Tagged with Irish language …

An Irish-Speaking Island

An Irish-Speaking Island

The 19th century is commonly regarded as the century in which the Irish language suffered a calamitous collapse: a century in which it survived on the margins, largely irrelevant in politics, in law, in education. English (it is argued) was the vehicle of modernisation, Irish increasingly the language of the poor, the old, the ragged tellers of ancient stories. Continue reading →

The Origins of the Irish

The Origins of the Irish

There’s good reason that most archaeologists wouldn’t touch the subject of Irish origins with a barge pole: the topic involves a very unfashionable cultural historical approach to the archaeological record of a period of Ireland’s existence which is clouded in obscurity and entails a moras of issues that most archaeologists spend a lifetime trying to avoid. Continue reading →