Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The Function of Language and its Role in the Constitution of Ethnic Identity
The concept of ethnic identity
2. Gradual Disenfranchisement of the Irish and its Effect upon the Irish Language and Culture
The Statute of Kilkenny
Destruction of the Trade - the Opportunity for Prosperity and a Thriving of the Irish Culture and Language
The Flight of the Earls in 1607
The Ulster Plantations
The Rising of 1641 and Oliver Cromwell's retaliation
The Penal Laws
The Great Famine
3. Conclusion
Introduction
,,The Green Island", ,,rough sea", ,,meadows", ,,moors", ,,lakes", ,,wind and rain", ,,Irish music", ,,cattle", ,,butter", ,,dark stone-walls and -buildings", ,,the ruins of castles", ,,farms", ,,a land lacking industry", ,,Guinness", ,,red-haired, freckled people, who enjoy drinking, singing, dancing and `hanging out' in pubs" are the things mostly associated with Ireland by the average German. Talking about political issues, the keywords Belfast, IRA, often conservative Catholicism, hatred, frequent clashes between Catholics and Protestants, peace talks and the EU-membership are most frequently mentioned. Referring to the language of its people, it usually is English that comes to one's mind, not Irish - and only very few ask for the reason why. That is, however, exactly the question one should ask. The ancestral language of the Irish is Gaelic. Gaelic is the English term for any of the three Q-Celtic languages, namely Irish Gaelic (Gaeilge), Manx Gaelic (Gailck) and Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig). The P-Celtic languages which form the other half of the Celtic language family are Welsh, Breton and Cornish. (In Q-Celtic, the languages have the q-sound as in mac=son and ech=horse, whereas in P-Celtic languages, son is mapp and horse is ep). Irish Gaelic entered Ireland around 300 B.C. and spread from there to Scotland (around the 5th century A.D.) and the Isle of Man. Gaelic was spoken everywhere in Ireland, in Man and in Scotland of the 17th century, but it started to die out when the English crushed the Irish aristocracy. It became the language of the poor who either died or emigrated to the United States of America during the years of the Great Potato Famine (1845-1851). Today it is still spoken in the Gaeltacht areas of Western Ireland, otherwise mainly by middle-class intellectuals. They form a linguistic minority of approximately 10,000 Gaels (Gaelic speakers) in "Gaelic" Ireland. In recent years, however, Gaelic has gone from the verge of extinction to a somewhat international `boom', spurred by the Irish themselves as well as Scottish language organisations, and by the official recognition and encouragement of linguistic minorities within the European Union . The opportunity to draw and spread information via the internet has greatly accelerated the process. I believe that Ireland's accessing the European Union and therefore becoming an equal partner to England in terms of legal rights, commercial relations and the right to put in veto, has been the most fundamental step towards the reinstatement of the Irish language. Irish commerce and culture are now given the opportunity to thrive and to prosper more independently from England. The growing interest of the Irish- Americans in their heritage, i.e. the `roots movement' and the growing popularity of the Gaelic music (Gaelic lyrics), may play an important role in the revival of Gaelic as well.
1. The Function of Language and its Role in the Constitution of Ethnic Identity
Language is the most fundamental system of communication and representation. It enables the individuals of a shared system to understand the other by means of ,,symbolic interaction". ,,The process of reaching understanding, the co-ordination of action, and the socialization of individuals have been identified as core functions of language" . By learning to define him/herself through social interaction, the individual developes his/her identity as part of the language community. The members of a language community share cultural characteristics, values and viewpoints. In other words they have their very own reality, their ethnic identity. This collective reality or ethnic identity or group consciousness, to which every individual of the group contributes a part, needs a mediator to define itself against others and to exchange information in order to keep the system alive. This mediator is the spoken word. If the mediating language cannot be spoken over a period of time the system collapses. The effect is the loss of ethnic identity of its former members. If the amount of members of an ethnic community decreases to a certain extent, the remaining members, now a minority group, are likely to adopt the cultural values and models of the dominant group. This is also the case when a culture is being repressed in terms of prosperity and well-being. The members of the less successful group are urged to take over the language (or even the belief) of the `superior' group in order to prosper personally. According to Benjamin Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis (1956) language determines the structure of thinking and shapes our basic ideas. Bilingual education researchers have found that schoolchildren have to develop competence in the fundamental skills of their native language in order to cope with further abstract information/ thoughts, as one needs to fulfill when inventing certain devices. Outlawing the language of a people therefore has a tremendous effect upon its academic and intellectual achievements which are symptomatic for the well-being and prosperity of modern day societies. Given the fact, that the economical success of a minority group strengthens its social identity, its self-esteem and pride, and therefore encourages its people to use and maintain their native language, then the opposite, that is, the economical failure, would cause a loss of social identity and pride and therefore devaluate the native language. Since the native language is the base for intellectual achievements to outlaw it would be the start of a vicious- circle which would accelerate language loss.
