Gaeilge: A Radical Revolution

by Caoimhín De Barra

Everything you think you know about the Irish language is wrong. It isnt your teachers fault you dont speak it. Billions of euros are not spent every year on its promotion. Replacing Irish with English has not been an economic blessing for Ireland. As a historian of languages and someone who learned Irish as an adult, Caoimhín De Barra offers both academic and personal insights into Irelands complex relationship with its national language. This book explains why most people dont learn Irish at school, where the deep hatred some have for the language comes from, and how people who want to learn Irish can do so successfully. Drawing upon the history of other minority languages around the world, De Barra demonstrates why current efforts to promote Irish are doomed to fail and proposes a radical solution for how to revive An Ghaeilge so it can again become the first language of the Irish people.

Genres: Nonfiction, Language, Irish Literature, History, Ireland, Politics, Linguistics

272 pages, Paperback

Published March 8, 2019

Reviews

[Aine · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Gaeilge: A Radical Revolution” is a good summary of the mainstream story of the decline of Irish (I actually had to keep checking the publication date to check that it hadn’t been published in the mid-1990s). De Barra’s argument is that to make Ireland a bilingual country (1) the “celebrity appeal of certain citizens will be harnessed to try and make Irish ‘cool’ in the eyes of our youth and (2) the State should switch to being entirely through the medium of Irish so as to convince a generation of parents to “take one for the team” and speak to their children in a language that isn’t their first language. De Barra’s goal is to have 75% of the population having the ability to speak Irish fluently. His plan is to make Irish “economically useful” by switching the public sector to functioning through Irish, that everyone will have to deal with the State through Irish, and to make Irish-medium education valuable by having elite professions operating through Irish.

I originally picked up the book because it was on the shelf in Hodges Fidges and I thought it might have some interesting takes because the back cover said the author was a historian. After reading the book I am surprised that the author enjoys studying history, never mind lecturing in the subject. There was very little engagement with the sources. Many sections start with “I spent five minutes on Google and this is what I found”. There is no description of what sites he was going to, who the readership was, where the author was coming from, whether the site was known for clickbait, or if the author was a bit of a troll just trying to get more clicks. In short, there was no acknowledgement of how representative or otherwise any of the quotes were.

One example that comes up more than once is a debate held in Loreto Secondary School Bray about whether learning Chinese is a better option than learning Chinese. There is little or no acknowledgement that the school is in a town where there are a good number of Chinese speakers so the debate is not arbitrary, that the school actually offers Chinese as a language option, or that the debate was part of an Irish language workshop being run by Conradh na Gaeilge. That same report actually states that the students in Loreto Bray have a “really good level of Irish”.

Refusing to look at how a few articles over the course of a decade match with reality links in with another area of concern: the refusal to engage with the reality of Irish life as it is today. For example, De Barra when he talks about his future plans he keeps repeating that it’s about “Irish citizens”, which just sounds jarring to anyone living in Ireland today and seeing with their own eyes that our society is made up of citizens and non-citizens (with an equal right to the language). Although he may not have intended it, the impression of the final chapter is that citizens are to be the 75% who engage with the State and indeed are part of a national project, with the other 25% left outside and just so happening to not be Irish citizens.

That refusal to engage with the reality of Irish life also becomes clear when De Barra writes about the reasons for learning Irish. For many people I know speaking Irish has been because it’s the language they grew up with, because family speak it, because it’s the language of the area (Galway in particular), because they’re musicians or nerdy, to take a stand against creeping homogenisation, or to understand a bit more about the place that they’re living in. But for De Barra none of these reasons exist and none of the ever widening range of people who speak Irish exist as Irish is only and explicitly part of a national project.

It’s not just that De Barra disagrees with other ideas – he’s completely dismissive of them. For example, he has no time for the vast majority of historians of empire who say that Ireland has a place in empire but the colony category is complicated and he doesn’t seem to understand the difference between Irish people being racialised in the British / US press and the colour bar, Apartheid, segregation, etc. He goes all out in support of anyone who says anything in Irish, spending several pages on Enda Kenny’s refusal to speak English when Mick Wallace’s translation set wasn’t working when anyone who say the video knew that the problem was Kenny’s clearly sneering antics (and the TD beside Wallace was Clare Daly, not Clare Byrne).

It’s also frankly bizarre that a book which deals with the revival of the Irish language and plans to bring about an Irish revival through economic compulsion does not investigate the major issue which is economics. There is little talk about giving people who live in disadvantaged, rural areas where they speak Irish a reason or the ability to actually stay.

