Interview Questions – Professor Conchúr Ó Giollagáin (Monday 15 June 2020)62
1. ‘New-speakerness’ advocates claim that focusing solely on communities of native speakers in the context of language maintenance and shift causes them to become ‘museified’ and static, and that the focus should be on the speakers themselves rather than on a pure, ‘authentic’ version of the language. Is this claim reasonable? In contrast, why is it still worth it to protect these
‘authentic’ communities in Ireland despite all the odds being against them?
And Is it fair and ethical, given the difficulties they have encountered in the past and still encounter nowadays?
2. Is there room for new speakers in a community-oriented language policy approach? If so, how could they play a part in strengthening Irish as a community language in the Gaeltacht and ensuring its sustainability in the future?
3. Research and census results show that the overall production of Irish speakers through the educations system is rather successful. Generally speaking, people also claim to have a positive attitude towards the language and are willing to contribute to its maintenance. This would however seem to be at odds with the very limited use of Irish in the public sphere. Could it be that today having a (good) knowledge of the language or actively using it is no longer perceived as necessary to ‘feel Irish’? What is the role of the Irish language in Irish identity today? Is a tokenistic use sufficient for most people,
62 Questions 9 and 10 were not specifically related to the debate but were asked to answer personal queries pertaining to the research.
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not only from a practical point of view but also in terms of identity (as in the idea of cúpla focal)?
4. Is it possible that English already fulfils the communicative needs of native speakers of Irish – perhaps more than Irish does – and that the maintenance of the language is thus not always desirable for the speakers themselves? Are the rise in the overall number of people with an ability to speak Irish and the decline in the use of Irish as a community language signs that a symbolic use is preferred to a community use?
5. Are geographical constraints an outdated concept for Irish language policy, given the high degree of socio-cultural and demographic change that has taken place over the last decades? Is the idea of Gaeltacht still viable from a policy point of view?
6. The Comprehensive Linguistic Study of the Use of Irish in the Gaeltacht states that without a change to language use patterns, Irish is unlikely to remain the predominant community and family language in core Gaeltacht areas for more than another 15-20 years. Has anything changed over the past 13 years, since the study was published? Is the process of language shift continuing at the same pace? Did policy interventions (for example the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language) lead to any improvements, despite the excessively lenient and superficial stance taken by the Irish State with the Gaeltacht Act 2012 and the 20-Year Strategy itself?
7. The idea that a change in language policy is necessary is central in ‘new-speakerness’: globalisation and the post-shift conditions that define minority language settings such as Ireland push towards the need to rethink traditional language policy models; and new forms of minority languages should be embraced since it is impossible to return to pre-shift conditions.
Would Irish have a future as a language spoken by new speakers and
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learners, without a core cultural and geographical community like the Gaeltacht?
8. Is it too late to save the Gaeltacht and to preserve Irish as a community language, at least in some areas?
9. In the final version of the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language, one of the goals is to increase the number of daily speakers outside the education system from 83,000 to 250,000. This however differs from what had been indicated in the Fiontar DCU report, in which the goal was to increase the number of daily speakers outside the education system from 72,000 to 250,000. The Fiontar report includes the actual figures reported by the CSO (72,148 daily speakers according to the 2006 census). Why is there such a difference?
10. The 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language included plans for the creation of an Irish Language and Gaeltacht Authority (Údarás na Gaeilge agus na Gaeltachta), which was to serve as the main implementation agency.
However, it appears that this body has never been established, although according to the 20-Year Strategy the legislation should have been prepared in 2011. Why is that?
Interview Questions – Professor Bernadette O’Rourke (Monday 22 June 2020)
1. Research has shown that couples of non-native Irish speakers are often committed to raising their children with Irish as a household language, and the demand for Irish-medium education has grown over the last years. What pushes new speakers to become active players in the maintenance of Irish?
Are they more involved than native speakers, or do the latter simply have
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fewer possibilities to act due to their deteriorating social condition and the lack of State support?
2. Are the concepts of ‘speech community’ and ‘native speaker community’ still viable in the case of Irish today?
3. The literature reports that new speakers create new instances of language use in a time of rapid social change. This makes them ‘authentic’ and
‘legitimate’ speakers in their own right, who can create new communities with a sense of identity. Is there a potential for them to replace communities of native speakers of Irish in the long term – given the trend of language shift in the Gaeltacht – or will native speakers and a community-oriented approach always be necessary? In other words, are networks of new speakers alone sound enough to resist in a sociolinguistic environment in which even native speakers struggle?
