Irish Media Research Articles

Equality of access to minority language assessments and interventions in immersion education

Abstract In the Republic of Ireland (RoI), Irish is recognised as the first official language of the state. The public has the right to conduct all business with the state solely through the medium of Irish if they wish. The reality, however, is that many government bodies only provide services in English. This article discusses the language used for assessments and interventions for students with special educational needs (SEN) in Irish-medium (IM) primary and post-primary schools in the RoI. A mixed methods study was conducted, with teachers from schools (n = 56) completing an online questionnaire at first and then teachers (n = 32) undertaking semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that students in IM schools are not being afforded access to services in Irish and many challenges exist for these schools when meeting the SEN of students. Recommendations are made around how to strengthen educational policy and practice to enable IM teachers meet the needs of all students.

Community Discourses of Language Reclamation through Irish Medium Youth Work

ABSTRACT This article presents community discourses of Irish medium youth work (IMYW) in the North of Ireland as a component of a wider community goal of language reclamation. This is a secondary data analysis of interviews conducted by the author which places the findings within the historical context of colonisation and present-day language reclamation efforts. Gaeilge has been the subject of language reclamation efforts in the North of Ireland since the late 1960s with this form of language activism including social and economic activism. This analysis connects the material and cultural disadvantages that young Irish speakers face with a youth work methodology that is grounded in language and community rights as well as social justice. The findings illustrate that despite governmental commitments to Gaeilge, discriminatory views and decisions remain which in turn inspire this growing community in their project of language reclamation in which young people are at the centre.

Learning Irish and learning through Irish: a child’s perspective

ABSTRACT Irish Medium Education (IME) is a form of immersion education which uses extensive exposure to the Irish language to meet the language needs of children, helping them develop proficiency in the target language. In many cases, both in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland, children in IME come from homes in which English is the dominant language, and so immersion school staff play a pivotal role in developing children’s second language proficiency. This paper considers young pupils’ perspectives on their experiences of learning Irish in an immersion setting and focuses on what they understand to be the purpose of learning Irish and learning through the medium of Irish. These insights are based on the nature of their learning experiences and the support they have received from others. Children’s responses highlighted their feelings about the Irish language, their understanding of the process of learning Irish and those people who had been involved in helping them develop proficiency in the second language.

‘Ski masks’, spectacles and solidarity: Mainstream Irish media representations of housing activists and activisms

This article demonstrates how Irish mainstream media supports the neo-liberal policy responses of successive governments in relation to housing through a particular focus on how housing organizers, activists and movements are framed. We suggest here that this framing facilitates the maintenance of binaries of both ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’ homelessness and the associated actions which challenge the housing crisis, which in turn compromises the ability for broad-based coalitions of solidarity to be mobilized.

Sport, migration and national identity in contemporary Irish media

ABSTRACT Taking a “cultural studies” approach that focuses on the ways in which media negotiate the intersections of nation, race and ethnicity, this article examines Irish print and broadcast media discourses of migration surrounding the Irish national soccer team and Gaelic games following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. It argues that the focus on the Irish soccer team’s “home-grown” diversity has superficially celebrated a developing national cosmopolitanism and embrace of migration, but against the backdrop of declining national team fortunes and recruits from the emigrant descendant “diaspora” in Britain. Profiles of immigrant players in Gaelic games have engaged critically, to a degree, with nativism and racism, but offer a benign and future-orientated representation of these games. While significant, both are limited as vehicles for collective national retrospection and introspection with regard to racism in Irish sport and society.

Rugby union, class and ‘Middle Ireland’ in Irish media

Although graduates of elite Irish fee-paying schools are disproportionately represented in the Irish men’s national rugby union team, Irish international games are among the most popular on Irish terrestrial television, signifying rugby’s growth as a spectator sport in Ireland. This article examines the role of Irish print, broadcast media and related publications in popularising elite-level Irish rugby. Employing a principally Bourdieusian theoretical perspective it analyses how media representation obscures the significance of class background and elite schooling in facilitating players’ individual and collective social advancement and material gain prior to, in and beyond rugby careers. One is by highlighting players’ relatability and transcendence of class privilege as the antithesis of the popular Irish caricature of an arrogant, privately educated former schools rugby player, Ross O’Carroll Kelly. The second is the displacement of class, in media representations, onto narratives, and performances, of regional and stylistic variety that are contained within an all-encompassing, inclusive conceptualization of ‘middle Ireland’.

