Arcadia Ireland

This upcoming weekend, our first big co-curricular event of the semester is taking place, which sees several of our students venture out to the Aran Islands. The Aran Islands, located along Ireland’s west coast in County Galway, are renowned for their scenic landscape and historical sites. However, what many people outside of Ireland might not know about this particular set of islands is that they are a part of Galway’s Gaeltacht region.

 For many international students, this poses the question of  “What is a Gaeltacht?” , as the concept is completely unfamiliar to them. In this blog post, we hope to answer this question and provide you with a brief introduction and insight to the three G’s that you will be encountering on this weekend trip: Gaeilge, Gaeltacht & Gaillimh! 

Starting with Gaeilge (Pronunciation: “gale-gah”) or Irish as it is referred to in English, which is the native language of Ireland and the official first language of the Republic. Irish is one of three languages in the Gaelic or Goidelic  language family, which is a subset of the Celtic language family. A common misconception is that the language is called Gaelic, but this title can refer to any language within the Gaelic language family and not Irish specifically. Irish is one of the oldest living languages in the world, with the earliest written records of the language dating back to the 4th century. 

Another element about the Irish language that is surprising to most is that it bears no relation or resemblance to English. Despite both being European languages, Irish and English originate from different language families with little connection to one another, so the two languages have very separate vocabulary, alphabet and grammar systems. With the exception of a few loan words exchanged among the languages, the only real common factor between Irish and English is that they are both spoken in Ireland!

Despite Ireland being under British rule for several centuries, the development of English becoming the primary spoken language occurred very recently in the country’s history as until the 19th century, Irish remained as the first language for the majority of the population. The establishment of the national school system, the Great Famine and the growing influence of the Catholic Church were crucial determinants that contributed to the decline of the Irish language, as well as the manner in which these factors influenced and enforced one another. 

Now that we have the base understanding of Gaeilge, we can move on to our next G, which is Gaeltacht. Gaeltacht (Pronunciation: “gale-took”) is a region where Irish or Gaeilge is the predominantly spoken language. This exists in opposition to a Galltacht (Pronunciation: “gal-took”), which is an area where a non-Gaelic language is spoken. In relation to Ireland, the Galltacht is where English is spoken as the principal language. The Gael in Gaeltacht stems from Gaeilge and the Gall in Galltacht stems from the old Irish word “gall”, which referred to a non-Gaelic language speaking person, or in other words, a foreigner.

Gaeltacht regions are rural and found along the coast of Ireland due to the fact that their location acted as a key factor as to why these regions were able to survive the anglicisation of the country during the period of British colonialism. The Gaeltacht regions hold a strong level of significance in regard to Ireland as they were vital in preserving the Irish language and other important aspects of Irish culture during colonial times, as well as acting in a decisive role in the revitalisation and promotion of Irish and other cultural elements in a post-independence Ireland, something that still hold a large amount of relevance in the modern era.

Lastly, we come to Gaillimh, which is our final G. Gaillimh (Pronunciation: “gall-yiv”) or Galway as it is called in English, can be found in the west of Ireland, facing the Atlantic Ocean and is the second biggest county on the island. Galway has quite a unique status that has earned it the nickname of “the bilingual capital of Ireland''. Galway was given this title as the largest Gaeltacht in Ireland is located within the county, in the region of Connemara or Conamara in Irish. 

Connemara has its own distinct dialect of Irish and was home to many famous Irish speaking writers and poets, who acted as inspiration for many in Ireland’s literary tradition, both for literature written in the Irish and English language.

Now that you have finished reading this piece, you will be able to have a full experience during the Arcadia outing to the Aran Islands this weekend, armed with the complete knowledge of the three G’s of Gaeilge, Gaeltacht & Gaillimh!