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Revision as of 18:34, 31 January 2006 by Demiurge (talk | contribs) (missing parenthesis)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Irish language is a minority language in Northern Ireland (known in Irish as "Tuaisceart Éireann"). The dialect spoken there is known as Ulster Irish.
Status
Irish received official recognition in Northern Ireland for the first time in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement. A cross-border body known as Foras na Gaeilge was established to promote the language in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, taking over the functions of Bord na Gaeilge.
The British government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect to Irish in Northern Ireland.
The last native speakers of varieties of Irish native to what is now Northern Ireland died in the 1900s. Irish as spoken in Counties Down and Fermanagh was the first to die out, but native speakers of varieties spoken in the Glens of Antrim and the Sperrin Mountains of Tyrone survived into the 1950s and 1970s respectively. Varieties of Irish indigenous to the territory of Northern Ireland finally became extinct as spoken languages when the last native speaker of Rathlin Irish died in 1985. Most Irish speakers in Northern Ireland today speak the Donegal dialect of Ulster Irish.
The Irish language has traditionally been regarded with suspicion by Unionists in Northern Ireland, who associate it with the Republic of Ireland in the south, and more recently, with the republican movement in Northern Ireland itself. Many republicans in Northern Ireland, including Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, learned Irish while in prison. The language was not taught in state schools, and public signs in Irish were effectively banned under laws by the Parliament of Northern Ireland, which stated that only English could be used. These were not formally lifted by the British government until the early 1990s.
The Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 states: "It shall be the duty of the Department (of Education) to encourage and facilitate the development of Irish-medium education."
It has been claimed that Belfast now represents the fastest growing centre of Irish language usage in Ireland- and the Good Friday Agreement's provisions on 'parity of esteem' have been used to give the language an official status there.
The Ultach Trust was established in 1989 with a view to broadening the appeal of the language among Protestants.
According to the 2001 Census, 167,487 people (10.4% of the population) had "some knowledge of Irish" - of whom 154,622 were Catholics and 10,987 were Protestants and "other Christians".
Knowledge of Irish by persons over the age of 3 (2001 Census):
- Understands spoken Irish but cannot read write or speak Irish: 36,479
- Speaks but does not read or write Irish: 24,536
- Speaks and reads but does not write Irish: 7,183
- Speaks, reads, writes and understands Irish: 75,125
- Has other combination of skills: 24,167
- No knowledge of Irish: 1,450,467
Education
Six families in Belfast established a Gaeltacht area in Belfast in the late 1960s and opened Bunscoil Phobal Feirste in 1970 as the first Irish-medium school in Northern Ireland, and in 1984 was granted the status of a voluntary maintained primary school. The first Naíscoil (Irish-medium nursery school) opened in 1978.
Comhairle na Gaelscolaiochta was established by the Minister of Education in 2000 to develop Irish-medium education Irish language pre-schools and primary schools are now thriving and there are Irish language secondary schools known as Méanscoileanna in Belfast, Armagh, and Derry.
In the academic year 2004-5, 3,713 children were enrolled in Irish-medium education:
- 44 nurseries (Naíscoileanna) with 855 pupils
- 32 primary schools (Bunscoileanna) with 2,328 pupils
- 2 secondary schools and a post-primary unit with 530 pupils.
The British Council administers a scheme to recruit Irish language assistants for English-medium schools in Northern Ireland .
Examinations in Irish are gaining in popularity among school-age and adult students. In 2004, there were 333 entries for A-Level examinations in Irish and 2,630 for GCSE.
Media
BBC Radio Ulster began broadcasting a nightly half-hour programme, called Blas ('taste'), in Irish in the early 1980s, and there is now an Irish language programme on the station every day. BBC Northern Ireland broadcast its first television programme in Irish in the early 1990s, SRL (Etc.). Many areas of Northern Ireland can now tune into TG4, the Irish-language television channel, which is broadcast primarily from the Conamara Gaeltacht in the Republic. In March 2005, TG4 began broadcasting from the Divis transmitter near Belfast, as a result of agreement between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Northern Ireland Office, although so far this is the only transmitter to carry it.
The main Irish-language radio station, Raidió na Gaeltachta, is also available in some areas. However, neither of these media have the coverage of local TV and radio stations. This lack of coverage is more marked in unionist areas, where there is less demand. Ofcom have awarded a broadcasting license to Raidió Fáilte, a community radio station based in West Belfast. The new service will cover the Greater Belfast area and will start broadcasting from 1 May 2006.
An Irish-language daily newspaper called Lá ('day') is now published.
The Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission administers an Irish Language Broadcast Fund (announced by the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in April 2004) to foster and develop an independent Irish language television production sector in Northern Ireland. The European Commission authorised public funding for the fund in June 2005 considering that "since the aid aims to promote cultural products and the Irish Language, it can be authorised under EC Treaty rules that allow state aids for the promotion of culture" .