The concept of ethnic identity
According to Larue Allen and John W. Santrock in ,,Psychology the context of behavior" , ethnic minorities prefer dominant cultural values to those of their own culture. They start being very conscious about cultural characteristics, such as languages that single them out as ethnic minority individuals. Subsequently, they start disdaining their origin and repressing its `symptoms'. Life-styles, value systems and role models of the dominant culture are adopted. It is a chain reaction. Once started, it gains momentum. Applied to the Gaels and Gaelic as their mediating language, one either has to find the point in history where the Irish people were reduced in number by a considerable amount, their communication system/ native language outlawed or their living conditions and prosperity brought to a low. With the inflicted loss of their language as a symbolic boundary to other cultures, or squalor living conditions, the majority of them would soon voluntarily assimilate to the dominant culture, namely that of the English. Either way the ethnic identity of the Irish would be lost.
2. Gradual Disenfranchisement of the Irish and its Effect upon the Irish Language and Culture
Regarding the disenfranchisement of the Irish population by the succeeding British monarchies I shall now give a brief outline of six events of tremendous impact upon the Irish people, their language, and identity. Namely the Statute of Kilkenny of 1366, the destruction of Ireland's manufacturing trade by the English monarchies during the 15th and 19th Century, the Flight of the Earls followed by the Ulster Plantations of 1607 and 1608 respectively; the landing of Oliver Cromwell in Dublin, in 1649; the Penal Laws of 1695 and the Great Famine of 1845-1851.
The Statute of Kilkenny
The first Anglo-Norman troops arrived at Bannow Bay in County Wexford in 1169. As early as 1177, John de Courcy conquered Ulster for the Anglo-Normans and ruled the province for 27 years. The political, social and religious systems practiced by the Anglo-Norman settlers were very different from those of the natives. The favored central government, inheritance through the first-born male and their language was Norman French. However, they became increasingly `Gaelicized'. This caused the English crown to pass the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1366, to `preserve racial purity and cultural separateness of the colonizers'. The statutes were supposed to prevent further assimilation of the minority group of the Anglo-Normans to the culture of the Irish which was at that time still dominant. Norman and Gaelic should remain separate. The settlers were by penalty forbidden to use the Irish language, i.e. Gaelic, to intermarry, to dress the way the Irish did, to adopt Irish laws and to play Irish games. However, the Gaelicisation was far too advanced at that time to suppress the natives, but since the Irish were inferior to the military power of the colonizers, the English were able to consolidate their position in the area around Dublin, known as `The Pale' .
Destruction of the Trade - the Opportunity for Prosperity and a Thriving of the Irish Culture and Language
By the beginning of the 14th century, the Irish had established lucrative commercial trade relations to the continent and were delivering their arts and crafts to the leading harbors. This was as close as they would get to prosperity and happiness for the 600 years yet to come. Their success posed a threat to their English merchant competitors, who started pressuring the English government for protection. In 1494, a law was passed that prohibited the Irish from exporting any industrial products, unless it was shipped through an English port, paying English fees. Even though this law was never inforced, it was declaring open season on the Irish merchants, whose trade vessels were from then on frequently attacked and looted by British merchants. In 1571, Elizabeth I prohibited the trade of any product manufactured in Ireland, unless one was an Englishman in Ireland and thus reinforced the stand of the colonizers and further impoverished the natives. By 1663, the use of all foreign going ships was outlawed except for those that had been built in England and were manned by an English crew and sailing from English ports. The Irish trade with the continent was crushed.
