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Portavogie

Portavogie

Portavogie is a village and fishing port in County Down, Northern Ireland. The name Portavogie means ' place of the bog' in Irish or from the Viking influence 'porte' in Norse means gate & 'vogti' means guard. About 1555 there was a settlement at Stable Hole to the North of where Portavogie now stands at the bottom of what is now the Warnocks Road. Chosen for the shelter provided by the surrounding rocks and the sandy shore to beach their boats the inhabitants existed on what they could grow and catch. This was the first settled area south of Ballyhalbert (Talbot’s Town) and in the main they were families of fishermen who had travelled from across the Irish Sea from the Solway Coast. In those days the Ardes was an area of marsh land and bog and was in a world of its own to the rest of the Island of Ireland. It is probable that the area was known to most fishermen as somewhere safe to run to in a storm with shelter offered by the protected bays and in time became a good place to settle. Public records from 1620 name the area as Portabogagh from the Gaelic a language spoken by the fishermen of the West Coast of Scotland. As with all names pronunciation leads to different spelling and in time this became Portavogie this spelling first recorded in 1810. With no strategic benefit in developing Portavogie the Anglo Normans ignored the immediate area and concentrated on developing the Castles at Quintin, Ardkeen, Portaferry and Ballygalget. The entrance to Strangford Lough ( Strang Fijord to the Vikings ) became a strategic defence area and was rich in seafish providing a ready source of food. Portavogie was protected from the East by the Irish Sea and to the west by the “Bogs” and area still known as that today. The route north to Newtownards was low lying and subject to regular flooding at spring tide. At one time there were 82 windmills the length of the Ards Peninsula; this must have looked as the Netherlands does today and probably gave rise to the acronym “Little Holland”. The Savage family had controlled the Ards from around 1200 AD but did little to improve the area instead concentrating on securing their ownership and defences. Following a series of failed military expeditions aimed at dislodging the Scots from Ulster, Queen Elizabeth 1 agreed to support an English colonial settlement in the region. In 1571 Sir Thomas Smith, the Queen’s Principal Secretary of State was given a royal grant in Clandeboye and the Ards Peninsula. Smith envisaged a settlement led by the younger sons of English gentlemen who would develop the urban and commercial infrastructure of the Ards and exploit its natural resources of fish and timber. The indigenous Irish community were to be employed as labourers in the colony. The scheme was financed partly through private investment and partly through state sponsorship, largely in the form of military support. Smith’s natural son, Thomas, was given the task of implementing his father’s plans and he travelled to the Ards Peninsula in August 1572. Smith encountered considerable local opposition particularly from Sir Brian MacPhelim O’Neill, the Gaelic lord of Clandeboye who was supported by other lords in Ulster, notably Turlough Luineach O’Neill. In October 1573, Smith was killed by a supporter of Sir Brian having failed to make any progress with his father’s colonial scheme. Plans to establish an English colony in Ulster were not, however, abandoned following Smith’s murder. In 1573, Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex received a grant of land in north east Ireland from Queen Elizabeth. Like Smith, Essex agreed to invest his own money in his colonial project but his ambitions were wider than those of Smith as he envisaged taking control of an extensive territory from Belfast to Coleraine and establishing himself as Captain General of Ulster. Essex recruited 400 adventurers for his colony but only a small number of them travelled to Ireland and Essex spent most of his time in the province engaged in military encounters with Gaelic lords opposed to his plans. Frustrated by his lack of progress, Essex in 1574 seized Sir Brian MacPhelim O'Neill, his wife and brother and arranged for their execution in Dublin Castle. The following year, aware of the Queen’s increasing impatience with his failure, Essex authorised a notorious raid on the Scottish settlement on Rathlin Island by John Norris and Francis Drake. Shortly afterwards, the Queen relieved Essex of his command in Ulster. Despite the failed colonial projects and the massacre on Rathlin, Scottish migration to north east Ireland continued throughout the late 16th century and intensified in the early 17th century when Sir Hugh Montgomery and Sir James Hamilton acquired property in the Ards Peninsula which they developed as a private Plantation. The Church of Ireland was the Established church at this time (Disestablished in 1871) and the area around Portavogie was known as the Parish of Ballyhalbert or St. Andrews Parish. The other townlands part of the Parish were: Ballyfrench, Ballyhalbert, Roddens, Echlinville, Ballyhemlin, Ballygraffin and Ballyeasborough - the site of St. Andrews Parish Church. Portavogie was in the main a Presbyterian Village. Many of the fishermen who settle here were “Covenanters” who had come from Scotland to escape the persecution In 1735 Charles Echlin bought Rhuban House from the Reverend Hugh Maxwell and changed the name of the immediate area to Echlinville. The Echlin’s had been gifted “Savage” land by the crown as a reward for services rendered and they set about the task of draining the “Bogs” of the Ardes. A contribution that can be seen today in the quality of the fertile arable land of the “Bogs”. The area is once again known as Rubane. From the upheavals of the 12th century with the coming of the Anglo Normans to the “troubles” of the 20th century. No area of Northern Ireland has been immune and Portavogie is no exception. Portavogie has always been associated with the Fishing Industry. From the days of small open yawls to today’s modern fishing vessels tragedy has never been far from the minds of families ashore. The past 50 years has seen enormous changes in the look of the village. The rebuilding of the harbour from a “pretty” safe anchorage to the modern look of today's industrial facility is I suppose progress, although one could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. With so much new housing development, how long will it be before Portavogie becomes a town rather than the village it is today. In 1900 there were 16 family names associated with Portavogie. Adair, Pyper, Warnock, Boyd, Lawson, Ambrose, McKee, Clint, Hughes, Hull, O’Brien, Edmund (Edmond - Glastry), Palmer, Young, Mcvea and Coffey. Category:Villages in Down

Village

:For a list of references which "The Village" could refer to, see The Village A village is a human settlement commonly found in rural areas. It is usually larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town or city. Villages have been the normal unit of community living in most areas of the world throughout its history, up until the Industrial revolution and the ongoing process of urbanization. In many U.S. states, a village is a type of municipal government (see below).

Traditional villages

Although many types and organizational patterns of village life have existed, the typical village was small, consisting of perhaps 5 to 30 families. Homes were situated together for sociability and defense, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed.

England

In England the main historical distinction between a hamlet and a village is that the latter will have a church, and will therefore usually have been the worship centre of a parish. A village was traditionally distinguished from a town in that a village lacked a regular agricultural market, although today such markets are uncommon even in settlements which clearly are towns. Due to the vagueness of this definition, there is some question as to which is the largest village in England.

United States

Incorporated villages

In twenty U.S. states, the term "village" refers to a specific form of incorporated municipal government, similar to a city but with less authority and geographic scope. However, this is a generality; in many states, there are villages that are an order of magnitude larger than the smallest cities in the state. The distinction is not necessarily based on population, but on the relative powers granted to the different types of municipalities and correspondingly, different obligations to provide specific services to residents. In some states such as New York, Wisconsin, or Michigan, a village is an incorporated municipality, usually, but not always, within a single town or civil township. Residents pay taxes to the village and town or township and may vote in elections for both as well. In some cases, the village may be coterminous with the town or township. There are also many villages which span the boundaries of more than one town or township, and some villages may even straddle county borders. There is no limit to the population of a village in New York. (Hempstead, the largest village in the state, has 55,000 residents, making it more populous than many of the state's cities); however, villages in the state may not exceed five square miles (13 km²) in area. The state of Wisconsin has similar status for villages. The largest village is Menomonee Falls, which has over 25,000 residents. Michigan also has no set population limit for villages and there are many villages that are larger than cities in the state. Villages in Ohio are almost always legally separate from any townships that they may have been incorporated from (there are exceptions, such as Chagrin Falls, where the township includes the entirety of the village). They have no area limitations, but must reincorporate as cities if they grow to over 5,000 in population. Villages have the same home-rule rights as cities with fewer of the responsibilities. Unlike cities, they have the option of being either a "statutory village" and running their governments according to state law (with a six-member council serving four-year terms and a mayor who votes only to break ties) or being a "charter village" and writing a charter to run their government as they see fit. :See Political subdivisions of New York State#Village Village (Oregon)

Unincorporated villages

In many states, the term "village" is used to refer to a relatively small unincorporated community, similar to a hamlet in New York state. This informal usage may be found even in states that have villages as an incorporated municipality, although such usage might be considered incorrect and confusing.

