Technology is fuelling a global Irish language revival
#Gaeilge has over 120 million views on TikTok, and countless content creators are making a living on social platforms trí Ghaeilge (through Irish).
At last year’s Oscars, An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl) was nominated for Best International Feature – the first film as Gaeilge ever nominated.
Kneecap, an Irish language rap trio, have garnered a large fanbase, and a film as Gaeilge (in Irish) about them has recently won the Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival.
Paul Mescal received a bualadh bos (round of applause) for using his cúpla focal (few words) of Irish in an interview on the red carpet, and for a moment, the TG4 (Irish language TV channel) X account and the ‘intern’ who runs it, was the most viral account in Ireland, having the craic (fun) through Irish.
Appetite to learn Irish
While it seems the Irish language is having a moment, its visibility isn’t just in pop culture and social media.
Gaelscoileanna (schools educating through Irish) are seeing unprecedented demand, and coláistí samhraidh (summer college programmes) have huge waiting lists in the Gaeltacht (regions where Irish is the primary language spoken).
Irish and Spanish swap back and forth as the most learned language on Duolingo in Ireland, and over a million users worldwide are actively learning Irish on the app. Pop-up Gaeltachts, events where groups gather to speak only in Irish, have become popular not just in Ireland, but around the world.
Irish with Mollie
Mollie Guidera, known better online to her 150,000+ followers as Irish With Mollie, teaches Irish online to students around the world, as well as making educational Irish language content on TikTok and Instagram. Her one-to-one tutoring was oversubscribed, so she’s now teaching larger webinars that attract 5000+ learners at a time.
“I think people are growing in confidence. People are really craving niche, authentic community. People want to feel connected, and the language can do that,” she says. “With podcasting, with TikTok, with the success of An Cailín Ciúin and Kneecap, people are shifting their mindset and realising it isn’t just studying Peig and that being painful and the nuns making you do it. A lot of people, thankfully, are saying it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s not an exam subject, it’s a language.”
‘It’s cool to speak Irish’
Caoimhe Nic Giollarnáith grew up speaking fluently, having completed all her education as Gaeilge. She now teaches Irish language literature and film studies at City University, Lehman College in New York, as well as offering Irish language classes through organisations like the Irish Arts Centre.
“Now it's cool to speak Irish. When I was growing up, I didn't feel like it was cool to speak Irish. Maybe some people did, but I personally didn't. I think attitudes are definitely changing, and more generations are engaging with it now, and looking at things differently."
"Even just looking at TikTok, the amount of influencers on it using the Irish language, some who aren't Irish, I think that's helped,” she explains.
Social media and technology enabled
“I have been inundated with requests, the last three years, for one-to-one lessons as Gaeilge. And there's a number of different reasons for that. With the pandemic, a lot of people had more free time to focus on hobbies."
"And with everything shifting to Zoom, they found that they could now engage even if there wasn't an Irish language class physically near them… Because of social media and technology, they can learn it, and are then able to go to Ciorcal Cómhra [Irish language conversation groups] or pop-up Gaeltachts, attend events in Ireland online, and use the language. You don't have to go to Ireland to use your Gaeilge, which is great,” she says.
Gaeltacht abroad
In 2007, the first and only officially sanctioned Gaeltacht to exist outside of Ireland, was established in Ontario, Canada. Known as Gaeltacht an Oileáin Úir, or the North American Gaeltacht, the site is used for Irish language immersion courses, but in recent years, the Gaeltacht has found itself running many of its activities online.
Dónall Ó Dubhghaill, who leads the Gaeltacht, grew up in Canada. Though his great-grandparents were Irish, his family did not speak the language, and he only began to learn in college. He is now fluent and raising his two children through Irish.
Irish language community
“The Gaeltacht was becoming a little limited by being almost an attraction people were coming to, rather than recognising that deeper community element that I think it is at the core of it, that anyone can go anywhere and learn the Irish language. We’re now having online festivals and it has really connected into a different segment of people."
"There is overlap with the physical events but we now have people calling in from Texas, Alaska, Mexico City – it doesn’t matter where you are on this continent, you can now connect into an actual community of people, you aren’t alone. The younger generation of us have more technical skills and it makes the world much smaller for Irish speakers,” he explains.
Increase in confidence and curiosity
Chair of the New Zealand branch of Conradh na Gaeilge, Diarmaid Coffey, has found similar success with a move to more digital events, to reach Irish speakers across the country. While he didn’t speak much Irish until he found himself abroad, he has noticed a change in attitude to it.
Using Irish socially
“Over the last 10 years, there’s been a big increase in confidence people have in speaking it. I think the generation of kids who went to a Gaelscoil in 90s and early 2000s, are in a position now where they’re happy to use Irish, in their jobs, socially, outside the education system. That generation is coming to maturity in some ways, and it’s bringing everyone else along.”
Irish content creator and Gaeilge advocate Séaghan Ó Súilleabháin, better known to his 200,000 social followers as The Kerry Cowboy, sees a similar trend: “People are much more open to it and curious about it, because it is an integral part of our culture. People’s parents may have had no interest in Irish, but they themselves want to learn.”
Culture change
“The culture has changed. When my mother was growing up, Irish was seen as the poor man's language. There was such an emphasis on emigration that people thought you had to speak English to your children so they could go to America."