The destruction of the trade with the Colonies followed
in 1670 by a law that forbade Ireland to export ,,anything [to the Colonies] except for horses, servants and victuals". Incoming cargo had to pass English customs first before being shipped to Ireland. Furthermore, Ireland was forbidden to import products that were in want, but not produced by native farmers such as cotton, tobacco, sugar, rice etc. The only item they were allowed to import was cheap rum that had been produced by English rum makers in the West Indies. The cheap import of rum would flood the native market and thus ruin the Irish destillers. After the Irish were forbidden to export their sheep, they started trading the sheep's wool. But in 1660 this was forbidden as well by several laws which prohibited the export of Irish wool in any form, because it interfered with the British wooltrade. George II sent out three warships accompanied by eight other armed vessels to inforce the law. He ended Ireland's `futile' efforts to create trade relations and to regain independence and prosperity.
The repression of the linen trade was twofold. Export rights were exclusively granted to England with an additional duty charge of 30% upon arrival of the goods. Moreover, the English crown subsidised English manufacturers for their products. In 1665, England outlawed the import of livestock, namely cattle, sheep, pork and beef, followed by the prohibition of importing their products such as pork, bacon, butter, and cheese.
After Ireland had begun to develop a silk weaving industry, England's reaction was the levying of heavy duty on Irish silk and simultaneousely exporting duty free English silk to Ireland. The attempt of developing a tobacco industry was thwarted in a similar manner. In 1819, England withdrew the subsidy for Irish fisheries and increased the subsidies for English fisherman.
In the late 18th century, the budding Irish glass manufacture was put to an end by outlawing the export by penalty of confiscation of ship and cargo.
The Flight of the Earls in 1607
After the Ulster chiefs, lead by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (Gaelic: "The O'Neill") had failed in their endeavor to defend their territory and religion against the English during the Nine Year's War , which prompted Elizabeth I's politics of expansion and domination, James I ascended the throne in 1603. He continued the stringent efforts of his predecessor in colonizing Ireland, particularly in Ulster. Increasingly threatened by the incoming protestant settlers, the chieftains O'Neill, Ruairi O'Donnell of Tyrconnell and several of their allies fled to the continent in a French ship from Rathmullan in County Donegal. After the Earls had fled in 1607, the land which had previously belonged to the clan communities was then turned over to the rule of one person. This person was a representative of the English idea of a central government. These representatives were, under the condition not to intermarry, supposed to suppress the natives and to prevent them from following native customs. A year later, the inevitable followed. The natives experienced further disenfranchisement and were eventually ousted from their land.
The Ulster Plantations
In 1608, during the reign of James I, a detailed plan was published that entailed the idea of the colonization / `planting' of Ulster with settlers, mostly Scottish Presbytarians and English Protestants. The natives were to be expropriated of 500,000 acres of the most fertile land and the land to be given to the settlers. This plan affected the counties Donegal, Derry, Armagh, Tyrone and Cavan. The natives were driven to the moors where many of them starved to death. Antrim, Down, Armagh, Monaghan, Fermanagh and Leitrim had previously been settled by protestants from England and the Scottish Lowlands under Henry VIII (king 1509- 1547), who had aimed at the reduction of Gaelic and Catholic influence. The planting of Ulster was preceded by the colonization of the rebellious provinces of Offaly (1556) and Munster (1586) during the reign of Henry VIII's indirect successor , Queen Mary (queen 1553-58), who introduced the concept of plantation to English politics granting permanent control and the reduction of expenses needed, to assist the position of the colonists in Ireland. Her measures were developed into a more stringent system under Elizabeth I (1558-1603). In 1622, an estimated 13,000 protestants lived in Ulster. By 1641, their number had increased tenfold to a total of 100,000. They had outnumbered the native Irish, which made up an ethnic minority of 10% of the entire population. The Rising of 1641 and Oliver Cromwell's retaliation
Expropriated by the British crown and unwilling to die upon the moors, leading Irish families, Irish generals, the Continental army and other Irish representatives led by Rory O'Moore worked out a plot to reconquer Ulster on October 21st, 1641. They succeeded. Approximately eight months later on July 6, 1642 Owen Roe (Ruadh) O'Neill, nephew of the `Earl of Tyrone' returned from exile in the Spanish-Netherlands and formed, the `Catholic Army of Ulster'. In June 1646, he gloriously defeated the English at Benburb, smashing the Scottish General Monroe, who was holding the British command in Ulster at that time. For the first time since 1169, the Island actually belonged to the Irish again.
