6/23/21 An Gaeltacht: Formation of the Gaeltacht
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TIMELINE OF IRISH DEVOLUTION TO INDEPENDENCE:
- Irish Free State (6 December 1922)
- Ireland/?ire (29 December 1937)
- Republic of Ireland (21 December 1948)
Coimisiún na Gaeltachta (CnG)
- CnG 1926: CnG 1926 Report
Established during the Irish Free State in 1926, CnG was tasked with initially defining Irish-speaking districts (areas where at least 25% of population used Irish as an everyday vernacular) and making recommendations as to how to promote the language therein.
Many of those who spoke to the commission belonged to the clergy or were professional men – and they dominate this narrative.
“The glaring defect of the system is the hopeless outlook. Emigration is the sole channel open to drain off the overflow of the population, and brains and physical energy are swept from us in the process of depletion.”
- CnG 1963: CnG 1963 Report
Redefined boundaries of the Gaeltacht from 15 districts within the 26 counties of the Republic to just seven due to language loss in those areas. CnG criticized the 1926 report for not paying sufficient attention to the role of economically driven emigration of Irish-speakers from the Gaeltacht to the US.
- CnG 2002: CnG 2002 Report
The Commission reported that it was of the view that “it will not be possible to maintain the Gaeltacht as an area in which Irish remains a community language unless a fundamental change occurs in the way Irish is treated and in the status of Irish in the rest of the country.” In its work, it focussed primarily on a strategic approach to finding an effective implementation structure which would allow its recommendations to be realised.