Language
The 1960s also saw the birth of a new attitude towards the Gaelic language. Since the struggle for independence, there had been a hope in the revival of the language. Many intellectuals and politicians had stressed the importance of it as one of the constitutive elements of Irishness. One clear example is Douglas Hyde who, already in the XXX, had claimed that it was necessary to “de-anglicize” Ireland in order to XXX. Gaelic was thus promoted and made compulsory in schools when the new State was born so that the number of native speakers would grow and the language would come alive again.
Still, the project of a return to Irish proved to be impossible to put into practice and by 1960s, less and less people knew it or used it in everyday conversation. The native speakers of Irish were less than 70,000 out of a population of 2,884,002 people in 1966 [Brown & Tobin (152) & census page, see website at the bottom of the page]. Further, an investigation, which was conducted from 1970 onwards on instruction of the Minister for Finance, demonstrated that the numbers of habitual speakers were considerably low. Only around 15% of people made use of Gaelic in various contexts, i.e. with …show more content…
In fact, as in various other consumerist societies, in Ireland there was a growing interest in Irish traditional music. [see tobin p. 17 “Irish traditional music gained a whole new generation of adherents in the 1960s. This was due in part to an international revival of interest in folk music in the first half of the decade, in which Ireland, with its extraordinary rich tradition, was well placed to participate. But more importantly, it was the work of Seán ó Ríada, who transformed the sound of traditional music through his Celteoirí Cualainn.” (17); (The Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers; Tommy
The 1960s also saw the birth of a new attitude towards the Gaelic language. Since the struggle for independence, there had been a hope in the revival of the language. Many intellectuals and politicians had stressed the importance of it as one of the constitutive elements of Irishness. One clear example is Douglas Hyde who, already in the XXX, had claimed that it was necessary to “de-anglicize” Ireland in order to XXX. Gaelic was thus promoted and made compulsory in schools when the new State was born so that the number of native speakers would grow and the language would come alive again.
Still, the project of a return to Irish proved to be impossible to put into practice and by 1960s, less and less people knew it or used it in everyday conversation. The native speakers of Irish were less than 70,000 out of a population of 2,884,002 people in 1966 [Brown & Tobin (152) & census page, see website at the bottom of the page]. Further, an investigation, which was conducted from 1970 onwards on instruction of the Minister for Finance, demonstrated that the numbers of habitual speakers were considerably low. Only around 15% of people made use of Gaelic in various contexts, i.e. with …show more content…
In fact, as in various other consumerist societies, in Ireland there was a growing interest in Irish traditional music. [see tobin p. 17 “Irish traditional music gained a whole new generation of adherents in the 1960s. This was due in part to an international revival of interest in folk music in the first half of the decade, in which Ireland, with its extraordinary rich tradition, was well placed to participate. But more importantly, it was the work of Seán ó Ríada, who transformed the sound of traditional music through his Celteoirí Cualainn.” (17); (The Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers; Tommy