Deferred by the civil war between Parliament and king, England was unable to react until the year 1649, although reports on the massacres of English protestants were spread to England continually. They reinforced the stereotype of the `uncivilized, atrocious, ruthless' Irishman which was taken up by the English press (pamphlets at that time) to start their propaganda against the ,,inhumane popish rebels" of the Island. In the summer of 1649, Oliver Cromwell was offered the command of a 12,000 man expedition to Ireland to `reestablish British authority' upon the Irish. Prejudiced, and meditating revenge for the alledgedly 200,000 Protestants killed by Catholics in the Rising of 41', he accepted and left for Ireland very much influenced by the press. Joined by 8,000 men of the parliamentary army, Cromwell's forces stormed the town of Drogheda on September 11th, 1649, slaughtering 2,600-3,500 civilians (men, women and even children). Only four weeks later, he assaulted Wexford, killing 2,000 Irish soldiers. He considered his actions as God's retaliation. Leaving a path of destruction behind, he attacked Waterford, Cork, Fethard, Cashel and Kilkenny. Within eight months, he subdued most of Ireland finding the Irish `stupified' and helpless against his cruelties. The ,,messenger of hell" had accomplished his `gig'; he had broken the rebellion.
On August 12th, 1652, the `Act of Settling Ireland' was passed in the House of Commons and put into action in September 1653. According to `the law', no Irish were to be found east of the river Shannon, which poses a natural boundary between Connacht and the provinces claimed namely Munster, Leinster and Ulster. Subsequently 11,000,000 acres of native land were confiscated from those who had participated in the rebellion in order to pay back the mercenary soldiers and army officers who had helped fighting and subordinating the Irish for the promise of future allotment of land in the newly conquered regions. The required wages added up to a total of L1.550,000 Sterling. The sum neccessary to pay for the army supplies that had been used added up to a sum of L1.750,000 Sterling. The distribution of land was as follows:
Prior to the attack, the participants were each issued a receipt for the amount of their subscription. 1000 acres in Ulster were available for L200 Sterling. 1000 acres of land in Connacht were worth L300 Sterling. The same amount of land in Munster was granted at a cost of L450 Sterling and L600 Sterling in Leinster. The prices increased according to the quality of the soil. As a result of the dispossession of the Catholic Irish, who had owned 80% of the land prior to the rebellion, were left as little as 5% of their former soil. The rest had been parceled out to Cromwell's mercenary soldiers.
By 1653, massacres, pestilence (the plague raged in Ireland between 1652-53), starvation, and the Death Penalty had taken their toll. Between half and two-thirds of the Irish people had been killed or were transported to the West Indies or Barbados as indentured laborers. The Island was again subjugated to the English forces. With few exceptions, the Gaelic speakers (Gaels) were restricted to the province of Connacht. The Penal Laws
The Penal Laws, enacted in 1695 and not entirely repealed until 1829 (Catholic Emancipation), were modeled after the French Penal Laws against Protestants and aimed at the destruction of all Catholicism and resistance in Ireland. They were the severest and most open form of ethnic cleansing that the Irish people had yet experienced. Enacted during the reign of the Protestant king William of Orange of Dutch provenance and his wife Mary who had ascended the throne in 1688, they were the penalty for the Catholic Irish having supported William's Catholic predecessor James II ,,Stuart" in besieging William's followers in Derry. James II who had been raised in Ireland was planning the Catholicisation of England by replacing the English Protestants in the army with Catholics. In 1688, James and his Irish Catholic forces began besieging 30,000 Protestant men who where loyal to King William in the town of Derry for 105 days. By the time the siege was ended by William's troops, several thousand men are said to have lost their lives. On July 28th, 1690, James and his Irish Catholic army were defeated on Irish soil at the battle of the Boyne near Drogheda. James retreated to the most powerful Catholic land in Europe at that time, that is, France. The Irish neither had a place nor the opportunity to retreat and escape William's wrath and retaliation. Protestant England had again consolidated its position in Ireland and embarked on the total suppression of the Irish.
