Why the Irish don’t speak Irish.
It’s a touchy spot for us
It’s a soft spot for most Irish people, and to be honest it hurts most of us when asked by some foreigner why don’t we speak our own language. What makes it worse, most people do it in a insulting tone, knowing nothing about Ireland or its past.
So today i am going to break it down for you as best i can, on why we don’t speak our language.
Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.
Yes this bastard.
Our as us Irish know him, Strongbow. Lord of Leinster, Justiciar of Ireland, also known as Richard FitzGilbert, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman notable for his leading role in the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.
An invasion which began in 1169 and ended in 1175 as the Norman’s gradually conquered more and acquired swaths of land from my people. The Kingdom of England then claimed sovereignty over.
A watershed moment in Ireland’s history, marking the beginning of more than 800 years of direct English and, later, British involvement in Ireland.
Article III of The Statute of Kilkenny from 1367
Made it illegal for English colonists in Ireland to speak the Irish language and for the native Irish to speak their language when interacting with them.
They did this to protect their troops stationed in Ireland. They forbid natives from speaking their own language in front of them. They were slowly removing our very culture just to conform to their ways. (Bastards)
This was followed in 1537 with The Statute of Ireland
— An Act for the English Order Habit and Language that prohibited the use of the Irish language in the Irish Parliament.
The again In 1541.
when further legislation was passed which banned the use of Irish in the areas of Ireland then under English rule.
Also known as the Tudor conquest of Ireland. Several people who helped establish the Plantations of Ireland also played a part later in the early colonization of North America, particularly a group known as the West Country men.
The Administration of Justice (Language) Act (Ireland) was passed by the Irish Parliament in 1737.
The Act not only forbids the speaking of Irish within the courtroom, it also prohibits the completion of legal documentation in Irish and imposes a financial penalty of £20 each time Irish is spoken in court in contravention of the law.
By this point in history Ireland was fully controlled and under the control of the English crown.
A notorious example of the Act resulting in a lethal miscarriage of justice is the infamous Maamtrasna Murders case whereby eight Irish speakers were tried for murder in 1882. The majority of the accused were monoglots who spoke so little English that they had difficulty pronouncing their plea of “Not Guilty”. Their solicitor could not speak Irish and a policeman interpreted their evidence into English for the court.
The accused were convicted by perjured testimony and one of them, Maolra Seoighe, was hanged for the crime. In 2011 the British Under- Secretary of State For Prisons stated that Seoighe was “probably an innocent man” but that he would not be seeking a royal pardon for him.
Final words.
I know a whole lot of people out there don’t know about Irish history, but please people who are coming to visit Ireland read up a little and don’t make fun of the locals for not speaking their own tongue.
Its a sure fired way of getting your teeth punched out. Outside that us Irish are very welcoming and open minded. Please come and enjoy our hospitably, but be respectful of our past.
Thanks for reading.
