Including the Threatened First-language Gaelic Vernacular Community in Gaelic Promotion and Protection: A Rebuttal to McLeod et al.

Abstract

This article serves as a rebuttal to McLeod et al’s criticism of Ó Giollagáin and Caimbeul’s ‘Moving Beyond Asocial Minority Language Policy’ article in this journal, while also offering an analysis of McLeod et al’s disapproving viewpoint of the conclusions and recommendations in Ó Giollagáin et al’s The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community (2020). This rebuttal argues for the inclusion of the threatened first-language Gaelic vernacular community in Gaelic policy, as well as the integration of the protection of Gaelic communities in official Gaelic promotion – minority language promotion with language community protection. McLeod et al’s contribution to the debate on the Gaelic vernacular crisis is essentially a collective effort to reinforce the relegation of the Gaelic crisis within official language promotion in Scotland and to promote a reinvigorated status quo.