The first law ordered that no Catholic could own a gun, pistol or sword but others were soon amended. By 1720, the Irish had lost their right of suffrage, they could not determine how to conduct their religious lives, they were dehumanized and withheld from education - in short they were disenfranchised to lead lives as non-persons. They were impoverished, degregated and robbed of their belief, identity and pride; for themselves and generations to come. Children who attempted to speak Gaelic were punished. Many of them left the land and headed towards the United States of America. But since they had lost their identity during the British rule and were never given the chance to thrive in any industrial or commercial branches, they encountered the greatest difficulties in the new land (i.e. ,,No Irish need apply") . They were illiterate, poor, unskilled, and Catholic. The only thing they were good at were their ,,considerable organizing skills" , something they probably acquired while living as `conquered people in their own land'. The new generation was deprived of developing a set of basic language skills and would not be able to contribute to the society's well-being in terms of academic achievements . The declaration of creeds, attitudes and laws that the Irish considered valuable, as being wrong, futile or unlawful to the English brought about them a state of value-confusion, that is, the degregation of the shared value system of the Irish. The result was the mushrooming of secret societies and associations such as the `Oak Boys', `White Boys', `Ribbon Boys' etc.
"Professor Lecky, a Protestant of British blood and ardent British sympathy, says in his History of Ireland in the 18th Century that the object of the Penal Laws was threefold:
1. To deprive the Catholics of all civil life
2. To reduce them to a condition of most extreme and brutal ignorance
3. To dissociate them from the soil.
The Irish Catholic was forbidden the exercise of his religion. He was forbidden to receive education,
He was forbidden to enter a profession.
He was forbidden to hold public office.
He was forbidden to engage in trade or commerce.
He was forbidden to live in a corporate town or within five miles thereof. He was forbidden to own a horse of greater value than five pounds. He was forbidden to purchase land.
He was forbidden to lease land.
He was forbidden to accept a mortgage on land in security for a loan. He was forbidden to vote.
He was forbidden to keep any arms for his protection. He was forbidden to hold a life annuity.
He was forbidden to buy land from a Protestant.
He was forbidden to receive a gift of land from a Protestant. He was forbidden to inherit land from a Protestant. He was forbidden to inherit anything from a Protestant.
He was forbidden to rent any land that was worth more than thirty shillings a year. He was forbidden to reap from his land any profit exceeding a third of the rent. He could not be guardian to a child.
He could not, when dying, leave his infant children under Catholic guardianship. He could not attend Catholic worship.
He was compelled by law to attend Protestant worship. He could not himself educate his child.
He could not send his child to a Catholic teacher.
He could not employ a Catholic teacher to come to his child.
He could not send his child abroad to receive education.
The Great Famine
The condition of Ireland in the years anteceding the Great Famine are described by a French traveller upon his return from a trip that included America and Ireland in the early nineteenth century . He wrote:
,,I have seen the Indian in his forests and the Negro in his chains, and thought, as I contemplated their pitiable condition, that I saw the very extreme of human wretchedness; but I did not then know the condition of unfortunate Ireland."
After the introduction of the potato crop at the end of the 18th century, the population of Ireland increased by three million people to a total of eight million. By the end of the Napoleonic war in 1815, the potato had become the staple food for the majority of the rural population. Two-thirds of the population was depending upon agriculture. When the potato blight destroyed the crop, their main source of food was gone. The first failure of the potato crop, that is, its infection with a fungus called Phytophthora infestans in September of 1845, was followed by a number of landlords' emigration. This caused `savage resentment' in those who were left behind.
The Great Famine (1845-1851) decimated the population from 8 million to approximately 6.5 million. An estimated 1 million died of starvation while the rest emigrated via Liverpool and Cork to Canada, the United States and Europe. They were destitute. Skinny, sick, toothless, squalid, old, weak, filthy, and barely dressed. Those who had decided to emigrate were not yet saved either. Of nearly 300,000 who arrived in Liverpool in 1847, 15,000 were removed to Ireland under the new Poor Law Removal Act. Many of those had been caught speaking Gaelic, which designated them as Irish and that was a cause for their removal. The Poor Law Act on the other hand caused many landlords to encourage their tenants to emigrate promising them food, clothes and money upon arrival in Canada. For the landlords it was an alterative that saved them money. They would not have to sustain those who had become old, weak and useless on their own expenses. Some would even pay the fare to the US or Canada since the cost of emigrating a pauper was generally about half the cost of maintaining him in the work- house. Many were shipped off as cheaply as possible. Although the landlords were supposed to equip their tenants with one pound landing money, nobody ever did so. In 1847, 109,000 emigrants are said to have left for North America `almost all' of them `Irish'.
