The Irish language has seen a revival in the last year, as everyone is embracing this cultural shift thanks to the popularity of homegrown acts like CMAT and Kneecap. The spread of Irish is reaching everyone, and it’s fast.
Once a language of older generations, Gaeilge has a new face – it’s youthful, politically aware and more than slightly rebellious.
This is precisely what ‘Cumann Gaelach’, University of Limerick’s Irish-speaking society, has been trying to incorporate into the college community for the past two decades.
Reachtaire of the society is Reannán Ó Donnghaile, a 22 year old teaching student from Carrickmore, Tyrone. Despite not being from a Gaeltacht, his parents made the decision to raise him through Irish.
“I was raised through Irish, so it is my first language, but I’m not from a Gaeltacht area. It’s only natural for me to speak in Irish, I would be a lot more comfortable speaking Irish than I would be in English.”
‘Cumann Gaelach’ is one of the oldest UL societies, and it has been gaining popularity in recent years.
“It kind of had a bit of a revival in 2015, and it grew since then,” Reannán explains.
“We have a committee with twelve or so of us, so we share the workload. Aonad na Gaeilge, here in the university, help us a lot by funding different events and sponsoring us for things.”
The society hosts a number of events throughout the week, all aimed at using Irish in an informal setting. Seomra na Gaeilge, in the Languages Building, is an Irish-speaking space not just utilised by the society, but by any students who wish to practice their cúpla focail.
“We have a weekly Tae Agus Plé, so at one o’clock we just have tea and biscuits, all free, just to give people a chance to converse in Irish.
“Then Tuesday evenings, we have a social. On Wednesdays, we have Pizza agus Plé which is sponsored by Aonad na Gaeilge in Seomra na Gaeilge at one o’clock.”
The group aims to steer the image away from the academia-heavy associations, and into a more practical language that can be used throughout life.
“We don’t do any Irish classes or lessons, it’s more so learning through speaking and socialising. So we try to focus on having fun events, social events, where it’s all run through Irish.
“All levels are welcome to come, you don’t have to be fluent in Irish, and we have a few beginners.”
Reannán is keen to break the stigma around speaking in Irish, which is often met with eye rolls and deep sighs.
“I think it’s definitely a postcolonial trait. Because we were forced to not speak Irish, we were forced to feel embarrassed about speaking Irish. It was kind of caricatured as a language for poor people and uneducated people, so people wanted to break out of that kind of boundary.”
Still, Reannán reiterates that despite how history may be the driving force behind the current surge in interest, there is more to the language than just that; “It doesn’t need to be just about history and culture. It is a functioning language, I live most of my life through Irish and I get on perfectly.”
Society member, Alexandr Arbuzov, who grew up in Limerick City, feels that the method of Irish teaching in schools is off putting, and that the society opened up a new grá for him.
“I’d say there’s a small element of either stubbornness, or reluctance coming from the Leaving Cert. There needs to be more of an incentive to speak it.”
Regarding the current trend of Gaeilge online this year, Reannán is hopeful, yet cautious, that this may be just another internet phase for some.
“There definitely is a popularity in Irish now. I don’t know if this is just a trend, I hope it’s not, but I’m not sure what way it’ll work out. It’s getting people more interested in the language anyway.”
Irish is not, after all, a dead language – it is alive and thriving, and people like Reannán are a testimony to this.
“The most important part of the language is speaking it,” he concludes.
“There’s a well of knowledge there that would be lost if we don’t keep pushing. We need people to use it to communicate, rather than trying to be perfect in it.”