In the end it is difficult to figure out who the revival is actually for. It seems to be for a small set of people who want to make themselves into a new elite. And that’s just not my language.

Two stars because some of the points about the education system were interesting but I’m glad I got this from the library; I would have been annoyed if I’d spent good money on it.

(There’s also a couple of just weird things in the book, like the following: “Indeed, what I find remarkable is that whenever a newspaper article is written about Irish language schools, the writers always seem to accept the ‘elitism’ as a given truth, and put the onus on Gaelscoileanna representatives to disprove it. This would be the equivalent of interviewing people from Pavee Point to see if in fact all Travellers are thieves and liars, as large segments of the Irish population believe.”)

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredibly well written and argued book. The author presents his views in a clear, intelligent and mostly reasonable way. He takes an honest and realistic approach to the state of the languages and avoids falling into the trap of sentimentality or wishful thinking. The chapters on the teaching of Irish, other revival attempts and the socio-economic influences are particularly good.

However, although I came close to giving five stars, the chapter on the hatred of Irish brought the book down. The author doesn't pretend to be anything other than one sided, but that does leave him with a blind spot. He pours scorn on critics of Irish but never acknowledges that promoters of the language could ever be rude or make mistakes (in fact those who try to revive the language are curiously absent from the book). Unfortunately, this does give the impression of a victimhood complex as the author lists all the mean internet comments he has seen (without acknowledging internet comments are horrible no matter the topic) or quoting Unionists criticism (without acknowledging the political aspect of this, or that the book is supposedly focused on the language in the 26 counties). Every negative article that has appeared in the last two decades is quoted, without a word about the positives, which gives a lop-sided view.

Also, this is probably a comment on how few other books there are on the language, but the author seemed to be constantly quoting the same two or three other works.

[CAG_1337 · Rating 2 out of 5]

A crude polemic by a language zealot. Why do adult learners of the Gaeilge like de Barra tend to fall into this camp? It's rather like trying to get a reasonable argument out of a born-again fundamentalist from the Bible belt. Critically, he consciously chooses to not even attempt to answer why Irish should be revived (excepting in his ending line 'because we can') because, as he says, he isn't going to convince anyone no matter how well-pleaded his case may be. He might be right, but this strikes me as intellectual laziness. At the very least, everyone would know why he believes Irish should be revived. The result is that there is a big whole in his book, and what remains will likely only appeal to the already devout true believers out there. But that's likely his intended audience anyway; the book seems written for the choir. For a more sobering and realistic approach, I would recommend the work of Aidan Doyle from UCC, whom de Barra seems fond of besmirching.

*** Update. Apparently, if you write a negative review of his book, this author will message you with an extensive response. God, the fragile ego on this guy! I don't think he realizes how gauche it is for authors to respond.

[Øystein Brekke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to this as an outsider to the Irish language question, hoping to learn more about the situation for the Irish language, but also hoping that the book might have something to offer about the situation for minority languages more generally - a topic that interests me.
The highlight of the book in this regard were pages 133-136, where De Barra gives examples of comments made on Internet forums by English speakers about the minority language in their country - highly negative comments, especially resenting having to learn the minority language in school. The interesting thing is pretty much all of these comments could have been made in Norwegian by Bokmål users resenting having to learn Nynorsk, or in some cases, resenting the very existence of Nynorsk. De Barra notes the widespread resentment among English speakers about having to learn other languages, but seeks to explain this mainly/only by looking at the English speakers and Anglophone feelings of cultural superiority. As is evident from my experience of Norwegian, I think the phenomenon is more general. I have also personally heard similar comments from Spanish speakers in Catalonia resenting having to learn Catalan, and - returning to Norway - I have the distinct impression that attitudes to the revitalisation of Sami languages among Norwegian speakers in Sami speaking parts of the country have at times been quite negative indeed - with Sami road signs being shot at with shotguns, etc. It seems to be a general phenomenon that (at least parts of) majority language communities resent minority language communities in their midst.

The book could do with somewhat tighter editing - the focus is somewhat scattered at times. But all in all, I learned a lot about the language situation in Ireland.

[Michael Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good information and discussion, but I was disappointed with the strategy for reviving Irish at the end of the book - it was rather too vague, and it actually made me feel more hopeless about the situation of Irish in Ireland. The idea of the TDs and government departments all making the commitment to switch to Irish seems like a pipe dream. Trua mór.