According to eye witnesses, the conditions on the ships were not very different from those back home. Describing the food and conditions aboard:
,,seldom sufficiently cooked because there were not enough cooking places. The supply of water was hardly enough for drinking annd cooking [...] Provisions doled out by ounces, consisted of meat of the worst quality and salt meat. [...]Many could not eat them [the provisions of salt meat] and satisfy their raging thirst afterwards. People lay for days on end in their dark dose berths because by that method they suffered less from hunger. The captain used false measures for water and the so-called gallon water held only three pints." [ ] ,,Hundreds of poor people, men, women and children, of all ages from the drivelling idiot of 90 to the babe just born, huddled together, without light, without air, wallowing in filth, and breathing a fetid atmosphere, sick in body, dispirited in heart..."
,,In the sheds were double tiers of bunks, the upper one about 3 feet above the lower. As the planks of the former were not placed close together, the filth from the sick fell upon those in the lower tier who were too weak to move. Filth was thus allowed to accumulate and with so vast a crowd of fever cases in one place and with no ventilation, generated a miasma so virulent and concentrated that few who came within its poisonous atmosphere escaped."
The voyage on ships who were not compelled to carry a doctor took three months. The death toll on these `coffin ships' was 20% (compared to the 9% death rate on the slave ships). In 1835, the number of native speakers of Irish was estimated four million. In 1851, only two million were left. During the six years the famine lasted, an average of 39 people died every hour. 3. Conclusion
Frequently asked questions
What is the main focus of this document about Irish language and culture?
This document provides a comprehensive overview of the Irish language and culture, detailing the historical events that led to the decline of the Irish language and exploring the relationship between language and ethnic identity. It discusses factors contributing to a recent revival of interest in the language and its place within Irish society.
What does the document say about the function of language and ethnic identity?
Language is the most fundamental system of communication and representation and is described as the mediator of ethnic identity, group consciousness, and cultural exchange. The document argues that the suppression of a language can lead to the loss of ethnic identity and assimilation into a dominant culture.
What major historical events are highlighted as contributing to the decline of the Irish language and culture?
The document points to several key events: the Statute of Kilkenny, the systematic destruction of Irish trade by English monarchies, the Flight of the Earls and subsequent Ulster Plantations, Oliver Cromwell's campaign in Ireland, the Penal Laws, and the Great Famine. These events led to the disenfranchisement of the Irish people, the suppression of their language, and widespread poverty and emigration.
What were the specific effects of the Statute of Kilkenny?
The Statute of Kilkenny aimed to prevent the assimilation of Anglo-Norman settlers into Irish culture. It forbade the use of the Irish language, intermarriage between settlers and natives, and the adoption of Irish customs and laws.
How did the English monarchies destroy Irish trade?
Through various laws and restrictions, the English monarchies systematically crippled Irish trade and manufacturing. These laws included prohibitions on exporting industrial products through non-English ports, restrictions on trade with the colonies, and limitations on the export of wool and other key goods.
What was the significance of the Flight of the Earls and the Ulster Plantations?
The Flight of the Earls, followed by the Ulster Plantations, led to the confiscation of native Irish land and the settlement of Ulster with Scottish Presbyterians and English Protestants. This resulted in the displacement and impoverishment of the native Irish population.
What were the Penal Laws and what were some examples?
The Penal Laws were a series of discriminatory laws enacted in 1695 that aimed to suppress Catholicism and Irish resistance. Some examples include laws that forbade Catholics from owning land, holding public office, practicing their religion freely, or receiving education.
What was the impact of the Great Famine on the Irish population and the Irish language?
The Great Famine (1845-1851) led to widespread starvation, disease, and emigration, decimating the Irish population. It is estimated that one million people died, while another 1.5 million emigrated. The famine further weakened the position of the Irish language, as many Gaelic speakers died or emigrated.
What does the document say about the revival of the Irish language in recent years?
The document notes a modest resurgence of Gaelic in Ireland, with efforts to promote its use in government, education, and public broadcasting. Integration into the European Union has enabled Ireland to gain independence from the colonial power, England. It links this revival to Ireland's economic growth and the increasing interest of Irish-Americans in their heritage.
What current challenges do the Irish still face?
Even with economic growth, Ireland still has the highest proportion of people living in poverty, the highest level of Functional Illiteracy of 17 industrialized states, and the second-highest level of long-term unemployment among industrialized countries (7,6%).
- Quote paper
- Merit Kaschig (Author), 1998, Gaels - A Linguistic Minority in `Éirinn` - the Languages of Ireland, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/95531
