Irish Language Polioy In Education And National Identity Building In Ireland

Ireland is a small country with disproportionately rich history and culture.While today's Ireland is dominated by English and Irish is only a minority language due to the long history of British colonization,the native language of the nation remains a crucial element of national identity building throughout the history of modern Ireland.Since the foundation of an independent Ireland,the state has been dedicated to reserve the language shift to English caused by colonialization,and education was the main battlefield of Irish language policy throughout the century.The trend of the language policy in general can be found in the changing policies and focuses in the realm of education,and it can be further analyzed in the evolvement of national identity building in modern Ireland.The thesis examines the language policy in education in modern Ireland,and to discuss how it interacts with national identity building.In general,the evolvement language policy paralleled with the changes of Irish national ideology,which could be divided into three phases.Before the independent nation was founded,Irish national identity was in a process of formation,and nationalists were exploring what made Irish "Irish".While various debates and movements on nationalism were undergoing,Irish language movements,represented by the Gaelic League,emerged as part of the exploration of Irish uniqueness,and the Irish language was gradually recognized as crucial in national identity.The language activists saw language education as a channel to break the dominance of English in the country,and they made great effort to gain a place for Irish language education in the system to restore the language.As the language movements merged with nationalist movements,the language issue became increasingly politicalized.Therefore,when Ireland gained its independence in 1922,the state continued the nationalist ideology in the language movements before independence,so it adopted a radical language policy aiming at a total language revival in an independent Ireland,despite the fact that only 17.6%of population were Irish speakers.The language policy was imposed with a strong sense of post-colonialism,as the Irish language was considered as essential to rebuild national identity of Ireland and to remove the cultural influence of the British.To achieve language revival and rebuild national identity with it,the state put its focus on education system,which was considered as the most efficient way to restore Irish language in next generation.The compulsory Irish policy was adopted in every level of education system for four decades,and a system of Irish education was formed throughout elementary,secondary and higher education.However,the radical language policy seemingly popularized Irish language education,but the result was unsatisfying.The ambition of the policy ambition on creating new speakers and maintain original native speakers was hardly fulfilled,and its radicalness raised objections and resentment among Irish people.What's more,in the 1960s,Ireland,under the leadership of conservative party Fianna Fail,was politically and economically isolated while the rest of Europe in a period of rapidly economic growth after the Second World War.The post-colonial nationalism no longer served the Ireland,and the radical language policy fueled by it was in an urgent need to be changed as well.In the late 1960s,the independence was secured and consolidated after decades as a free country,but with the economic stagnancy and political unrest undergoing,the national ideology went beyond mere independence of nation and shifted to a desire of a prosperous and strong country.As a result,political repositioning and economic reforms were taken by the state,the language policy saw a major shift to bilingualism in order to serve the country 's need of redefining national identity.In education,compulsory Irish was abolished,bilingualism was widely adopted in the system,to balance the language's status in national identity building and the advantage of English-speaking population.When Ireland saw its economic boom in the 1990s,the image of a weak,poor,colonized Ireland with its people fleeing away ceased to exist.The material abundance and the rise of international status brought by "Celtic Tiger" rebuilt the national confidence,and it led to a re-appreciation on its national language.Under the impact of immigration wave and globalization,Irish language as a core element national identity was reinforced.Since the end of the 20th century,the state acted a series of legislation and published researches to support Irish language education within schools and to encourage the use of Irish outside the education system.An increasing number of Irish-speakers and learners in Ireland and growing healthy mechanism and language education have proved the stable bilingualism was better accepted and favored by the public.The research concludes that the evolvement of language policy was not only deeply influenced by the changing national ideology in modern Ireland,but also contributed to the national identity building in the process.The interaction between language policy and national identity reflects the changes of national ideology in modern Ireland under different historical context,as well as the process of "finding balance" between aspiration and pragmatism,the state and the public.Although abundant researches have been done on Irish language,studies on Irish language policy in education,as the most explicit resource for research,is little to be found.The thesis applies the historical analysis to look at the language policy in education in modern Ireland,and examine how it was influenced as well as contributed to national identity building in different historical context.It fills the ·insufficiency of studies on Irish language policy in education and supplements Irish studies on national identity building of modern Ireland.Materials of the thesis are government reports,acts and policies,mainstream media reports,national census,surveys and interviews,as well as reliable secondary resources.