Irish was popular before independence because it was subversive

The Irish language, after decades of indifferent decline, is starting to see a renaissance of cool as it assumes a subversive style it has not enjoyed since before the independence of the state. 

President of Ireland Eamon de Valera with  Dr Brendan O'Regan (left) at Shannon Airport at the opening of the world's first airport duty-free shopping zone in 1947. Many saw learning Irish as a link to de Valera's old vision of Ireland pre-independence.  Picture: Clare County Council/PA Wire

Next Monday is, I guess, the dreaded day for many Leaving Certificate students. It’s Irish (Paper 1), and students without a convenient exemption from Ireland’s native tongue must struggle with the vexatious complications of the briathra neamhrialta and the peculiarities of the modh coinníollach. And this must be undertaken in a language the vast majority have never spoken naturally. Even those attending Irish speaking schools will rarely have bothered to use the language outside the education system; beyond the school gates, the language becomes deeply uncool for most students.

Likely, then, many candidates will find themselves resenting the remaining compulsory aspects of Irish as they grope to find an appropriate saor briathair to impress the examiners. And indeed, I can’t blame them, for at school I didn’t care much for “ár dteanga féin” either. To a 1970s teenager, the language appeared preposterously unfashionable and irrelevant — a throwback to the insular times of Éamon de Valera. It seemed, the exclusive preserve of Christian brothers, school inspectors and the culturally obsessed — not exactly our role models.