4. A central notion in ‘new-speakerness’ is that focusing on a ‘pure’ and
‘authentic’ version of the language is not a solution for its maintenance and excludes new speakers. Instead, speakers should be set on a continuum: they should define which criteria are necessary to qualify as a new speaker and what version of the minority language is ‘acceptable’. Therefore, the concept of new speaker seems to remain fuzzy as there is no clear benchmark for language competence. Is it possible to maintain something that is not clearly defined?
5. Although it has been reported that new speakers can be more proficient than natives, the term ‘new speaker’ also encompasses people who use the language symbolically or have very limited language skills. Therefore, ‘new-speakerness’ might automatically involve settling for a lower level of ability among speakers in general, with lower ambitions as an overarching policy goal. Is this a viable solution for the future of Irish? Can a symbolic or partial knowledge of a language ensure its survival, for example in domains where a
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higher competence is needed for the language to be actively chosen and used in place of English?
6. Research and census results show that the Irish education system is rather successful in the production of competent speakers. However, the societal use of the language appears to remain weak: people have the ability to speak the language but do not use it. In what way can ‘new-speakerness’ help change this situation and increase the usage of Irish in the social sphere, considering that there is no guarantee that new speakers will indeed actively use the language?
7. ‘New-speakerness’ is based on the need to adapt language policy to a changing sociolinguistic environment. In this context, it has been written that excessive focus on communities of native speakers leads to their
‘museification’ because policy tends to be centred on the language rather than on its speakers. It could however be argued that focusing on new speakers instead leads to the ‘museification’ of the language through its tokenisation. Is this claim reasonable?
8. The change of focus in Irish language policy from traditional communities in the Gaeltacht to new speakers might be seen as problematic in terms of linguistic rights of native speakers, who are experiencing a social crisis and have effectively been abandoned by the State as far as policy measures are concerned. Should new speakers be the priority of Irish language policy?
What are the ethical implications for the native speakers?
Extra question: Where do you see Irish language policy and the Irish language go over the next years?
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Interview Questions – Edel Ní Chorráin, Foras na Gaeilge (Friday 21 August 2020)
1. Official Irish language policy has been criticised for being excessively symbolic and mild, as well as for lacking commitment to the preservation of Gaeltacht communities. What is the role of such communities in the revival project today? Should new speakers be considered a priority, given the current situation in the Gaeltacht?
2. The decline of Gaeltacht communities is accelerating, and research indicates that they will soon disappear. Against this backdrop, what direction will Irish language policy take in the coming years? Will communities – albeit likely extremely marginal – and their reconstitution still be a focus of attention, or will there be a complete switch to a system based on learner networks?
3. Given the reported ineffectiveness of current measures such as the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language and the Gaeltacht Act 2012, is the implementation of new policy instruments targeting the Gaeltacht in particular a possibility?
4. From an institutional perspective, what are the main obstacles and difficulties in the implementation of effective measures aimed at ensuring the existence of Irish-speaking communities as a geographically rooted sociological entity?
5. Which areas of Irish language policy have the highest potential for the future development of Irish? Which ones, on the other hand, require improvement?
6. Foras na Gaeilge’s work spans a wide range of sub-domains and encompasses both native speaker communities and networks of learners, although the focus is mainly on language planning for learners. Which measures in
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particular are currently yielding the best results in terms of maintenance of Irish?
7. You have a background in Irish-medium education and are now responsible for education matters at Foras na Gaeilge, too. Given your experience in this field, what do you think new speakers of Irish can bring to the larger Irish-speaking community and to the future of the language?
8. Networks of new speakers are often described as highly committed to the language maintenance cause, but at the same time they have been reported to be small, fragile and dispersed, an issue that also applies to declining Gaeltacht communities. If learners are to become the only Irish speakers in the future, in what ways can language policy ensure that they become more sound and ‘reliable’ as language maintenance groups and that they do not end up falling apart like Gaeltacht communities?
Extra question: Is the strong presence of English going to hinder the development of learner networks, given that it is so damaging even for the Gaeltacht?
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