External links

Village types:
- [http://www.pygmies.info/camps.html African Pygmies Villages] ja:村 th:หมู่บ้าน

County Down

County Down, (Contae An Dúin in Irish) is one of the six counties that form Northern Ireland (United Kingdom), covering an area of 2,448 km² (945 square miles). It belongs to the province of Ulster. The estimated population in 1992 was 416,600, a more recent figure puts it at 454,000. The county town is Downpatrick. Down contains both the southernmost point in Northern Ireland (Cranfield Point) and the easternmost point on the island of Ireland (Burr Point). The county borders County Antrim (Northern Ireland) to the north, the Irish Sea to the east and County Armagh (NI) to the west. The county colours, as used on flags at inter-county sporting events, are red and black. An area of County Down is known as Brontë Country, after Patrick Brontë (originally Prunty) -- father of Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë -- who was born in this region. Down is also home to the Northern Ireland Aquarium, located in Portaferry, on the shores of Strangford Lough, on the Ards Peninsula.

Geography

County Down is where, in the words of the famous song by Percy French, "the mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea", and the granite Mourne mountains continue to be renowned for their beauty. Slieve Donard, at 848 m (2,796 feet), is the highest peak in the Mournes (and in Ulster). Another important peak is Slieve Croob, at 532 m (1,775 ft), this is the source of the River Lagan. Down contains two prominent peninsulas: Ards peninsula and Lecale peninsula. The county has a coastline along Belfast Lough to the north and Carlingford Lough to the south (both of which have access to the sea). Strangford Lough lies between the Ards peninsula and the mainland. Down also has a very short coast on Lough Neagh. Smaller loughs include Lough Island Reany. The River Lagan forms most of the border with Antrim. The River Bann also flows through the southwestern areas of the county. The Clanrye and Quoile River also flow through the county. There are several islands off the Down coast: Mew Island, Light House Island and Copeland Island (together, the Copeland Islands), all of which lie to the north of Ards. Gun Island lies of the Lecale coast. In addition there are a large number of small island in Strangford Lough. See the list of places in County Down for all villages, towns and cities.

External link

- http://www.countydown.com/down.htm
- [http://www.whiteimage.com Site featuring County Down artists and their work] Down Down
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Northern Ireland

:For an explanation of often confusing terms like Ulster, (Republic of) Ireland, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). Northern Ireland is one of four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. It is situated on the island of Ireland and shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland, and is the only part of the United Kingdom with an external land border. It was created by the Government of Ireland Act, 1920. It covers 14,139 km² (5,459 mi²) in the northeast of the island of Ireland, about a sixth of the total area of the island, and has a population of 1,685,000 (April 2001) — between a quarter and a third of the island's total population.

Demographics and politics

:Main article: Demographics and politics of Northern Ireland A majority of the present-day population (59%, according to a [http://www.ark.ac.uk/nilt/2004/Political_Attitudes/NIRELAND.html 2004 survey]) wish to remain part of the United Kingdom, but a significant minority (22%) want to see a united Ireland. It is common to refer to the majority "community" as Unionists and the the minority "community" as Nationalists, though there are many who hold a position on the border that is at odds with the label of their "community" or reject these labels completely. The make-up of the Northern Ireland Assembly reflects these divisions within the population. Of the 108 members, 59 are Unionists and 42 are Nationalist (the remaining seven are classified as "other"). Although Protestants are still in the majority, the plurality by religious denomination are Roman Catholics, followed by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the Church of Ireland, with the Methodist Church of Ireland coming fourth. The two opposing views of British unionism and Irish nationalism are linked to deeper cultural divisions. Unionists are predominantly Protestant and often descendants of mainly Scottish but also English settlement in previous centuries, while nationalists are predominantly Catholic and usually descend from the population predating such settlement. Discrimination against nationalists under the Stormont government (1921–1972) gave rise to the nationalist civil rights movement in the 1960s. Many unionists argue that any discrimination was not just because of religious or political bigotry, but also the result of more complex socio-economic, socio-political and geographical factors. This eventually led to a long-running conflict known as The Troubles and the political unrest has gone through its most violent phase in recent times between 1968–1994. The main actors have been the Provisional IRA and other republican groups determined to end the British presence, and the Royal Ulster Constabulary, British army and various loyalist paramilitary groups who were defending it. As a consequence of the worsening security situation, self-government for Northern Ireland was suspended in 1972. Since the mid 1990s, the main paramilitary group, the Provisional IRA, has observed an uneasy ceasefire. Following negotiations, the Belfast Agreement of 1998 provides for an elected Northern Ireland Assembly, and a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive comprising representatives of all the main parties. These institutions have been suspended since 2002 because of unionist impatience at the pace of Sinn Fein's movement away from its associations with the Provisional IRA, which reached breaking point after PSNI allegations of spying by people working for Sinn Fein at the Assembly, although nobody was convicted after a high-profile police operation. On 28 July, 2005, the Provisional IRA declared an end to its campaign and have since decommissioned what is thought to be all of their arsenal. This act was performed in accordance with the Belfast Agreement 1998, and under the watch of the International Decommissioning Body and two external church witnesses. Many unionists remain skeptical, however.

Symbols

Today, Northern Ireland comprises a diverse patchwork of community rivalries, represented in some areas by whole communities where lamp posts and some homes fly the flags of the countries to which they hold allegience. The Union Flag and former Flag of Northern Ireland therefore appear in some loyalist areas, with the Irish national flag, the tricolour appearing in some republican areas. Even the kerbstones in less affluent areas get painted red-white-blue or green-white-orange, depending on whether a local community expresses nationalist/republican or unionist/loyalist sympathies. As a constituent part of the United Kingdom, the only "official" flag of Northern Ireland is the Union Flag. The Northern Ireland Flag (also known as the 'Ulster Banner' or 'Red Hand Flag') is no longer official, due to the abolition of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1972. Unionists tend to use the Union flag, the 'Ulster Banner' or paramilitary flags, while nationalists typically use the Irish Tricolour. Some unionists also occasionally use the flags of secular and religious organizations they belong to. The 'Ulster Banner' is based on the flag of Ulster. Some groups, including the Irish Rugby Football Union have used the Flag of St. Patrick as a symbol of Ireland which lacks the same nationalist or unionist connotations, but even this is felt by some to be a loyalist flag, as it was used to represent Ireland during British rule and is used by some British army regiments. No universally acceptable symbol has yet been found. Foreign flags are also found, such as the Palestinian flags in some Nationalist areas and Israeli flags in some Unionist areas. The official national anthem of Northern Ireland remains God Save The Queen. At some cross-community events, however, the Londonderry Air, also known as the tune of Danny Boy, may be played as a neutral, though unofficial, substitute.

Geography and climate

Danny Boy :Main article: Geography of Ireland, Geography of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland was covered by an ice sheet for most of the last ice age and on numerous previous occasions, the legacy of which can be seen in the extensive coverage of drumlins in Counties Fermanagh, Armagh, Antrim and particularly Down. The centrepiece of Northern Ireland's geography is Lough Neagh, at 392 km² the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles. A second extensive lake system is centred on Lower and Upper Lough Erne in Fermanagh. There are substantial uplands in the Sperrin Mountains (an extension of the Caledonian fold mountains) with extensive gold deposits, granite Mourne Mountains and basalt Antrim Plateau, as well as smaller ranges in South Armagh and along the Fermanagh–Tyrone border. None of the hills are especially high, with Slieve Donard in the dramatic Mournes reaching 848 metres, Northern Ireland's highest point. The volcanic activity which created the Antrim Plateau also formed the eerily geometric pillars of the Giant's Causeway. The Lower and Upper River Bann, River Foyle and River Blackwater form extensive fertile lowlands, with excellent arable land also found in North and East Down, although much of the hill country is marginal and suitable largely for animal husbandry. The valley of the River Lagan is dominated by Belfast, whose metropolitan area includes over a third of the population of Northern Ireland, with heavy urbanisation and industrialisation along the Lagan Valley and both shores of Belfast Lough. The whole of Northern Ireland has a temperate maritime climate, rather wetter in the west than the east, although cloud cover is persistent across the region. The weather is unpredictable at all times of the year, and although the seasons are distinct, they are considerably less pronounced than in interior Europe or the eastern seaboard of North America. Average daytime maximums in Belfast are 6.5°C (43.7°F) in January and 17.5°C (63.5°F) in July. The damp climate and extensive deforestation in the 16^th and 17^th centuries resulted in much of the region being covered in rich green grassland. Highest maximum temperature: 30.8°C (87.4°F) at Knockarevan, near Belleek, County Fermanagh on 30 June 1976 and at Belfast on 12 July 1983. Lowest minimum temperature: -17.5°C (0.5°F) at Magherally, near Banbridge, County Down on 1 January 1979. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/nireland/#temperature]

The Counties in Northern Ireland

1979 Northern Ireland consists of six counties:
- County Antrim
- County Armagh
- County Down
- County Fermanagh
- County Londonderry (Political, Geographical Term) \ County Derry (Nationalist & Irish geographic usage)
- County Tyrone These counties are no longer used for local government purposes; instead there are twenty-six districts of Northern Ireland which have different geographical extents, even in the case of those named after the counties from which they derive their name. Fermanagh District Council most closely follows the borders of the county it takes its name from. Though Coleraine borough council for example derives its name from the town of Coleraine in County Londonderry.

