English in Ireland: Development and Varieties

Abstract

The relationship of language to society in Ireland is multifaceted and multilayered. This has been the case in history and is so to this day. The two languages whose relationship dominated the linguistic landscape of Ireland in previous centuries, Irish and English, are both still present. But many more languages have been introduced to the country by immigration in recent years, especially after the accession of several East European countries to the European Union in 2004. This allowed the free movement of citizens of the new member states in the enlarged union, a fact which contributed to the surge of foreign labour into Ireland in the so-called Celtic Tiger years (late 1990s to 2008). The country which contributed most to the swelling population of non-Irish-born people in Ireland was Poland. Before the financial crisis of 2008, male Poles were largely employed in the then-booming construction industry and female Poles worked in service industries. Recent census figures show that now there are approximately 123,000 present in the Republic of Ireland (Census 2011). This means that many Poles are still living in the country and a new, Irish-born, Polish-heritage generation (Diskin and Regan 2015) is growing up in Ireland which, if not linguistically, will at least culturally leave its mark on Ireland in the coming years.