[Liam Dunne · Rating 4 out of 5]

small talk in the smoking area sorted for the foreseeable

[Denchrollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

De Barra begins this book talking about his experience with Irish. A common one for any Irish person - you learn it for 12 years in school and come out of it with barely any fluency. A minority of students go on to further study or use the language but the vast majority will continue to use English in their day to day lives and gradually forget what little Irish they had. De Barra had a similar thought process to a young me - I never disliked the language but found it endlessly frustrating, impossible to speak and even more difficult to use in my day-to-day life. Like De Barra (and most young Irish people), I've come back to it in my 20s and lamented that I could not speak my own native tongue. But unlike me, De Barra persisted and became fluent in the language and now raises his American daughter through the medium of Irish.

De Barra spends the book looking at the reasons Irish people discarded Irish in favour of English, dispelling myths that a loud, Anglophilic section of Irish society insists upon, glaring problems in the attitudes and strategies in the so-far failed attempt at creating a bilingual society in Ireland, case studies of other successful language revivals in the world and finally, an overarching plan in making Gaeilge attractive to Irish people once again.

I tore through this book in one day. I rarely do this. Recently, as I've moved around the world and met people from various backgrounds, I've begun to consider my Irish identity. Why is it my Latino colleagues can talk in their own language while I exclusively communicate with my Irish colleagues in English? I am jealous at the casual manner in which others seamlessly switch between Spanish and English and feel an acute shame at the core of every Irish person. De Barra dismisses several of the common arguments that I believed - Irish is too difficult, Irish is useless in relation to other world languages, it's a language associated with poverty, the schools never teach it properly. This last point is one that millions of Anglophone Irish people will tell you. De Barra contends that it is taught properly (with some minor problems) but it's place in Irish society means using it outside the classroom is discouraged or even outright disliked. This has changed my opinion on the language to one of positive indifference to one that sees me want to become fluent.

If the option to learn the language was easier and it became more essential to learn it, at least on a conversational level, this would have a knock-on effect to the rest of society. De Barra recommends something that some would see as extreme but not entirely unreasonable - Gaelicise the state and create a young population of people who leave school fluent yet still have a reason to use the language. Over the space of decades, he recommends gradually reserving more and more public sector jobs to people who completed their schooling through the medium of Irish while simultaneously introducing more Irish language streams in English language schools. Instead of forcing hundreds of thousands of people to learn the language suddenly, he encourages the Irish state to make it necessary to communicate with it through Gaeilge while also recognizing that Irish people can and will continue to use English as well.

The goal, much more realistic than the current vague programme from Dublin, is entirely achievable and cost effective and could see the Ireland effectively becoming bilingual in a century. I support this goal and will be emailing my local TD's about it.

[Dan McCarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gaeilge: Réabhlóid Radacach, scríofa ag Caoimhín De Barra, déannan sé iarracht an cheist “cén fáth a bhfuil Gaeilge ag sracadh, ainneoin go bhfeictear go fabhrach ag saoránaigh na hÉireann é?” Sa leabhar gearr seo, pléann De Barra:

A chonair féin chun foghlama Geilge mar dhuine fásta, agus rinne sé é an teanga dá bhaile ar deireadh thiar.

Cén fáth a bhfuil Gaeilge á mheas ‘teanga mharbh’ ag go leor dá chéile comhraic.

Ráfla gan bhunús faoin gcaoi a mhúintear an Ghaeilge, agus conas a thacaíonn an rialtas leis an teanga.

Cás-staidéir ar athbheochan teanga eile.

Moltaí faoi conas tacú leis an teanga dá mbeadh rialtas na hÉireann dáiríre faoi náisiún dátheangach a chruthú.

Bhí aistear Gaeilge De Barra thar a bheith intreach, agus thug sé orm machnamh a dhéanamh ar mo thuras féin chun an teanga a fhoghlaim. Ó spéis sa teanga san ardscoil – ach gan éinne le labhairt léis – go dtí triail a bhaint as arís tar éis staidéar thar lear in Éirinn, agus ansin faoi dheireadh cloí le ceachtanna i ndiaidh mo Chéim Mháistir i stair na hÉireann.

