A Future for English/Irish Bilingualism in Northern Ireland?

Abstract

While English continues to be the dominant language of government, business and education in the South of Ireland, and is the only official language of Northern Ireland, there is a growing interest in the learning of Irish in the North- primarily among Catholics, but also among some Protestants who have an ideological commitment to Irish language and culture. Meeting these aspirations, the attitude of the government has become more sympathetic to the use of the Irish language, most notably through funding some Irish-language primary schools, and 'legalizing' the display of bilingual street-name signs. The BBC and UTV, too, have an active programming policy for Irish language broadcasts. We argue that, despite attainment of these rights by the Irish-language lobby, there is no pressure or ground-swell of demand to make Irish an official language in Northern Ireland because the sociolinguistic preconditions for bilingualism do not exist. Moreover, recent research among Irish language learners describing the...