In the 19th century, under British rule, systematic efforts were made to beat the Irish language out of children. A policy of whipping or caning based on a child’s use of Irish – measured with the bata scóir (tally stick) – left a generation forced into speaking their second language, their parents sometimes barely able to understand them but also fearful of passing Irish onto them. It removed the possibility of expressing bonds, affinities, emotions, entire concepts and philosophies inherent in the language. Strategically, too, this policy denied the use of the language as a cryptolect among the native population. During an Gorta Mór (the Great Hunger, 1845–52), mortality and emigration disproportionately affected Irish speakers, with emigration also creating economic pressure to learn English.
3 April 2024