An t-aon ghearán atá agam leis an leabhar ná nach luann De Barra ach na leabhair a luann sé, ach nach soláthraíonn sé foinsí d’éilimh eile a dhéantar tríd síos. Tá sampla amháin sa réamhrá ina bpléann De Barra mothúcháin frith-Ghaeilge.Luann sé díospóireacht teilifíse inar thagair Ivan Yates do Bhláthnad Ní Chofaigh agus Pearse Doherty mar “sceimhlitheoirí cultúrtha”, agus inar thug Declan Lynch “olc” ar thuismitheoirí daltaí Gaelscoileanna. Ní luaitear ceachtar acu seo, ná rannóga eile a úsáideann sleachta comhchosúla sa leabhar. Tá sé níos deacra dá bharr foinsí na dtuairimí seo a aimsiú.

Thug a shaothar a ndeachthas i gcomhairle leis sa leabhar seo liosta maith leabhar dom le cur le mo liosta “le léamh”!

—

Gaeilge: A Radical Revolution, written by Caoimhín De Barra, tries to answer the question “why is Irish still struggling, despite being seen favorably by Irish citizens?” In this short book, De Barra discusses:

His own path to learning Irish as an adult, and eventually made it the language of his home.

Why Irish is considered a ‘dead’ language by many of its opponents.

myths about how the Irish language is taught and how the government supports the language.
Case studies of other language revivals.

Recommendations on how to best support the language if the Irish government was serious about creating a bilingual nation.

De Barra’s Irish journey was very introspective, and made me reflect on my own journey to learn the language. From an interest in the language in high school - but having no one to speak it with - to trying again after studying abroad in Ireland, and then finally sticking with lessons following my Master’s Degree in Irish history.

My one complaint with the book is that De Barra only cites the books he quotes, but does not provide sources for other claims made throughout. One example is in the introduction where De Barra is discussing anti-Irish language sentiments. He cites a televised debate where Ivan Yates referred to Bláthnad Ní Chofaigh and Pearse Doherty as “cultural terrorists”, and Declan Lynch calling parents of Gaelscoileanna students “sinister”. Neither of these, and other sections using similar quotes, are cited in the book. It did make it more difficult to find the sources of these comments.

His works consulted in this book did give me quite a list of books to add to my ‘to read’ list!

[Ben Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is very strange but I’m learning Irish now so…

[Mise · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book that I thoroughly enjoyed that has clear structure and is well communicated by the author in a way that you understand his position, his reasons for having said position, and the things that need to be done to see Irish re-emerge as a language on equal footing with English.

Most of the book is focused on laying out how we got to a position where Irish is a minority language that is facing demographic issues and a lack of use outside of a stunted education system. These chapters do an excellent job dispelling the myths and common criticisms that you would see laid out in the comment section of Thejournal.ie

Reading this book will allow you to reply with coherent factual answers that dispel myths like Magic Béarla or that if only we also taught Chinese instead of Irish, then Ireland would be rich, we would have more jobs than we know what to do with, and Mayo would win the All-Ireland football final at last.

As someone who who is coming to push for Irish fluency in my 20s after school, I found the book did a great job in reaffirming and articulating a lot of the reasons I have for wanting to prove my Irish for personal political and cultural reasons.

My only suggestion for improving the book would be to spend more pages laying out steps that could be taken to improve Irish.

While some of the authors suggested steps are certainly big and ambitious, I feel the book could use a little more fleshing out as to what a reader could do in their own personal capacity outside of emailing their TD to call for for a public vote on implementing a national Irish language transition plan.

Overall I really enjoyed book and would recommended to anyone looking to improve their Irish or adopt a "one parent one language" system with their own child.

I also feel it would make an excellent gift for any Irelandshire friends you happen to have if you are looking to give them some insight into the role of the Irish language and why they should be more embracing of Irish as a language and as a part of our cultural heritage.

[Pól · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd give it 2.5 stars if I could

He makes some decent points but apart from that the book is mostly reiterating the same handful of points until he gets to the "radical solution" promised in the blurb about 230 pages into this 265 page book.

[Tara Ní Dhubhghaill-Nualláin · Rating 5 out of 5]

ar fheabhas 👍🏻 I see a lot of people around saying "Irish is being shoved down people's throats" but I personally think it isn't being shoved enough. Is fearr Gaeilge bríste ná Béarla cliste go fírinne!

[Minglu Jiang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Old man (or just man, I guess, he's not that old) yells at cloud in book form.