Towns and villages

Main articles: Towns in Northern Ireland and Villages in Northern Ireland See also the list of places in Northern Ireland for all villages, towns and cities
- Ahoghill, Armagh, Antrim
- Ballycastle, Ballyclare, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Ballynahinch, Banbridge, Bangor, Belfast, Bushmills
- Carnmoney, Carrickfergus, Castlerock, Comber, Coleraine, Cookstown, Craigavon
- Derry/Londonderry, Donaghadee, Downpatrick,Dromore, Dundonald, Dungannon, Dungiven
- Enniskillen
- Glengormley
- Hillsborough, Holywood
- Larne, Limavady, Lisburn, Lurgan
- Magherafelt
- Newcastle, Newry, Newtownards, Newtownstewart
- Omagh
- Portrush, Portstewart, Portadown, Portaferry, Poyntzpass
- Strabane
- Warrenpoint

Places of interest

Warrenpoint
- The Mountains of Mourne
- Lough Neagh, the biggest lake in the British Isles, 153 square miles
- Lough Erne
- Strangford Lough
- Carlingford Lough
- The Giant's Causeway
- The Glens of Antrim
- Fermanagh Lakeland
- The Sperrin Mountains
- National parks of Northern Ireland
- National Trust Properties in Northern Ireland
- Dromore, County Down

Variations in Geographic nomenclature

Many people inside and outside Northern Ireland use other names for the entity, as part of a linguistic agenda to define the nature of the state from their historic, cultural or political viewpoint. The most common names used are

Unionist/Loyalist

- Ulster - to suggest that Northern Ireland has an older ancestry that predates its founding in 1921, dating back both to the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century and to the millennium-old province of Ulster, one of four provinces on the island of Ireland. The province of Ulster covers a greater landmass than Northern Ireland: 6 of its counties are in Northern Ireland, 3 in the Republic of Ireland.
- The Province - to again link to the historic Irish province of Ulster, with its mythology.
- Northern Ireland - Many more liberal-minded Protestants who reject the extreme form of Unionism prefer to use the official name of the state. Ulster is both inaccurate and, in their view, has very orangist overtones.

Nationalist/Republican

- North of Ireland - to link Northern Ireland to the rest of island, by describing the state as being in the 'north of Ireland' and so by implication playing down Northern Ireland's links with Britain. (The northernmost point in Ireland, in County Donegal, is in fact in the Republic.)
- The Six Counties - language which avoids using the name given to the state by the British-enacted Government of Ireland Act, 1920. (The Republic is similarly described as the Twenty-Six Counties.) Some of the users of these terms contend that using the official name of the region would imply acceptance of the legitimacy of the Government of Ireland Act.
- The Occupied Six Counties. The Republic, whose legitimacy is not recognised by republicans who oppose the Belfast Agreement, is described as being "The Free State", referring to the Irish Free State, the Republic's old name.

The use of language for Northern Ireland geography

Disagreement on nomenclature, and the reading of political symbolism into the use or non-use of a word, also attaches to some urban centres. The most famous example is whether Northern Ireland's second city should be called Derry or Londonderry. Choice of language and nomenclature in Northern Ireland often reveals the cultural, ethnic and religious identity of the speaker. The first Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Seamus Mallon was criticised by unionist politicians for calling the region the "North of Ireland" while Sinn Féin has been criticised in some newspapers in the Republic for referring to the "Six Counties". Those who do not belong to any group but lean towards one side often tend to use the language of that group. Supporters of unionism in the British media (notably the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express) regularly call Northern Ireland "Ulster" while nationalist and republican-leaning media outlets in Ireland (such as Daily Ireland) almost always use "North of Ireland" or the "Six Counties". State institutions and cultural organisations in Northern Ireland, particularly those pre-dating the 1980s, often used the word "Ulster" in their title; for example, the University of Ulster the Ulster Orchestra, and BBC Radio Ulster. Many news bulletins since the 1990s have opted avoid all contentious terms and use either the official name, Northern Ireland, or the shorter term, "the North". For Northern Ireland's second largest city, broadcasting outlets which are unaligned to either community and broadcast to both use both names interchangeably, often starting a report with "Londonderry" and then using "Derry" in the rest of the report. However within Northern Ireland, print media which are aligned to either community (the Belfast Newsletter is aligned to the unionist community while the Irish News is aligned to the nationalist community) generally use their community's preferred term. British newspapers with unionist leanings, such as the Daily Telegraph[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F06%2F16%2Fnblud16.xml], usually use the language of the unionist community, while others, such as The Guardian use the terms interchangeably [http://www.guardian.co.uk/bloodysunday/article/0,2763,184915,00.html] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/bloodysunday/article/0,2763,1394346,00.html] The media in the Republic of Ireland use the nomenclature preferred by nationalists, eg [http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0609/northviolence.html RTÉ News]. The division in nomenclature is seen particularly in sports and religions associated with one of the communities. Gaelic games and football (soccer) use Derry in club names for example. Nor is there clear agreement on how to decide on a name. When the nationalist-controlled local council voted to re-name the city "Derry" unionists objected, stating that as it owed its city status to a Royal Charter, only a charter issued by Queen Elizabeth II could change the name. Queen Elizabeth refused to intervene on the matter and thus the council is now called "Derry City Council" while the city is still officially "Londonderry". Nevertheless, the council has printed two sets of stationery - one for each term - and their policy is to reply to correspondence using whichever term the original sender used. At times of high communal tension, each side regularly complains of the use of the nomenclature associated with the other community by a third party such as a media organisation, claiming such usage indicates evident "bias" against their community.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Northern Ireland The Northern Ireland economy is the smallest of the four economies making up the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of Northern Ireland; for events before 1900 see History of Ireland. The area now known as Northern Ireland has had a diverse history. From serving as the bedrock of Irish resistance in the era of the plantations of Queen Elizabeth and James I in other parts of Ireland, it became itself the subject of major planting of Scottish and English settlers after the Flight of the Earls in 1607 (when the native Gaelic aristocracy left en masse for Catholic Europe). The all-island Kingdom of Ireland (1541-1801) was incorporated into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 under the terms of the Act of Union, under which the kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain merged under a central parliament, government and monarchy based in London. In the early 20th century Unionists, led by Sir Edward Carson, opposed the introduction of Home Rule in Ireland. Unionists were in a minority on the island of Ireland as a whole, but were in the majority in the four counties of Armagh, Antrim, Down, and Londonderry, thereby forming a narrow majority in the northern province of Ulster. The clash between the House of Commons and House of Lords of the controversial budget of Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George, produced the Parliament Act 1911 which enabled the veto of the Lords to be overturned. Given that the Lords had been the unionists' main guarantee that a Home Rule Act would be enacted, because of the majority of pro-unionist peers in the House, the Parliament Act made Home Rule a likely prospect in Ireland. Opponents to Home Rule, from Conservative Party leaders like Andrew Bonar Law and Lord Randolph Churchill to militant unionists in Ireland threatened the use of voilence, producing the Larne Gun Running in 1912, when they smuggled thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition from Imperial Germany for the Ulster Volunteer Force. Churchill famously told a unionist audience in Ulster that "Ulster will fight, and Ulster will be right." The prospect of civil war on Ireland was seen by some as likely. In 1914 the Third Home Rule Act, which contained provision for a temporary partition, received the Royal Assent. However its implementation was suspended for the duration of the intervening First World War, which was only expected to a few weeks but lasted four years. But the time it concluded, the Act was seen as dead in the water, with public opinion in the majority nationalist community having moved from a demand for home rule to something more substantial, independence. Lloyd George proposed in 1919 a new bill which would divide Ireland into two Home Rule areas, twenty-six counties being ruled from Dublin, six being ruled from Belfast, with a shared Lord Lieutenant of Ireland appointing both executives and a Council of Ireland, which Lloyd George believed would evolve into an all-island parliament.

