I would come from the unionist tradition, and I could actually use my knowledge of Irish at the moment to defend the unionist position an awful lot better than most of the unionists ... the absurdity of Ireland as a sort of Gaelic, Catholic nation and the idea that because the sea is round it that makes it a nation. The language links us with Scotland and with Wales and with Cornwall, and actually England too. England is as Celtic a nation as we are. So I would see the Irish language as linking us with the other Celtic peoples, and I think its a blind spot, this obsession with England as an enemy. The English are the same people as we are, so it seems to me that Irish language is something which holds the British Isles together. I mean the very word ‘British’ speaks to me of a Celtic language, you know, and not of English. Old Shakespeare with his England and her sister nations bound together by the triumph of sea. I see the sea as binding nations together. The sea has always bound Kintyre and County Antrim, and for these absurd people to draw a line down there and say, ‘This is Ireland and that is Scotland’ - that’s rubbish.
Slightly unorthodox argument, but I think he/she has done quite a good job, finding the language a place in the greater British context.
Taken from the chapter:
"Protestant Learners of Irish in Northern Ireland" by Gordon McCoy
...which appears in the book:
The Irish Language
in NORTHERN IRELAND
Edited by Aodán Mac Póilin (1997)
Published by Ultach Trust
ISBN 0-9516466-3x 211pp
4 comments:
but I think he/she has done quite a good job, finding the language a place in the greater British context.
Quite a few Irish speakers have been saying this for years to be honest. And its fallen on deaf ears. There was no interest in this line, and I doubt there ever will be. Which is regrettable.
Kloot,
Perhaps it depends on who says it;
if more Unionists were to stress this, it just might make a difference.
What a fascinating topic.
The deputy grand chaplain to the Grand Lodge of Ireland, the Rev Eric Culbertson is a fluent Irish speaker and has done a sterling job in promoting it to his Church of Ireland congregation.
By doing this he is carrying on a tradition in the Church of Ireland which has gone on for centuries. William Bedell, the Protestant Bishop of Kilmore in the 17th century and Provost of Dublin University was responsible for translating the King James Version of the Bible into the Irish language. As Provost of Trinity he studied Irish intensively and provided Irish speaking scholars an education in their own language. He arranged for lectures in Irish, and had Irish prayers said in the college chapel during holy days. His successor as provost, Robert Ussher, carried on this tradition by directing that a chapter of the Irish testament should be read by a native scholar each day during dinner. Bedell had originally learned Irish from a little boy; at Trinity he stated to Dr Ward "My first endeavour shalbe to understand the toung of this country which I see (although it be accounted otherwise) is a learned and exact language. I have taken a little Irish boy, a Minister's Sonne of whom I hope of make good use". He especially made use of the tongue in Ulster. Even though Bedell was of a Puritan theological persuasion, this did not preclude him from collaborating with Robert Boyle and two Catholic Irish language experts (quite a revolutionary thing at the time) to translate the Old Testament into Irish. Vice-Provost Hall financially funded many of Trinity's lectures in Irish and a Mr Linnegar employed to teach the language in the hope that 'if the said work was promoted and encouraged it might prove a means to convert the natives and bring them over to the established church'. Notable people who used the Irish prayer book are Tyrone native John Richardson and Nicholas Brown, who translated the Imitation of Christ into the Irish language. Whether this hibernophilia was motivated by genuine passion for the language or simply a desire for converts is uncertain; it was probably a bit of both. In the 16th century it had been intended that the Book of Common Prayer be translated into Irish but this was delayed for decades owing to a difficulty with the Irish type. The Crown had given a dispensation for Ireland that allowed the conservative Latin version of the prayer book to be used instead. This ensured that even in the Gaelic speaking areas that implemented (as opposed to acknowledged) the royal authority, the priests had great leverage to give it a Catholic ceremonial (people simply were often unaware that a reformation had taken place) and the Protestant doctrines did not permeate. The Protestants had learned their lesson.
Francis Hutchinson, a chaplain to the king, was appointed bishop of Down in 1720 and built a new church on Rathlin Island and with the help of Queen Anne's bounty provided an Irish language library and catechism classes for the inhabitants. The famous Bishop George Berkeley also conducted services in Irish.
Flirtation among Protestants with the Irish language became particularly actue during the Victorian 'Second Reformation'. Organisations like the Irish Church Missions (which was to cause huge embarrassment for the British government) trained scripture readers in Irish and arranged services through that tongue. The Irish Society was a similar organization, also linked to the Established Church, and distributed tracts through Gaelic speaking areas throughout Ireland(including the Glens of Antrim) appealing to Catholics to convert.
It was members of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Aristocracy who began the Gaelic Revival in Ireland; Douglas Hyde, Lady Gregory, John Millington Synge, WB Yeats, George Russell, Lord Dunsany etc.
The language links us with Scotland and with Wales and with Cornwall, and actually England too.
Welsh and Cornish is a different branch of Celtic. This is is like saying English and German is linked, and sure doesn't the cahneel have the same Nation. English borrows words like mad, but it is a Germanic language with a heavy Romantic influence. There are little links between English and Celtic languages, even the grammar is different.
I'm not even going to bother with the sea stuff or race based arguemnts, being as it is, totally inane.
Post a Comment