Look, Caoimhín De Barra is obviously very passionate about the Irish language revival, and I respect that. It's probably frustrating to hear the same arguments lobbed at the Irish language movement day in and day out, and even as an outside observer it's frustrating.

That being said, I don't find anything that De Barra has to say here to be particularly convincing. His main argument seems to be that in order for the Irish language to be revived, it must be made "advantageous" in the way that English was, i.e. it's necessary for government functions and higher education and things like that. That's reasonable, sure, but De Barra doesn't offer a convincing argument for how exactly this would actually happen in real life, how you would get popular support for it, or anything of that sort. Which is fine, I guess, because if anybody knew, we'd probably be doing it already. I finished up this book feeling like I hadn't heard anything about the Irish language revival that hasn't been said before.

My main gripe with this book, though, is De Barra. I said I found his arguments unconvincing. Perhaps they could have been convincing, though, if he had a less angry tone throughout.

One thing that really resonated with me was his discussion of the shame attached to the language. For a while, Irish was seen as inferior to English, a mark of socioeconomic disadvantage. It's no longer that way, of course, but there's still an "otherness" attached to the language. And yet at the same time, the Irish language is often posited as an intrinsic component of Irishness. So people are stuck with this idea that in order to be truly Irish, they have to have the language, but for the most part, they can't speak it. Like any skill, you'll lose a language if you don't use it, and since Irish isn't the daily vernacular in all except a few rural pockets, the majority of Irish people don't speak it. And there's a sense of shame attached to that. I lost most of my Mandarin ability as a kid, and it's been an upward battle to get it back, so I get that feeling. I really do. I don't know how true this actually is of Irish people, but from my standpoint, it's plausible.

The problem is, De Barra seems to be so angry at these people, even while professing sympathy toward their predicament. At every turn he has only contempt toward those who even slightly don't agree with him. Anyone who has any objections toward the Irish language revival—whether it's concerns about the schooling system, or about government spending—is immediately dismissed as stupid, unreasonable, or extreme. De Barra leaves no room for nuance when tackling the views of his perceived opponents. Any inkling of nuance is immediately shut down as just more evidence of his opponents' stupidity, or ridiculousness, or extremity. For example, the concern that some people have that Gaelscoils (Irish language elementary or secondary schools) are just an excuse for middle-class families to educate their kids in white, affluent schools. Which is a straw man argument anyway, since that's not necessarily an attack on Gaelscoils as a concept, just the reasons that people send their kids there. De Barra gets to immediate work on this, declaring that everyone who says this are stupid virtue signalers using racism to attack the Irish language because the first Gaelscoils were founded before immigration to Ireland on a large scale began. I don't think I need to go further into why that argument sucks.

I would say De Barra is preaching to the converted, except... I feel like I can safely say I am one of the converted and if anything this book started convincing me in the other direction just because of how ridiculous and hateful it was.

I'm just disappointed, because De Barra seems like a smart, passionate guy, but this whole book just felt so laughably ridiculous. I really wanted a good analysis of the Irish language situation and what can reasonably be done for the language, because I absolutely adore this beautiful tongue and I want it to be a living, thriving language. It's just a shame that De Barra has nothing to offer but anger.

[DarraghReilly · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author argues that Irish is taught well in schools because Leaving Cert students get similar results in Irish to the results they get in other subjects such as Maths and 'we don't say the other subjects are taught bad.'

To compare quality of language teaching based on exam results compared to maths, and to claim this is proof that the 'language is taught well' despite the fact that very few Irish people leave school with a high standard of Irish (linguistically speaking), or even a high level of understanding of Irish (answer honestly, how many leaving cert students can comfortably listen to Radio na Gaeltachta and understand it) is illogical.

For a book written by an academic, a historian, I was surprised by the lack of academic references and sources. It is mainly an opinion piece, which would be fine if it was backed up sufficiently.

This book is a case of passion overriding logic, in my opinion. The recommendations made by the author are completely unrealistic, fantasy stuff. I could write pages on what's wrong with his recommendations. In a way, they are a throwback to failed Gaelic League supported compulsion-based State revivalist ideologies of the past, nevermind the fact that while the majority of Irish people 'support Irish' less than 10% truly want to revive it according to the largest surveys done on such questions in the Irish Language and the Irish People.

If the maintenance and/or revival of Irish in areas outside of existing Gaeltacht areas is a topic you are truly interested in than I have to recommend reading works from sociolinguists who have dedicated their lives to studying language change processes (Fishman, Rómáine, Ó Giollagáin, Ó Curnáin, to name just a few) and maintenance scenarios as opposed to works by people who don't seem to be well read in the field.