Partition of Ireland, partition of Ulster

In United Kingdom law, Ireland was partitioned in 1921 under the terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Six of the nine Ulster counties in the northeast formed Northern Ireland and the remaining three counties joined those of Leinster, Munster and Connacht to form Southern Ireland. Whilst the former came into being, the latter had only a momentary existence to ratify (in UK law) the Anglo-Irish Treaty that ended the Anglo-Irish War. Under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Northern Ireland was provisionally scheduled to be included in the Irish Free State, though it could opt-out should the Parliament of Northern Ireland elect to do. As expected it did so immediately. Once that happened, as provided for, an Irish Boundary Commission came into being, to decide on the territorial boundaries between the Irish state and the Northern Ireland home rule region. Though leaders in Dublin expected a substantial reduction in the territory of Northern Ireland, with nationalist areas like Derry, Armagh, Tyrone and urban territories like Derry and Newry moving to the Free State, it appears that the Boundary Commission decided against this. The British and Irish governments agreed to leave the boundaries as they were defined in the 1920 Act.

1925 to the present

In the mid 1940s, to encourage the Irish state to join with the Allies, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill offered Taoiseach Éamon de Valera Irish unity but, believing that Churchill could not deliver, de Valera declined the offer. The British did not inform the Northern Ireland government that they had made the offer to the Dublin government. The Ireland Act 1949 gave the first legal guarantee to the Parliament and Government that Northern Ireland would not cease to be part of the United Kingdom without consent of the majority of its citizens, and this was most recently reaffirmed by the Northern Ireland Act 1998. This status was echoed in the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, which was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Bunreacht na hÉireann, the constitution of the Republic, was amended in 1999 to remove a claim to sovereignty over the whole of Ireland (in Article 2), a claim qualified by an acknowledgement of British rule in the northeast. The new Articles 2 and 3, added to the Bunreacht to replace the earlier articles, implicitly acknowledge that the status of Northern Ireland, and its relationships with the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, would only be changed with the agreement of a majority of voters in Northern Ireland. An acknowledgement that a decision on whether to remain in the United Kingdom or join the Republic of Ireland rests with the people of Northern Ireland was also central to the Belfast Agreement, which was signed in 1998 and ratified by plebiscites held simultanously in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. However, many unionist leaders equivocate when asked if they would peacefully accept a reunited Ireland if a majority in Northern Ireland sought it. A plebiscite within Northern Ireland on whether it should remain in the United Kingdom, or join the Republic, was held in 1973. The vote went heavily in favour of maintaining the status quo with approximately 57% of the total electorate voting in support, but most nationalists boycotted the poll. Though legal provision remains for holding another plebiscite, and former Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble some years ago advocated the holding of such a vote, no plans for such a vote have been adopted as of 2005.

Culture

:See Culture of Northern Ireland, Culture of Ulster, Culture of Ireland, Culture of the United Kingdom With its improved international reputation, Northern Ireland has recently witnessed rising numbers of tourists who come to appreciate the area's unique heritage. Attractions include cultural festivals, musical and artistic traditions, countryside and geographical sites of interest, pubs, welcoming hospitality and sports (especially golf and fishing). In 1987, pubs were allowed to open on Sundays, despite vocal opposition.

Languages

The Mid Ulster dialect of English spoken in Northern Ireland shows influence from both the West Midlands and Scotland, thereby giving it a distinct accent compared to Hiberno-English, along with the use of such Scots words as wee for 'little' and aye for 'yes'. Some jocularly call this dialect phonetically by the name Norn Iron. There are supposedly some minute differences in pronunciation between Protestants and Catholics, the best known of which is the name of the letter h, which Protestants tend to pronounce as "aitch", as in British English, and Catholics tend to pronounce as "haitch", as in Hiberno-English. However, geography is a much more important determinant of dialect than ethnic background. English is by far the most widely spoken language in Northern Ireland. Under the Good Friday Agreement, Irish and Scots have official recognition on a par with that of English. Often the use of the Irish language in Northern Ireland has met with the considerable suspicion of Unionists, who have associated it with the largely Catholic Republic of Ireland, and more recently, with the republican movement in Northern Ireland itself. Ulster Scots comprises varieties of the Scots language spoken in Northern Ireland. Mac Póilin (1999: 116) states that "While most argue that Ulster-Scots is a dialect or variant of Scots, some have argued or implied that Ulster-Scots is a separate language from Scots. The case for Ulster-Scots being a distinct language, made at a time when the status of Scots itself was insecure, is so bizarre that it is unlikely to have been a linguistic argument." Chinese and Urdu are also spoken by Northern Ireland's Asian communities. According to the most recent census returns, Chinese is now the second most widely spoken language, though the 8000-strong Chinese community — while often referred to as the "third largest" community in Northern Ireland — is tiny by international standards.

External links

- [http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/ Discover Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Tourist Board]
- [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/ University of Ulster: Northern Ireland Conflict Archive]
- [http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections Elections in Northern Ireland]
- [http://www.onlineni.net Online NI]
- [http://www.whiteimage.com Art gallery featuring artists and scenes from Northern Ireland]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations] History of Ireland
- [http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/britishisles/ The British Isles] Independent view of Ireland and the UK
- [http://www.psa.ac.uk/cps/1996/payt.pdf Inconvenient Peripheries Ethnic Identity and the United Kingdom Estate] The cases of “Protestant Ulster” and Cornwall’ by prof Philip Payton
- [http://www.walkingtree.com/ Mercator Atlas of Europe] Map of Ireland ("Irlandia") circa 1564
- [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/ Sutton Index of Deaths]
- [http://www.geographyinaction.co.uk/Geology%20files/Geol_index.html Geography in Action] The geology of Northern Ireland
- [http://www.victorsloan.co.uk/ Victor Sloan-Northern Ireland visual artist's works commenting on political, social and cultural concerns] Category:Disputed territories Ireland, Northern Category:History of Ireland Category:NUTS 1 Statistical Regions of Europe Category:NUTS 2 Statistical Regions of Europe ko:북아일랜드 ja:北アイルランド simple:Northern Ireland

Irish language

Irish (Gaeilge), a Goidelic language spoken in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, is constitutionally recognized as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland. On 13 June, 2005, EU foreign ministers unanimously decided to make Irish an official working language of the European Union. The new arrangements will come into effect on January 1, 2007. According to statistics released by the Government of Ireland in 2004, there are 1,570,894 speakers of Irish in the Republic. Of these, 339,541 use Irish every day, 155,039 weekly, 585,300 less often, 459,657 never, and 31,357 didn't state how often. However, these statistics are often disputed by Irish language activists and their opponents. 65,000 people has been quoted as the amount of people in the Gaeltacht who use the language as their first, daily language¹. Other data states that 167,487 can speak Irish in Northern Ireland and 25,870 in the United States. For Irish English, see Hiberno-English.

Names of the language

In English

The language is sometimes referred to in English as Gaelic (IPA: ), or Irish Gaelic. This has generally been the common name for the language in the Irish diaspora. Within Ireland proper, it has inevitably acquired political significance. Referring to the language as "Gaelic" suggests that the language is as distant and unrelated to modern Irish life as the civilization of the ancient Gaels. Calling it Irish, on the other hand, indicates that it is and should be the proper national language of the Irish people, and this is the generally accepted term among scholars and in the Irish Constitution. Use of the term Irish also avoids confusion with Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig), the closely related language spoken in Scotland and often referred to in English as simply Gaelic (IPA: or ). The archaic term Erse, originally a Scots form of the word Irish, is no longer used and in most contexts is also considered derogatory.