Media interpretation of sports-related concussion in Irish rugby union: reinforcing or reshaping the sport ethic?

Given that ‘sports injury reaches most people indirectly as a set of images transmitted by the mass media’, this article examines the role that the Irish media performs in promoting narratives surrounding sports-related concussion (SRC). Through a thematic analysis of the media coverage of two elite Irish rugby players’ concussion experiences, the article critiques whether the media’s presentation of SRC challenges the traditional norms of competitive team sport. A central dual narrative emanated out of the media’s framing of SRC, demonstrating both growing concern over the injury and a culture of risk continuing to exist. While concerns over SRC were emphasised, the narrative that playing through pain is a core ethos of sports participation was also reinforced. As such, the Irish media can be seen to simultaneously promote notions of caution towards SRC whilst solidifying the idea that certain ‘sport ethic’ dimensions remain significant to athletes themselves.

World Wrestling Entertainment, Becky Lynch and the Irish media

In 2013, Becky Lynch, an Irish professional wrestler, was signed by WWE, marking the beginning of her rise to superstardom. By 2020, Lynch had become a major WWE star, participating in the first women’s Wrestlemania main event with Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey. While not the first Irish wrestler in WWE, Lynch is the first to reach superstar status. This article focuses on her portrayal in Irish media, which often finds itself in a unique position between sport and entertainment. Despite her popularity, professional wrestling’s blend of sport and entertainment leads to its coverage primarily in entertainment sections, occasionally crossing into sports biographies. Through an analysis of Lynch’s media portrayal from 2013 to her 2020 maternity leave, this piece explores the tension between her self-presentation and media representation, arguing that the wrestling’s ambiguous status and traditional gender biases in sports reporting downplay Lynch’s athletic achievements by emphasizing her femininity.

Helena Molony’s ‘Radical Reconceptualization of History’: Commemorating Revolution on the Stage and in the Streets

In his survey of Irish media over the last two centuries, Christopher Morash explains that, during the Revival years, Irish literature, politics, and public life existed ‘in a frenzy of print’, with hundreds of different nationalist newspapers and periodicals produced during these years – a print culture that ‘was not simply the vehicle for the literary revival; it was a constituent part of it’. R. F. Foster has emphasized that ‘little newspapers and magazines of the nationalist fringe’, more than High Culture, ‘galvanized the imaginations and opinions of young radicals” who would go on to shape Ireland's literary and political future. This essay explores Irish literature and periodical culture of the nationalist fringe through a close examination of Bean na hÉireann (‘Woman of Ireland’, 1908-1911), Ireland's first nationalist periodical expressly written for and by women. Tracking the radical networks cultivated by this one-penny monthly, it focuses on editor Helena Molony (1884-1967), who provided a forum for marginalized thinkers, such as women, trade unionists, and militants nationalists, to ‘have a voice and influence in the matters… of their country’. In noting the tensions present in Molony's radical networks, this essay illuminates the local and national networks of Irish journalism, whether in terms of business practices, models for political separatism, pragmatic organizing principles, or abstract philosophy concerning the imagined communities that were a primary readership for this journal.

Establishing a Platform for Public Health Advocacy in the midst of a Pandemic

Abstract Issue/problem Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Doctors working in Public Health Medicine in Ireland lacked a platform to present a collective voice to advocate on issues of public health concern. The aim of this abstract is to describe the establishment of a platform for advocacy through the formation of the Irish Society of Specialists in Public Health Medicine (ISSPHM). Description of the problem An independent society for Public Health Doctors in Ireland was lacking. Models used by other medical specialties in Ireland and international practice was reviewed. The ISSPHM was developed to build capacity and capability for advocacy amongst Public Health Doctors in Ireland by providing indemnity for members and a forum to interact with the media. Results A constitution, mission statement and website for the society were developed. The formal launch of the ISSPHM took place in December 2021. Outputs to date include co-hosting of webinar entitled ‘Public Health and the Law'; contributing to the Irish Public Health Reform Expert Advisory Group; a position paper on pandemic preparedness; a statement on migrant health (published on the ISSPHM website and widely quoted in the media); letters published in Irish media; interviews on national radio and the formation of a Climate Change Working Group. Lessons The ISSPHM successfully creates an environment where Public Health Doctors can advocate on major issues. The establishment of an independent society requires diverse expertise and resources. Future plans for the ISSPHM are to further collaborate and build on existing partnerships and expand eligibility for membership to include other colleagues working in Public Health e.g. nurses, surveillance scientists, data analysts. Key messages • An independent national society for Public Health Doctors is an extremely useful vehicle for advocacy. • The establishment and development of an independent society is a significant undertaking requiring diverse expertise.

