Search

Copyright of Language Problems & Language Planning is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In seeking to understand the political projects underlying pedagogical choices, this article studies the reasons for and situated dynamics of the implementation of the "Rule of Irish" (or Riail na Gaeilge), which prohibits the use of English in Irish immersion language camps ("summer colleges") set in Ireland's officially designated Irish‐speaking regions, the Gaeltacht. Despite the great difficulty imposing this rule on learners represents, its implantation has remained unquestioned since the development of the first summer colleges at the beginning of the 20th century. Combining ethnographic observations, the study of press articles published between 1901 and 1916, and the analysis of contemporary language policies, I show that the implementation of Riail na Gaeilge aims to provide students with an experience of the monolingual Irish place that the Gaeltacht has long been popularly and officially imagined as being. Riail na Gaeilge is thus not just a pedagogical tool but it also has a social function of consecrating the Gaeltacht as Irish‐speaking Ireland. The article traces how the Gaeltacht was created and has been maintained through Riail na Gaeilge and explores the political reasons underlying this institutionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Welsh influence on the Irish cultural revival and Irish cultural nationalism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The role that the restoration of the Welsh language had on efforts to revitalize the Irish language, including the non-governmental organisation the Gaelic League's efforts in the latter, is discussed. An overview of the Irish nationalist Eoin MacNeill is provided.

The article focuses on the way in which nationalism in Ireland before famine of 19th century depended on literature and the interaction of literacy and orality for repealing the Act of Union of 1840s.

The study of sport amongst the Irish abroad is a relatively recent phenomenon. Its neglect to date is surprising given the central role sport plays in the lives of the Irish Diaspora and the broad agendas it serves. What little work has been undertaken has centred on Irish emigrants in North America, despite the fact that mainland Europe has proved to be the destination of choice for many Irish men and women in recent times. Aside from their qualifications and skills, some of these individuals have brought long standing cultural interests and pastimes with them on their travels. Foremost amongst these have been the indigenously Irish games organised and promoted by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Despite the popularity of Gaelic sports in Europe, historically they have been organised on an informal basis. Indeed it was only recently that they came under the control of a formal governing body, Coiste Chonate na hEorpa (European County Board). The games attract a cross section of followers but the administration and management of GAA activities remains the preserve of young, well educated Irish professionals, the embodiment of the so-called 'Ryanair generation' of the late 1980s. The dominant ethos underpinning Gaelic games on mainland Europe is inclusiveness and is defined by a policy of equal opportunities for all. That said, one of the most noteworthy aspects of the GAA scene in Europe is the way its presence allows opportunities for indigenous sub-groups to further underline their separation from established states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines ways in which the Irish Gaelic League helped to form a definition of national and cultural identity for the Irish in Ireland and explores how the group used reforms to the educational system of the country to promote this identity in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It explains how English political rule over Ireland and demands for the use of the English language lead to the decline of Irish speaking citizens in the country and describes how the promotion of Irish language education was used by the Gaelic League to attract citizens wishing to form a national identity and overthrow English rule.

This article examines the linguistic ideological work entailed in the analyses of Irish by the "revolutionary scholar" and cofounder of the Gaelic League, Eoin MacNeill. It does so to discern one central way in which the essentialized link between the Irish language and a unified Irish people became an efficacious political construction during the armed struggle for independence in the early 20th century. It shows how MacNeill used authoritative linguistic science to engender nationalist sentiment around Irish through semiotic processes even as he challenged a dominant conception of language prevalent in European nationalist movements and social thought. The essay argues that MacNeill wrote against the unilateral valorization of codified linguistic homogeneity and embraced the heterogeneous variation of spoken discourse even as he sought to consolidate Irish national identity through sameness claims. This critical examination suggests that scholars of nationalism reconsider the taken-for-granted homogenizing efforts of nationalist endeavors that are ubiquitously presumed to negatively sanction linguistic variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]