In Irish

In the Caighdeán Oifigiúil (the official written standard) the name of the language is Gaeilge, which reflects the southern Connacht pronunciation . Before the spelling reform of 1948, this form was spelled Gaedhilge; originally this was the genitive of Gaedhealg, the form used in classical Modern Irish. Older spellings of this include Gaoidhealg in Middle Irish and Goídelc in Old Irish. Other forms of the name found in the various modern Irish dialects, in addition to south Connacht Gaeilge mentioned above, include Gaedhilic/Gaeilic/Gaeilig (pronounced ) in County Donegal and parts of County Mayo, Gaedhealaing/Gaoluinn/Gaelainn (pronounced ) in Munster, and Gaedhlag (pronounced ) in Omeath, County Louth.

Official status

Irish is given recognition by the Constitution of Ireland as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland (with English being a second official language), despite the limited distribution of fluency among the population of that country. Since the State was founded in the 1920s as the Irish Free State (see also History of the Republic of Ireland), the Irish Government required a degree of proficiency in Irish for all civil service positions (including postal workers, tax officials, agricultural inspectors, etc.), as well as for employees of state companies (e.g. Aer Lingus, RTE, ESB, etc). Proficiency in Irish for entrance to the public service ceased to be a compulsory requirement in 1974, in part through the actions of protest organizations like the Language Freedom Movement. While the requirement was also dropped for wider public service jobs, such as teaching, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools within the Republic which receive public money (see also Education in the Republic of Ireland). The need for a pass in Leaving Certificate Irish for entry to the Gardaí (police) was dropped in September 2005, although applicants are given lessons in the language during the two years of training. Most official documents of the Irish Government are published in both Irish and English. The National University of Ireland, Galway is required to appoint a person who is competent in the Irish language, as long as they meet all other respects of the vacancy they are appointed to. This requirement is laid down by the [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA35Y1929S3.html University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3)] and recently was subject of a High Court case on the matter[http://www.galwayindependent.com/news/3905.html] - it is expected that the requirement may be repealed in due course[http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?maincat=10861&pcategory=10861&ecategory=10876§ionpage=13637&language=EN&link=link001&page=1&doc=29800]. As a treaty language of the European Union, the highest-level documents of the EU are translated into Irish; in addition, the language has also recently received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, under the Good Friday Agreement. Furthermore, Irish will become an official working language of the European Union beginning January 1, 2007.

The Gaeltacht

There are pockets of Ireland where Irish is spoken as a traditional, native language. These regions are known as the Gaeltacht. These are in County Galway (Contae na Gaillimhe), including Connemara (Conamara) and the Aran Islands (na hOileáin Árann); on the west coast of County Donegal (Contae Dhún na nGall; in the part which is known as Tyrconnell/Tír Chonaill); and Corca Dhuibhne on the Dingle peninsula in County Kerry (Contae Chiarraí). Smaller ones also exist in Mayo (Contae Mhaigh Eo), Meath (Contae na Mí), Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge), and Cork (Contae Chorcaí). However, even within the Gaeltacht areas, the Irish-speaking populations have declined since the Gaeltacht boundaries were drawn up. The numerically and socially strongest Gaeltacht areas are those of Conamara and Tír Chonaill, in which a significant proportion of residents use Irish as a community language and in which children often speak the language among each other. The highest concentrations of Irish speakers are found in Ros Muc, Connemara, and around Bloody Foreland (Cnoc na Fola) in Tír Chonaill.

Dialects

See main article Irish dialects. There are a number of distinct dialects of Irish. Roughly speaking, the three major dialect areas coincide with the provinces of Munster (Cúige Mumhan), Connacht (Cúige Chonnacht) and Ulster (Cúige Uladh).

Munster dialects

Munster Irish is spoken in the Gaeltachtaí of Kerry (Contae Chiarraí), Muskerry (Múscraí), Cape Clear (Oileán Cléire) in the western part of County Cork (Contae Chorcaí), and the tiny pocket of Irish-speakers in An Rinn near Dungarvan (Dún Garbháin) in County Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge). The most important subdivision in Munster is that between Decies Irish (spoken in Waterford) and the rest of Munster Irish. Some typical features of Munster Irish are: # The use of personal endings instead of pronouns with verbs, thus "I must" is in Munster caithfead, while other dialects prefer caithfidh mé (mé means "I"). "I was and you were" is Bhíos agus bhís in Munster but Bhí mé agus bhí tú in other dialects. # In front of nasals and "ll" some short vowels are lengthened while other are diphthongised. # A copula-construction involving is ea is frequently used.

Connacht dialects

The strongest dialect of Connacht Irish is to be found in Connemara and the Aran Islands. In some regards this dialect is quite different from general Connacht Irish but since most Connacht dialects have died out during the last century Connemara Irish is sometimes seen as Connacht Irish. Much closer to the traditional Connacht Irish is the very threatened dialect spoken in the region on the border between Galway (Gaillimh) and Mayo (Maigh Eo). The Irish of Tourmakeady (Tuar Mhic Éadaigh) in southern Mayo (Maigh Eo Theas) and Joyce Country (Dúthaigh Sheoige) are considered the living Irish dialects closest to Middle Irish. Also, the northern Mayo dialect of Erris (Iorras) and Achill (Acaill) is in grammar and word-building essentially a Connacht dialect; but shows an affinity in vocabulary with Ulster Irish, due to large-scale immigration of dispossessed people following the Plantation of Ulster. Connemara Irish is very popular with learners, thanks to Mícheál Ó Siadhail's self-teaching textbook Learning Irish. However, there are features in Connemara Irish outside the official standard—notably the preference for verbal nouns ending in -achan, such as lagachan instead of lagú, "weakening". The non-standard pronunciation with lengthened vowels and heavily reduced endings give Connemara Irish its distinct sound.

Ulster dialects

The most important of the Ulster dialects today is that of the Rosses (na Rosa), which has been used extensively in literature by such authors as the brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seosamh Mac Grianna, locally known as Jimí Fheilimí and Joe Fheilimí. This dialect is essentially the same as that in Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair= Inlet of Streaming Water), the same dialect used by native speaker Enya (Eithne) and her siblings in Clannad (Clann as Dobhar = Family from the Water). Ulster Irish sounds very different and shares several unusual features with Scottish Gaelic, as well as having lots of characteristic words and shades of meanings. However, since the demise of those Irish dialects spoken natively in what is today Northern Ireland, it is probably an exaggeration to see Ulster Irish as an intermediary form between Scottish Gaelic and the southern and western dialects of Irish. Indeed, Scottish Gaelic does have lots of non-Ulster features in common with Munster Irish, too. One noticeable trait of Ulster Irish is the use of the negative participle cha(n), in place of the Munster and Connaught version ní. Even in Ulster, cha(n), most typical of Scottish Gaelic, has ousted the more common ní only in easternmost dialects (including the now defunct ones once spoken in what is now Northern Ireland). The practice seems to be that cha(n) is most usually used when answering to a statement, either confirming a negative statement (Níl aon mhaith ann - Chan fhuil, leoga = "It is no good" - "Indeed it isn't") or contesting an affirmative one (Tá sé go maith - Chan fhuil! = "It is good" - "No, it isn't!"), while ní is preferred in answering a question (An bhfuil aon mhaith ann? - Níl = "Is it any good?" - "No").

Other regions

The extant dialects of Irish native to Leinster, the fourth province of Ireland, became extinct during the 20th century, but records of some of these were made by the Irish Folklore Commission among other bodies prior to this. The present-day Irish of Meath (in Leinster) is a special case. It belongs to the Connemara dialect, as the Irish-speaking community in Meath is simply a group of mostly Connemara speakers who moved there in the 1930s, after a land reform campaign spearheaded by Máirtín Ó Cadhain (subsequently one of the greatest modernist writers in the language). In areas outside the traditional Gaeltacht, where standard Irish was learnt in schools, this has become the "dialect" of leaners of the language. What has been called "Dublin Irish" or "Gaelscoil Irish" has also arisen, that is Irish poorly learnt and heavily influenced by English. English idioms are translated directly, e.g. "Tabhair suas" for Give up when the verb "Lig" should be used. English grammar is sometimes used straight when not applicaple to Irish. Often, when the speaker doesn't know a word, the English will be substituted, sometimes with "áil" affixed. "áil" is generally an ending for the verbal noun of a verb, but when added to an english word, this becomes the stem, e.g. vótáil. Many "Béarlachas"(false Irish based on English) words and phrases are used, e.g. pioc, sórt, saghas, féar plé etc. Also, typical interjection words often used in English and especially English influenced by America are used, e.g. like, man, so, etc. are used un-translated in Irish.