"The idea that children won’t be as advanced if they speak Irish is well outdated, and we’re realising now about the benefits of bilingualism to brain development, and the Gaelscoils are proving that,” he adds.
Less pressure abroad
Last year, a group of six friends founded the Brussels branch of Conradh na Gaeilge, having realised there was a huge appetite for the language in the city, especially since Irish was made an official EU language in December 2021. While many fluent translators live and work in the city, plenty more want to brush up on their cúpla focal.
“What was most interesting was quite a lot of people who come to the events, their Irish would be very rusty, because they haven’t spoken it since school. But they really had the interest in getting it up to scratch, they’re motivated and enthusiastic, and kicking themselves that they’ve let it go,” says Róisín de Bhaldraithe, one of the founders of the Brussels group.
“In Brussels, it does feel more welcoming somehow, like there’s a place for you to speak your own national language, because it’s so multilingual. It's very special to be able to find people who are equally interested in it, and it does give you a sense of pride in your own country.”
While Brussels might be in a unique position with Irish language jobs, that feeling that speaking Irish abroad is more accessible is echoed by Nic Giollarnáith: “When we're talking about Irish people engaging with the language abroad, it's really helpful to them that they're not at home. They don't feel as much pressure, and they're not as scared to make mistakes because they're seen as the real Irish person, the authentic speaker.”
At home in Ireland, Ó Súilleabháin agrees that the pressure we put on ourselves can halt us before we get started. “For an awful lot of people, their anxiety towards starting Irish comes from almost shame that they don't know their own language. Then they're afraid they won't be perfect, so they don't want to try at all,” he says.
“Whereas I think if you throw in simple phrases – Dia dhuit, conas atá tú, go raibh maith agat – that we all know, you can gradually pick up more and more. People have this idea that it's all or nothing and if they're not going to be perfect they won't bother at all, which is crazy.”
Coffey found that the lack of pressure abroad was one of the reasons he had success with the language once he moved to New Zealand. He tries to carry his lessons learned through to his work with the Conradh. “I would say people should acknowledge that it’s a difficult thing to walk into your first Irish language event, it’s not easy, but you will feel much better for going, and you realise it’s something that can be done. If you’ve gone through school in Ireland, you have more Irish than you give yourself credit for."
"When I talk in English, I get myself tangled up or I can’t think of the correct word, and I never beat myself up about it. When we do it in Irish, we feel bad and we keep replaying using the wrong tense or wrong word. It doesn’t matter, just go for it and make mistakes. You make mistakes in English all the time, so don’t be afraid of it in Irish, it’s how you learn,” he advises.
Guidera echoes this: “You don't need to be fluent. All you need is confidence and community. When you talk to people who are relaxed and confident speaking Irish, they’ll still be making mistakes, but it’s fine – you’re communicating, who cares? If people judge you, they're not really forwarding the language movement, they're holding it back.”
Irish isn’t dead – that view itself is dying
While there may be a greater openness to Irish, every time Gaeilge comes up for debate, it’s not long before someone comments that the language is dying, or is pointless to learn. Ó Dubhghaill believes that’s a greater reflection on that person, than the language itself. “For me, as long as there is one person speaking Irish, Irish isn't dead. Even the fact I'm raising my children in Irish, it's not dead,” he says.
“When people say it’s dead, I wonder why does the idea of someone else finding joy in the language cause them pain? It usually boils back to the fact that Irish being vibrant and alive, and something they could take part in at any point, raises uncomfortable feelings for them. People have been saying the language is dead since the 1820s and it hasn’t ever died, it’s gone on just fine.”
Ó’Súilleabháin feels this view, in itself, is dying out: “People want to connect with it. There are so many phrases and words in Irish that I’d be lost without. You'll see all the time in Irish that there's names for things or phrases around things, which are nearly like an instruction manual, and you don’t see it in the English translation. I feel without Irish, a lot of that knowledge would be lost. A lot of Irish words have an awful lot of wisdom behind them because it is such an old language, we can’t lose that. There’s an awful lot to be gained from it.”
Expand your cúpla focal
The Irish language contains a lot of knowledge, humour and wisdom, often through its seanfhocail (old proverbs).
Our interviewees have each chosen a word or phrase that they love, or that they feel captures the language.
Níl tuile dá mhéad nach dtránn
'There's no flood, no matter how great, that does not subside.' - "So no matter what happens, if you just keep going, you'll get through it." - Séaghan Ó Súilleabháin
Féileacán
'Butterfly' - "It comes from old Irish, from etelachán, meaning little flying one. It kind of epitomises how literal and poetic Irish is" - Mollie Guidera
Aduantas
'The feeling of, of discomfort, fear and sadness when you're in surroundings with people that you don't know.' - "There isn't another word that describes it as well as aduantas" - Dónall Ó Dubhghaill
Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin
'There is no hearth like your own hearth' - "It essentially means that there's no place like home. The proverb celebrates the importance of a good home and the warmth that is associated with it." - Caoimhe Nic Giollarnáith
Smugairle róin
'Jellyfish' - "It translates literally to seal snot. I think it’s a perfect example of how creative and entertaining the Irish language can be, and the craic you can have." - Róisín de Bhaldraithe
Is fánach an áit a bhfaighfeá gliomach
'It's a rare place that a lobster turns up' - "Basically, it’s a small world. It reminds me of meeting people here [in New Zealand] and the Irish cropping up in places you wouldn’t expect. - Diarmaid Coffey