‘The tiger no longer speaks celtic’: Economic conditioning and the Irish language

This chapter explores the link between economic conditioning and the Irish language, arguing that policies towards the Celtic language have consistently reinforced its association with poverty. It discusses the process by which Irish became associated with penury whereas English came to be regarded as the language of commerce. A 'national' system of education was established in 1831. The Anglicisation policy was not confined to Ireland and Britain, but extended throughout the entire Empire, In Newfoundland, for example, teachers with no knowledge of Gaelic were appointed by the Scottish Education Department, despite the fact that most of the pupils were Gaelic-speakers. The resistance to emigration in the western, more monolingual Gaelic regions did not abate fully until the early 1880s. Gaeltacht regions would enable the rest of the state to become Gaelic-speaking, and activities in the areas were motivated by national rather than regional interests.