It’s more the invisible benefits – multilingual parents’ experiences of immersion education and their reasons for choosing immersion

The participation of multilingual children in minority language immersion programmes is under-researched internationally. The Republic of Ireland (RoI) has become a linguistically and culturally diverse society. In the RoI, parents have the opportunity to educate their child in English-medium or Irish-medium (IM) schools. However, the cohort of multilingual children attending IM schools is very small. This study investigated the reasons why parents who spoke a home language other than Irish or English chose to enrol their children in IM primary education. It also investigated parents’ perceptions of the benefits of this form of education. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 15 parents from a variety of language backgrounds. It was found that parents were motivated to enrol their child in IM primary schools to provide them with the opportunity to learn a variety of languages at an early age. Benefits associated with learning multiple languages and immersion in Irish culture and heritage were seen as the main advantages of IM education. A minority of parents chose an IM school when there was no space for their child in an English-medium school. Parents reported that they did not experience significant challenges in IM immersion. Recommendations arise to support the participation of multilingual families in immersion education.

From grassroots to dissent: media activism and campaigning for equality, diversity and inclusion in media industries

ABSTRACT Media access in terms of participation and representation are central issues for underrepresented groups, particularly in media systems that are dominated by a homogenous elite. This article sets out to understand media activism in Ireland, especially by those who are campaigning for greater participation and better representation in the Irish media industry. While tools, measures and policies have been developed at varying levels within the media industry to improve Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), often these engagements with EDI issues do not directly speak to communities themselves. To that end, this article seeks to address this gap, setting out to understand media activism in Ireland through semi-structured interviews with 17 media activists from varying minoritized groups. The article is structured around four central themes: (i) problems identified, (ii) representation versus participation, (iii) possible changes and improvements and (iv) positioning for changes in the future. From these findings, the article makes two central recommendations: on the one hand, the development of policies regarding EDI must include the voices of the communities directly affected and on the other hand, media activists from minority or disenfranchised groups need to be considered as voices of authority on matters pertaining to them.

Building financial flexibility in preparation for Brexit: the case of Irish medium sized enterprises

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the building of financial flexibility by Irish medium sized enterprises in the run-up to Brexit. We analyze changes in firms’ dividends, leverage, cash, investment levels and working capital in the period surrounding the passing of the Brexit referendum to test for stockpiling of financial slack. Whilst we find no evidence of financial flexibility building overall, there is some evidence to suggest that firms incentivised to build such flexibility do so. Cash poor firms appear to build financial slack by way of reducing leverage and increasing their cash reserves. In contrast, cash rich firms increase their capital expenditure using internal and external funds. Interestingly all firms irrespective of their size or financial strength increase their working capital investment and in particular build their inventory levels post the Brexit referendum. Our evidence suggests Irish medium sized enterprises are optimistic of the opportunities post Brexit.

The Challenges Facing Irish-Medium Primary and Post-Primary Schools When Implementing a Whole-School Approach to Meeting the Additional Education Needs of Their Students

The literature states the importance of adopting a whole-school approach to inclusion and for meeting the needs of all students. This study investigated the challenges faced by Irish-medium (IM) primary and post-primary schools in relation to providing a whole-school approach to inclusion. This was achieved through a mixed methods study where a stratified sample of teachers from IM schools (N = 56) undertook an anonymous online survey in the first stage. In the second stage, primary and post-primary teachers (N = 31) undertook semi-structured individual interviews to provide in-depth information regarding the data collected in the survey. The findings suggest that like immersion schools internationally, IM schools need more resources through the medium of Irish in relation to assessment, evidence-based interventions, and teaching/learning resources.

The Irish media and the foundation of the Irish State on 6 December 1922

ABSTRACT This article examines the importance of 6 December 1922 as the foundation date of the Irish State. It does so through analysis of the reaction of contemporary media to events on that date and the days that surrounded it. The importance of this date is highlighted by its inseparable connection with three major themes in the history of the early years of the Irish State – the Civil War, partition and acceptance of Dominion status under the 1921 Treaty. This article also analyses media reaction to the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State that formally came into force on 6 December 1922 and examines the reaction of a selection of foreign media to the birth of the Irish State. The analysis includes hopes for the future of the new State expressed in contemporary media. The article concludes that, although the date of 6 December 1922 has not been the subject of substantial commemoration in the decades that followed, the significance ascribed to it by people alive at the time underlines its importance as the birth date of the self-governing Irish State.

