Language, religion and national identity in Ireland since 1880

Abstract

The paper examines the role of the Irish language movement in the development of Irish identity and of Irish nationalism. The main emphases are on the key period of state formation, 1890–1922, and on the role of the Irish language in independent Ireland since 1922, and its connection with the national issue in Northern Ireland. Unlike most European sub‐state nationalisms, the Irish movement did not have its origins in language grievances. By 1851 only 25 percent of the population, mainly in the west, were recorded as being able to speak Irish. Religion was the main badge of nationality, and defence of Catholicism was the main cultural concern so far as state education was concerned. From the 1870s agrarian grievances became the main motor of nationalist politics. The language movement, when it came, was therefore a movement for language revival, based on the Gaelic League founded in 1893. The League's importance lies in the fact that it became the nursery of the revolutionary political elite of 1916–22.The later sections of the paper explore language development in independent Ireland, and examine the second language revival in Northern Ireland.