Even a chapter on language death and language maintenance from an introductory sociolinguistic book would be better use of your time than joining De Barras crusade to get Leo, Pascal, Donnelly and the boys to lead by example and shun the English language in the Dáil and public life, while decreeing that every school shall henceforth be a Gaelscoil (something which was attempted before by the way, during the State's 1920s to 1940s schools based revival period in which 55% of schools in Ireland ended up fully or partly Irish medium) beag beann of the fact that the Gaeltachts are weakening, the few Irish medium schools we have already struggle to get teachers with good Irish, and the standard of Irish being produced by schools, Gaelscoils and colleges has only weakened. De Barra has no answers to these logistical issues for the carrying out of his plan. The 1920s-1940s State used the Irish speaking youth of the Gaeltacht to make teachers and spread them around the country, the children and grandchildren of these teachers ended up being native English speakers, assimilated into Irish society. Modern Ireland's Gaeltacht only has a few hundred children being raised as Irish speakers currently and desperately needs to maintain density of speakers.

Ignore this book for realistic ideas. Learn Irish. Look to sociolinguistics. Look to Ó Giollagáin. Read Ciarán Dunbars 'Síolta'. Don't buy a holiday home in the Gaeltacht. Goodnight.

[Corey Rigley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very interesting and provides insight into the current landscape of the Irish language and its future possibilities. I have a better understanding of other language revival projects around the world as the author explores several, and how they can be compared to Irish, and where those comparisons are actually invalid or impractical. His economic analysis of how only speaking English affects Ireland, versus the benefits that would arise from being a bilingual country are very interesting also.

The author is dedicated to the language. He grew up with English but is rearing his child in Irish. He is positive in his suggestions on how the language's revival could take place, but acknowledges there is an element of Irish society that dislike the language and would prefer to have 0 state support for it. His suggestions in his last chapter seem naive and fantasy-like, but he is right in describing how those same suggestions are a way forward.

I believe his suggestions would require huge mobilisation of Irish language supporters and protests for anyone to ever take them seriously, and I can't see the Irish people putting that type of pressure on our government or their neighbours, despite the majority of Irish people expressing the want to be fluent in the Irish language, or to speak it more.

Overall this book is a good contribution to the Irish language debate, I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the Irish language generally.

[Սամուէլ]

I picked this book up from "Hodges Figgis" in Dublin during a nine-hour layover.

Although I had originally been looking for something more technical on the linguistics of Celtic languages, the cover and subject matter pulled me in. As a multilingual who feels the constant dominating pressure of English, I could relate to so much of what De Barra describes in this volume. He had me hooked, he had me convinced, and I really enjoyed the historical and sociological -political explanations that he gave about how the Irish language arrived at where it was today.

My one problem was that there was no sub-division of (especially the long) chapters, which sometimes made if very difficult to keep going. One of the chapters lasted 50 pages, without sub-headings, and it took a lot of effort to rally through that. Normally I wouldn't comment on something structural rather than the content but in this instance I think it is quite relevant. If I, an endangered language speaker who already agrees with the author before I even opened the cover of the book, struggled to get through a chapter (and even considered very briefly not continuing), then how does one expect an unsure or unconvinced reader to soldier through? Only saying this because I truly believe that some of the ideas presented in this book are important and need to be heard - not only by Irish society, but also by individuals in the many multilingual societies that De Barra speaks about...

[Patrick Doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Míníonn De Barra na bacainní atá roimh athbheochan na Gaeilge, amhail an stiogma inmheánach i ndiaidh riail na Breataine. Tá a anailís ar an gcás críochnúil, agus molann sé roinnt réiteach féideartha ag an deireadh. Moladh amháin do De Barra: tabhair togra níos cuimsithí i ndiaidh na caibidle deireanaí, b'fhéidir i bhfoirm liosta gníomhaíochta nó plean creatlaí do rialtas na hÉireann. Tá easpa creatlaí soiléire ón rialtas ar cheann de na príomhbhacainní a luann sé. Tríd is tríd, is mór agam scríbhneoireacht De Barra. Is fiú é seo a léamh d'aon duine a bhfuil suim aige sa teanga agus ina hathbheochan.

