Khan-do attitude

WE IRISH are a proud lot.

We can be found in the four corners of the globe, draped in our tricolours, belting out the Fields of Athenry and swelling with pride at the thought of the nation we delight in. We will go to extraordinary lengths to voice our support for the boys and girls in green, be they of the footballing, artistic or any other variety. But one area we shy away from showing any affection towards is our language.

Purged from our national psyche by the English and beaten back in by the Christian Brothers, 41.9% of the population said they spoke Irish to some extent in the most recent census. But only 10% of those were fluent speakers, 2% of whom spoke it as a first language. There’s been an attempt to sex it up with the arrival of the Seoiges and Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, as well as several TV shows that looked at the challenges of learning or speaking the language. But the scars left by Peig Sayers and the modh coinníollach run deep and the language regularly finds itself on the defensive.