Comparisons

The differences between dialects are considerable, and have led to recurrent difficulties in defining standard Irish. Even everyday phrases can show startling dialectal variation: the standard example is "How are you?":
- Ulster: cad é mar atá tú? ("what is it as you are?" Note: caidé or goidé and sometimes dé are alternative renderings of cad é)
- Connacht: cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? ("what way [is it] that you are?")
- Munster: conas taoí? ("how are you?") In recent times, however, contacts between speakers of different dialects have become more common, and mixed dialects have originated. Nevertheless, many dialect speakers (especially Ulster) are still jealously trying to guard their own variety against influences from other dialects. Among non-native speakers, this can be seen as a quest for authenticity. Regional accents are commonly taught to non-natives and imitated: an urban non-native speaker of Irish in Cork City (Cathair Chorcaí) is very probably trying to emulate Coolea or Kerry dialect; one from Belfast (Béal Feirste) tends to speak an Irish modelled on the Rosses dialect of Donegal; and Galwegian Irish-speakers, living next door to Connemara, will do their best to sound like a Connemara native.

Shelta

There also exists a cant called Shelta, based partly on English and partly Irish, in use by the Irish Travellers.

Linguistic Structure

The features most unfamiliar to English speakers of the language are the orthography, the initial consonant mutations, the Verb Subject Object word order, and the use of two different forms for "to be". However, initial mutations are found in other Celtic languages as well as in some Italian and Sardinian dialects, as an independent development. They are also found in some West African languages.

Syntax

See main article Irish syntax One aspect of Irish syntax that is unfamiliar to speakers of other languages is the use of the copula (known in Irish as an chopail). The copula is used to describe what or who someone is, as opposed to how and where. This has been likened to the difference between the verbs ser and estar in Spanish and Portuguese, although this is only a rough approximation. The copula, which in the present tense is is, is usually demonstrative: :Is fear é. "It is a man." :Is Sasanaigh iad. "They're English." When saying "this is", or "that is", seo and sin are used: :Seo í mo mháthair. "This is my mother." :Sin é an muinteoir. "That's the teacher." One can also add "that is in him/her/it", especially when using an adjective, when it is desired to emphasise the quality: :Is fear láidir atá ann. "He's a strong man." :(Literally: "It is a strong man that is in him.") :Is cailín álainn atá inti. "She's a beautiful girl." :(Literally: "It is a beautiful girl that is in her.") This sometimes appears in Hiberno-English, either translated literally as "that is in it", or as "so it is".

Morphology

See main articles Irish morphology, Irish nominals, and Irish verbs. Another feature of Irish grammar that is shared with other Celtic languages is the use of prepositional pronouns (forainmneacha réamhfhoclacha), which are essentially conjugated prepositions. For example, the word for "at" is ag, which in the first person singular becomes agam "at me". When used with the verb bí ("to be") ag indicates possession; this is the equivalent of the English verb "to have". (Literally, "is a book at me")

Tá leabhar agam.	"I have a book."
Tá deoch agat.	"You have a drink."
Tá ríomhaire aige.	"He has a computer."
Tá páiste aici.	"She has a child."
Tá carr againn.	"We have a car."
Tá teach agaibh.	"You (plural) have a house."
Tá airgead acu.	"They have money."

Compare with Breton: ('Banne' related to the Irish 'bainne' - milk - though semantically drifted) ('Bugel' related to Irish word "buachail" - boy - though semantically drifted)

Ul levr a zo ganin.	"I have a book."
Ur banne a zo ganit.	"You have a drink."
Un urzhiatur a zo ganti.	"He has a computer."
Ur bugel a zo gantañ.	"She has a child."
Ur c'harr a zo ganomp.	"We have a car."
Un ti zo ganeoc'h.	"You (plural) have a house."
Arc'hant a zo ganto.	"They have money."

Orthography and pronunciation

See main articles Irish orthography and Irish phonology. The written language looks rather daunting to those unfamiliar with it. Once understood, the orthography is relatively straightforward. The acute accent, or síneadh fada (´), serves to lengthen the sound of the vowels and in some cases also changes their quality. For example, in Munster Irish (Kerry), a is or and á is in "law" but in Ulster Irish (Donegal), á tends to be . Around the time of World War II, Séamas Daltún, in charge of Rannóg an Aistriúcháin (the official translations department of the Irish government), issued his own guidelines about how to standardise Irish spelling and grammar. This de facto standard was subsequently approved of by the State and called the Official Standard or Caighdeán Oifigiúil. It simplified and standardised the orthography. Many words had silent letters removed and vowel combination brought closer to the spoken language. Where multiple versions existed in different dialects for the same word, one or more were selected. Examples:
- Gaedhealg / Gaedhilg(e) / Gaedhealaing / Gaeilic / Gaelainn / Gaoidhealg / Gaolainn => Gaeilge, "Irish language" (Gaoluinn or Gaolainn is still used in books written in dialect by Munster authors, or as a facetious name for the Munster dialect)
- Lughbhaidh => Lú, "Louth"
- biadh => bia, "food" (The orthography biadh is still used by the speakers of those dialects that show a meaningful and audible difference between biadh - nominative case - and bídh - genitive case: "of food, food's". For example, in Munster Irish the latter ends in an audible -g sound, because final -idh, -igh regularly becomes -ig in Munster pronunciation.) Modern Irish has only one diacritic sign, the acute (á é í ó ú), known in Irish as the síneadh fada 'long mark'; this is frequently referred to, especially by English speakers as simply the fada, using the adjective as a noun. The dot-above diacritic, called a ponc séimhithe or sí buailte (often shortened to buailte), derives from the punctum delens, which was used in medieval manuscripts to indicate deletion, similar to crossing out unwanted words in handwriting today. From this usage it was used to indicate the lenition of s (from /s/ to /h/) and f (from /f/ to zero) in Old Irish texts. Lenition of c, p, and t was indicated by placing the letter h after the affected consonant; lenition of other sounds was left unmarked. Later both methods were extended to be indicators of lenition of any sound except l and n, and two competing systems were used: lenition could be marked by a buailte or by a postposed h. Eventually, use of the buailte predominated when texts were writing using Gaelic letters, while the h predominated when writing using Roman letters. Today Gaelic letters and the buailte are rarely used except where a 'traditional' style is required, e.g. the motto on the University College Dublin coat-of-arms or the symbol of the Irish Defence Forces. Letters with the buailte are available in Unicode and Latin-8 character sets (see Latin Extended Additional chart [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1E00.pdf PDF]).

Mutations

See main article Irish initial mutations In Irish, there are two classes of initial mutations:
- Lenition (in Irish, séimhiú "softening") describes the change of stops into fricatives. Indicated in old orthography by a dot (called a sí buailte) written above the changed consonant, this is now shown by adding an extra -h-:
- caith! "throw!" - chaith mé "I threw" (this is an example of the lenition as a past-tense marker, which is caused by the use of do, although this is now usually omitted)
- margadh "market", "market-place", "bargain" - Tadhg an mhargaidh "the man of the street" (word for word "Timothy of the market-place" (here we see the lenition marking the genitive case of a masculine noun)
- Seán "Seán, John" - a Sheáin! "O John!" (here we see lenition as part of what is called the vocative case - in fact, the vocative lenition is triggered by the a or vocative marker before Sheáin)
- Nasalisation (in Irish, urú "eclipsis") covers the voicing of voiceless stops, as well as the true nasalisation of voiced stops.
- athair "father" - ár nAthair "our Father"
- tús "start", ar dtús "at the start"
- Gaillimh "Galway" - i nGaillimh "in Galway"

History and politics

Stages of the Irish language

The introduction of Irish to Ireland dates from some time after 1200 BC.² The earliest form of the language, Primitive Irish, is found in ogham inscriptions up to about the 4th centuryAD. After the conversion to Christianity, Old Irish begins to appear as glosses in the margins of Latin manuscripts, beginning in the 6th century, until it gives way in the 10th century to Middle Irish. Modern Irish dates from about the 16th century.