De Barra summarizes the barriers to reviving the Irish language, including internalized stigma after British rule. His analysis of the situation is thorough, and he proposes some feasible solutions at the end. One suggestion to De Barra: it would have been great to see a more comprehensive proposal after the last chapter, perhaps in the form of an action list or framework plan to the Irish government. The lack of a clear framework from the government is one of the primary barriers he outlines. Overall, I appreciate De Barra’s narrative. This is well worth a read for anyone interested in the Irish language and its revival.

[Grá · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to say firstly that I learned a lot about Irish & Ireland reading this book and I found it an interesting read.

That said, I feel that the information provided could have been presented in a more concise way, with de Barra sometimes jumping around. Additionally, speaking as a student of Irish in university, some of his arguments for reviving the language came across as weak to me, and I would go so far as to say ignorant at times. The last few lines 'Should we revive Irish? Yes. Why? Because we can' is a fairly good summary of the book - not terribly compelling & just plain biased. As a proponent of the language I wasn't convinced, so I can imagine reading this as someone against it's revival. Also, at one stage he calls someone who is clearly not as educated on the subject a 'moron', which was distasteful to me.

[Teresa Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think everyone with an interest in the Irish language, Gaeilge, should read this book. It is so informational as regards why our native tongue is so close to being extinct (although, shout out to the young people, teens and young adults, who love the language and are making it relevant again). The book clearly lays out the damage done through colonialism but also the Irish people themselves, when the new state was born, carried their own prejudices and so the language suffered. Its not only down to the way it is taught, although that certainly needs a c0mplete overhaul, but also to society. Parents are often willing and eager to send their kids to gaelscoileanna but don't learn the language themselves. So their fluent kids have no feeling of it being real outside school. Anyway, highly recommend reading.

[Daryl Feehely · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book does an excellent job at describing the many facets of the relationship between Ireland and the Irish language, from ancient history to modern day. De Barra debunks all of the automated responses most of us Irish have inherited about Gaeilge, such as "It's the way it is taught" and "You'd be better off learning Mandarin".

At times the narrative is somewhat repetitive and a bit too reliant on a myriad of population surveys, however despite this, the book is an enlightening read and an important flag in the ground in the quest to reevalutate our relationship with Irish. The author concludes with some recommendations as to how Irish could be revived, if the people and the state were serious about it. Is fearr Gaeilge briste ná Béarla cliste.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does a fantastic job of laying out the groundwork of nationalism and Anglophone superiority that many people, even non-Irish, may find relatable. As someone with an interest in sociolinguistics, minority/endangered language preservation and language policy, I tore through this book in a single plane ride.

A particular point I found interesting was the teardown of the myth that being an Anglophone country is of uncontested economic benefit for a nation. It had me thinking very much on language policy in colonised regions of the world, such as much of sub-Saharan Africa, and the effect that their policies may have had on their post-colonial economic development.

Highly recommended not only to people interested in the state of the Irish language, but to those interested in questions of nationalism and language policy in English-speaking countries.

[David McGinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book which provides some historical context for the decline of the language, addresses several myths, misconceptions and sources of hostility, and - by way of case studies from other countries - proposes an ambitious high level plan for what would be required to restore an Ghaeilge in the context of a bilingual (Irish/English) society. As to whether there is an appetite for such a revival - that remains unclear.

[Dominik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sheds some light on how a nation can lose its language and what amount of shame & trauma does it leave behind. Also, it's mindblowing to see how monolingual English speakers are filled with this neocolonial feeling of contempt towards any other language.
Overall it's a very informative yet quite disheartening read for a language enthusiast.

[Justin T · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic book. Well researched and well argued throughout. Makes a lot of good points related to post-colonial language preservation/revival and also related to the marginalization of minority language speakers. The final chapter hits like a brick. De Barra’s closing recommendations may come off as extreme, but they’re certainly a strong starting point for the conversation.

[Andrea McAts · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting account to the way native Irish people see the language. Nicely written if a little bit repetitive at time. The first hand account was eye opening

[Garp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Takes a logical, mathematical cleaver to ingrained mistruths and preconceptions passed from generation to generation.

[Wolfetone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true soldier for the cause, with a no holds barred run down of the state of the language in the minds of Irish people. Terribly relatable.

[Iamreddave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives an argument as to how and to an extent why Irish can become a bigger part in the daily lives of Irish people.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book with interesting insights! Highly recommend for all those interested in the dynamics of the Irish language in Ireland

[harriet]

lots of thoughts