“I’m so lucky”: narratives of struggle, unfairness and luck in among new entrants to the Irish media industries

The Irish creative industries have featured in recent cultural policies that have centred on the promotion of Irish culture and heritage and on the economic exploitation of heritage through the development of strong creative sectors. There are policy-led drives for more skilled workers to sustain this creative economy and creative industries policies refer to the need for more training, education and supports for workers to enter the industries. However, new entrants report difficult transitions from education to work and a culture of exploitation should they eventually find work. They feel the need to engage in unpaid affective labour to try to make themselves attractive to potential employers and often are left with low or no pay. Our study reports similar findings, where interviewees report inequalities, precarity and unfairness when seeking entry to media industries. We find a paradoxical narrative that negates inequalities and unfairness and identifies individual confidence and persistence as key to interviewees’ career success. While ‘unfairness’ defined media work for those who struggle to gain it, ‘luck’ used to explain entry into media work.

The Irish Media and Comparative Perspectives on the Creation of the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State

The Irish Media and Comparative Perspectives on the Creation of the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State

Imagining diversity

Recent international challenges to the hegemonic structures in the media industries—particularly regarding gender, sex and class—have resulted in a range of institutional-level responses. In Ireland, state bodies such as Screen Ireland and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland have developed gender action plans. Funding incentives in screen production are now tied to increasing women’s participation. The national broadcaster, RTÉ and various independent companies have published diversity and inclusion strategies. The Irish media workforce today, it seems, should be open and inclusive to all. However, contemporary scholarship on media work suggests that structural barriers remain (O’Brien and Kerrigan; French). Media work is still a site of privilege, with working conditions and cultures reproducing class and gender hierarchies. (O’Brien et al., “Are”; Malik; Banks and Oakley). Our article proposes to add to this body of knowledge by prioritising the relatively neglected point of view of aspirant new entrants to industry. Generation Z graduate entrants articulate how graduates conceive of diversity and equality in the workplace, whether they believe they will experience structural or cultural exclusions, and how they interpret organisational efforts to achieve change.

The Three Stack Sisters: A New Perspective on 20th-Century Irish-Language Women’s Writing

Within 20th-century Irish-language writing, it is rare to find Irish-speaking women who have documented their lives in print form. To find three sisters who have published their thoughts through the medium of Irish is rarer still. The sisters in question are Cáit, Brighid and Áine Stack and they grew up in the 1900s and 1910s – the height of the revivalist period – in the Irish-speaking stronghold of Smerwick, Co. Kerry. This essay will trace the writing careers and analyse the published work of the Stack sisters, from childhood in the case of all three sisters, to old age in the case of Áine Stack. Through this approach, we will gain a singular insight into girlhood within Gaelic culture in the 1910s; we will witness the opportunities available to, and trajectories of, educated, yet poor, Irish-speaking girls and women in the 1920s; and through the writings of the youngest sister, Áine Stack, we will gain a fresh perspective on the new Irish educational system that accompanied the Free State.

ITE provision in minority language contexts

AbstractWithin the broader contexts of language maintenance, revitalisation and use, schools have an important role to play in the early transmission of minority or minoritized languages. Through effective classroom-based practices, teachers can offer rich, continuous linguistic experiences for the young people they teach that can lead to long-term, sustained engagement with language over time. How effective a given approach or practice may be in delivering a linguistic outcome in different contexts depends to a large extent on the skills and competence of the teacher involved (Fitzpatrick et al., 2018, p. 59), and the skills and competence of the teacher are usually rooted in their early experiences as student teachers. Initial teacher education (ITE) programmes are therefore central to the delivery of effective classroom-based practices and fundamental in generating autonomous teachers who can explore critically the different pedagogical approaches as they pertain to minority language contexts. This paper provides a comparative overview of the current issues and challenges facing ITE for primary education in two distinct minority language settings, namely Wales and Ireland. Both settings provide Welsh-medium or Irish-medium immersion education, as well as English-medium education offering Welsh or Irish as statutory subjects up to age 16. Both contexts also offer ITE programmes through the medium of Welsh or Irish, catering specifically for those student teachers wishing to teach in immersion settings. Both contexts face a number of shared challenges in terms of the content, design and delivery of an effective ITE programme for the context. We therefore highlight areas in which resources and methodologies could be shared amongst all those involved in ITE where minority language maintenance is a key component of education.