The Irish Language Movement

The Irish language was the most widely spoken language on the island of Ireland until the 19th century. The first Bible in Irish was translated by William Bedell, Church of Ireland Bishop of Kilmore, in the 17th century. A combination of the introduction of a primary education system (the 'National Schools'), in which Irish was prohibited and only English taught by order of the British government, and the Great Famine (An Drochshaol) which hit a disportionately high number of Irish language speakers (who lived in the poorer areas heavily hit by famine deaths and emigration), hastened its rapid decline. Irish political leaders, such as Daniel O'Connell (Dónall Ó Conaill), too were critical of the language, seeing it as 'backward', with English the language of the future. Contemporary reports spoke of Irish-speaking parents actively discouraging their children from speaking the language, and encouraging the use of English instead. This practice continued long after independence, as the stigma of speaking Irish remained very strong. Some, however, thought differently. The initial moves to save the language were championed by Irish Protestants, such as the linguist and clergyman William Neilson, in the end of the eighteenth century; the major push occurred with the foundation by Douglas Hyde, the son of a Church of Ireland rector, of the Gaelic League (known in Irish as Conradh na Gaeilge) which started the Gaelic Revival. Leading supporters of Conradh included Pádraig Mac Piarais and Éamon de Valera. The revival of interest in the language coincided with other cultural revivals, such as the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association and the growth in the performance of plays about Ireland in English, by such luminaries as William Butler Yeats, J.M. Synge, Sean O'Casey and Lady Gregory, with their launch of the Abbey Theatre. Even though the Abbey Theatre playwrights wrote in English (and indeed some disliked Irish) the Irish language affected them, as it did all Irish English speakers. The version of English spoken in Ireland, known as Hiberno-English bears striking similarities in some grammatical idioms with Irish. Some have speculated that even after the vast majority of Irish people stopped speaking Irish, they perhaps subsconsciously used its grammatical flair in the manner in which they spoke English. This fluency is reflected in the writings of Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and more recently in the writings of Seamus Heaney, Paul Durcan, Dermot Bolger and many others. (It may also in part explain the appeal in Britain of Irish-born broadcasters like Terry Wogan, Eamonn Andrews, Graham Norton, Desmond Lynam, etc.) This national cultural revival of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century matched the growing Irish radicalism in Irish politics. Many of those, such as Pearse, de Valera, W.T. Cosgrave (Liam Mac Cosguir) and Ernest Blythe (Earnán de Blaghd), who fought to achieve Irish independence and came to govern the independent Irish state, first became politically aware through Conradh na Gaeilge, though Hyde himself resigned from its presidency in 1915 in protest at the movement's growing politicisation. A Church of Ireland campaign to promote worship and religion in Irish was started in 1914 with the founding of Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise (the Irish Guild of the Church). The Roman Catholic Church also replaced its liturgies in Latin with Irish and English for their liturgies following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Independent Ireland and the language

The independent Irish state was established in 1922 (The Irish Free State 1922-37; Ireland (Éire) from 1937, also known since 1949 as the Republic of Ireland). Although some Republican leaders had been committed language enthusiasts, the new state continued to use English as the language of administration, even in areas where over 80% of the population spoke Irish. The government refused to implement the 1926 recommendations of the Gaeltacht Commission, which included restoring Irish as the language of administration in such areas. As the role of the state grew, it therefore exerted tremendous pressure on Irish-speakers to speak English. This was only partly offset by measures which were supposed to support the Irish language. For instance, the state was by far the largest employer. A qualification in Irish was required to apply for state jobs. However, this did not require a high level of fluency, and few public employees were ever required to use Irish in the course of their work. On the other hand, state employees had to have perfect command of English and had to use it constantly. Because most public employees had a poor command of Irish, it was impossible to deal with them in Irish. If an Irish-speaker wanted to apply for a grant, obtain electricity, or complain about being over-taxed, they had to do it in English. As late as 1986 a Bord na Gaeilge report noted "...the administrative agencies of the state have been among the strongest forces for anglicisation in Gaeltacht areas". (page 41 of “The Irish Language in a Changing Society: Shaping The Future”. Author: Advisory Planning Committee of Bord na Gaeilge. Published by Criterion in 1986). The new state increased attempts to promote Irish through the school system. Some politicians claimed that the state would become predominantly Irish-speaking within a generation. However, it is generally agreed that this policy was clumsily implemented. From the mid-1940s onward the policy of teaching English-speaking children through Irish was abandoned. In the following decades, support for the language was progressively withdrawn. Whereas the first three presidents of Ireland (Douglas Hyde/Dubhghlas de hÍde, Sean T. O'Kelly/Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh and Eamon de Valera) and the fifth (Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh) were all so fluent in Irish that it became the working language in their official residence, later presidents struggled with any degree of fluency, its use declining to such an extent that it is only used now (if at all) in occasional speeches. Similarly, where earlier generations of Irish government leaders were highly fluent, recent prime ministers (Albert Reynolds/Ailbhe Mag Raghnaill, John Bruton, Bertie Ahern) had little fluency, struggling to pronounce passages of their speeches in Irish to their Ard-Fheiseanna (party conference(s), ). It is, though, disputed to what extent such professed language revivalists as de Valera genuinely tried to Gaelicise political life. Ernest Blythe did little during his time as Minister of Finance to assist Irish language projects beyond the vested interests of already established organisations. Even in the first Dáil Éireann, few speeches were delivered as Gaeilge (in Irish), with the exception of formal proceedings. None of the recent taoisigh (plural of 'Taoiseach', meaning 'prime minister') have been fluent in Irish; however, the two most recent Presidents, Mary McAleese (Máire Mhic Ghiolla Íosa) and Mary Robinson (Máire Mhic Róíbín) are fluent, though the latter studied the language while in office to improve her fluency. Every President of Ireland has all so far taken their inaugurational 'Declaration of Office' in the language, but they have the option of taking the English declaration at the inauguration. Even modern parliamentary legislation, though supposed to be issued in both Irish and English, is frequently only available in English. Much of publicly displayed Irish is ungrammatical, thus irritating both language activists and enemies of the language and contributing to the public image of the revival as phony and bogus. Many public bodies have Irish language or bilingual names, but some have downgraded the language. For example, Eircom (formerly Telecom Éireann) effectively dropped Irish from its telephone directories in 1999. An Post, the Republic's postal service, continues to have place names in the language on its postmarks, as well as recognising addresses (as does the Royal Mail in Northern Ireland). In an effort to address the half-committed attitude of Irish language use by the State, the Official Languages Act was passed in 2003. This act ensures that every publication made by a governmental body must be published in both official languages, Irish and English. In addition, the office of Language Commissioner has been set up to act as an ombudsman with regard to equal treatment in both languages. ombudsman, with placenames in English and Irish.]] In 2002, at the launch of what was to be a new traffic management system for Dublin, it was revealed that the vast majority of signs would be in English only. The justification offered was that, in making the English lettering large enough to be easily read by motorists from a distance, there was no space to include Irish. The use of the single Irish words left, 'An Lár' (meaning city centre) was criticised on the basis that no-one would know what it meant, even though it was a term used widely for decades on street signs. Even the once common method in Ireland of beginning and ending letters - beginning 'A Chara' (meaning friend) and ending 'Is Mise le Meas' - is becoming rarer. A major factor in the decline of spoken Irish has been the movement of English-speakers into the Gaeltacht (predominantly Irish speaking areas) and the return of native Irish-speakers who have acquired English-speaking families. This has been stimulated by government grants and infrastructure projects. "only about half Gaeltacht children learn Irish in the home... this is related to the high level of in-migration and return migration which has accompanied the economic restructuring of the Gaeltacht in recent decades" (page xxvi of The Irish Language in a Changing Society: Shaping The Future) . Many see this as a deliberate attempt by anti-nationalist politicians to wipe out the language. "That economic development of the kind undertaken was likely to have such consequences was readily predictable a decade ago" (p47). In a last-ditch effort to stop the complete collapse of Irish-speaking in Connemara in Galway, planning controls have been introduced on the building of new homes in Irish speaking areas. These are supposed to ensure that the proportion of English speakers in the local population does not increase. But even this may be too little, too late, as many of those areas have a majority of English speakers, with all Irish speakers being bilingual, using English as their everyday language except among themselves. Attempts have been made to offer some support for the language through the media, notably the launch of Raidió na Gaeltachta (Gaeltacht radio) and Teilifís na Gaeilge (Irish language television, called initially 'TnaG', now renamed TG4); both have been relatively successful. TG4 has offered Irish-speaking young people a forum for youth culture as Gaeilge (in Irish) through rock and pop shows, travel shows, dating games, and even a controversial award-winning soap opera in Irish called Ros na Rún (featuring, among other characters, an Irish-speaking gay couple and their child). Most of TG4's viewership, however, tends to come from showing Gaelic football, hurling and rugby matches, and films in English. There is also a daily Irish-language newspaper called Lá, a weekly called Foinse, and the Irish Times and Daily Ireland have pages in Irish, with articles appended with short lists giving the meaning of some of the words used in English. In 1938, the founder of the Conradh na Gaeilge, Douglas Hyde, was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland. The record of his delivering his inauguration 'Declaration of Office' in his native Roscommon Irish remains almost the only surviving remnant of anyone speaking in that dialect, which in effect died out with him. Over sixty years later, the majority of the Gaeltacht and Irish-speaking areas in existence as he took that oath no longer exist. There is a concerted effort to promote the language among recent immigrants. In 2003, the Qur'an was translated into Irish, following a collaboration between the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin and Foras na Gaeilge.

