic movementâ, that had grown as a counter-force to the Industrial Revolution and that led to individuals from urbanised areas visiting the countryside to experience the beauties of nature.
A particular aspect of the âRomantic movementâ in Ireland led to Irish-speaking communities along the western seaboard and its adjacent islands having âtheir image bolstered through the work of antiquarians, academics and novelistsâ and by artists seeking to depict the âunspoilt scenery and rural lifeâ. 7 A related influence, that had its origins in the idealisation by the French intellectual, Jean Jacque Rousseau, perceived âthe peasantâ, as one who leads a simple yet noble rural life, but was worthy of study so as to reveal the possibilities of improving human nature. In considering associated developments, Nowlan elaborated as follows:
The French Revolution and the Romantic Movement had helped to give a new significance to long neglected languages and popular traditions in many parts of Europe. Men [sic] began to look on the traditions and languages of the forgotten nationalities, especially among the Slavs and the Baltic peoples, not as quaint survivals but as fresh, creative contributions to European culture, somehow morally better than the offerings of a tired, cosmopolitan civilization.
The Celtic fringe was one of the areas influenced. On this, Jones 8 has drawn attention to the rise of the idea of the Eisteddfod or national festival of Welsh language-based culture in Wales from the 1860s.
From the latter half of the nineteenth century, a growing interest also emerged in Scotland in relation to literary and antiquarian connections with Scottish Gaelic. In a similar vein, Irish-speaking districts in Ireland, partly because of their geographical isolation, came to be the focus of related interest, especially following the visits of European scholars. These individuals believed they would be likely to witness in the districts in question âthe most ancient features of Gaelic cultureâ. 9 In particular, German and Scandanavian researchers who were contributing to the flowering academic fields of descriptive and comparative linguistics came to see them as reservoirs of fascinating speech. 10
Equally influential from about the 1870s onwards were the debates of the Irish intelligentsia on establishing a nation state in Ireland. By 1905, the year when D.P. Moran crystalised these ideas in his âIrish-Irelandâ treatise, 11 the overriding notion being promoted was that Irish identity rested upon âGaelicismâ and Catholicism. In relation to Gaelicism, a number of organisations concerned with restoring imagined Gaelic elements of a previous identity eroded through Anglicisation were well rooted by now. As indicated already, both the Gaelic Athletic Organisation, 12 established in 1884, and the Gaelic League, established in 1893, 13 were chief amongst these. 14
A significant portion of the work conducted by the Gaelic League focused on the Irish-speaking districts scattered throughout the country. Branches of the organisation established there generated a perspective in the minds of their populations that culturally they constituted a unique group in Ireland. This perspective was amplified when speakers from the predominantly English language speaking parts of the country arrived to spend time living in the Gaeltacht in order to learn the language.
From 1926, âthe Gaeltachtâ became an official term of the independent Irish State following the publication of a report entitled CoimisiĂșn na Gaeltachta (the Co...