Northern Ireland

:Main article: Irish language in Northern Ireland As in the Republic, the Irish language is a minority language in Northern Ireland, known in Irish as Tuaisceart na hÉireann/Tuaisceart Éireann or na sé chontae (the six counties). Attitudes towards the language in Northern Ireland have traditionally reflected the political differences between its two divided communities. The language has been regarded with suspicion by unionists, who have associated it with the Catholic-dominated Republic, and more recently, with the republican movement. Many republicans in Northern Ireland, including Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, learnt Irish while in prison, a development known as the jailtacht. Although the language was taught in Catholic secondary schools (especially by the Christian Brothers), it was not taught at all in state (Protestant) schools and public signs in Irish were effectively banned under laws by the Parliament of Northern Ireland, which stated that only English could be used. These laws were not repealed by the British government until the early 1990s. However, Irish-medium schools, known as gaelscoileanna, had already been founded in Belfast and Derry, and an Irish-language newspaper called Lá ('day') was established in Belfast. BBC Radio Ulster began broadcasting a nightly half-hour programme in Irish in the early 1980s called Blas ('taste', 'accent'), and BBC Northern Ireland also showed its first TV programme in the language in the early 1990s. The Ultach Trust was also established, with a view to broadening the appeal of the language among Protestants, although hardline loyalists like Ian Paisley continued to ridicule it as a "leprechaun language". Ulster Scots, promoted by many loyalists, was, in turn, ridiculed by nationalists as "a DIY language for Orangemen" According to recent statistics, there is no significant difference between the number of Catholic and Protestant speakers of Ulster Scots in Ulster (see Ulster Scots language), although those involved in promoting Ulster-Scots are almost always unionist. Irish received official recognition in Northern Ireland for the first time in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement. A cross-border body known as Foras na Gaeilge was established to promote the language in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, taking over the functions of the previous Republic-only Bord na Gaeilge. The British government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect to Irish in Northern Ireland. It has been claimed that Belfast now represents the fastest growing centre of Irish language usage on the island - and the Good Friday Agreement's provisions on 'parity of esteem' have been used to give the language an official status there. In March 2005, the Irish language TV service TG4 began broadcasting from the Divis transmitter near Belfast, as a result of agreement between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Northern Ireland Office, although so far this is the only transmitter to carry it.

The Irish Language Today

The number of native Irish-speakers in the Republic of Ireland today is a tiny fraction of what it was at independence. The Official Languages Act of 2003 gave people the right to interact with state bodies in Irish. It is too early to assess how well this is working in practice. Other factors were outward migration of Irish speakers from the Gaeltacht and inward migration of English-speakers. The Planning and Development Act (2000) attempted to address the latter issue, but the response is almost certainly inadequate. Planning controls now require new housing in Gaeltacht areas to be allocated to English-speakers and Irish-speakers in the same ratio as the existing population of the area. This will not prevent houses allocated to Irish-speakers subsequently being sold on to English-speakers. Outward migration of Irish-speakers could be reduced if the state, which is the main employer in the Republic of Ireland, were to exercise its right to have certain jobs performed in Irish and relocated to the Gaeltacht. On 3rd December 2003 the Minister for Finance announced a new Decentralisation programme, moving over 10,000 civil and public service jobs to 53 locations in 25 other counties outside Dublin. The government explicitly said this was being done to boost the economy of outlying areas. None of these jobs were used to provide employment for native Irish-speakers in the Gaeltacht. According to data compiled by the Irish Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, only one quarter of households in Gaeltacht areas possess a fluency in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe, described the Irish language policy followed by Irish governments a 'complete and absolute disaster.' The Irish Times (January 6, 2002), referring to his analysis, which was initially published in the Irish language newspaper Foinse, quoted him as follows: 'It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but the number now is between 20,000 and 30,000.' According to the language survey, levels of fluency among families is 'very low', from 1% in Galway suburbs to a maximum of 8% parts of west Donegal. With such sharp decline, particularly among the young, the real danger exists that Irish will largely become extinct within two generations, possibly even one. While the language will continue to exist among English speakers who have learned fluency and are bilingual (though mainly English-speaking in their everyday lives) Gaeltachtaí embody more than just a language, but the cultural context in which it is spoken, through song, stories, social traditions, folklore and dance. The death of the Gaeltachtaí would make a break forever between Ireland's cultural past and identity, and its future. All sides, irrespective of their view on the methodology used by independent Ireland in its efforts to preserve the language, agree that such a loss would be a cultural tragedy of a monumental scale. The [http://www.usenglish.org/foundation U.S. English Foundation] has published analyses of the United States Census 2000, and states that 25,870 US residents [http://www.usenglish.org/foundation/research/lia/languages/irish_gaelic.pdf speak the Irish language at home (pdf file)]. An interest in the Irish language is maintained throughout the English speaking world among the Irish diaspora and there are active Irish language groups in North American, British and Australian cities. Several computer software products have the option of an Irish-language interface. Prominent examples include Mozilla Firefox[http://gaeilge.mozdev.org/], Mozilla Thunderbird[http://gaeilge.mozdev.org/], OpenOffice.org[http://ga.openoffice.org/], and Microsoft Windows XP[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0db2e8f9-79c4-4625-a07a-0cc1b341be7c&displaylang=ga].

Notes

¹Article in the Irish Independent. ² J.P.Mallory Two Perspectives on the Problem of Irish Origins Emania 9(1991)53, at 58: "The lexical evidence of the Irish language suggests that it was introduced into Ireland most plausibly after c.1200 BC and any attempt to set the arrival of the Irish before this date becomes increasingly difficult to sustain ... I find it difficult to imagine it as anything other than a language introduced by a population movement rather than a lingua franca or pidgin carried along trade routes ..."

External links

- [http://wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page:Gaeilge Irish main page at Wikisource]
- [http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Die_araner_mundart Die araner mundart] (a phonological description of the dialect of the Aran Islands, from 1899)
- [http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/gaeilge.html Gaeilge ar an ghréasán Irish online recources]
- [http://www.bnag.ie Foras na Gaeilge]
- [http://www.foinse.ie Foinse - weekly newspaper]
- [http://www.daltai.com Irish Language Information and Resources]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=gle Irish] at Ethnologue
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Irish-english/ Irish - English Dictionary]
- [http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/search.html Gaelic Dictionaries]
- [http://nualeargais.ie/gnag/gram.htm Braesicke's Gramadach na Gaeilge (Engl. translation)]
- [http://www.kids.net.au/encyclopedia-wiki/ir/Irish_language Kids.net.au Article]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Irish-english/ Irish English Dictionary] from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition

Northern Ireland

- [http://www.cinni.org/ultach/ Ultach Trust]
- [http://www.nuacht.com Lá]

Portavogie

Village

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England

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See also

External links

County Down

Geography

External link

Northern Ireland

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Symbols

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The Counties in Northern Ireland

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1925 to the present

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Further reading

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In English

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Shelta

Linguistic Structure

Syntax

Morphology

Orthography and pronunciation

Mutations

History and politics

Stages of the Irish language

The Irish Language Movement

Independent Ireland and the language

Northern Ireland

The Irish Language Today

Notes

See also

External links

Northern Ireland