Even the new British ambassador is embracing the cúpla focal.
Introducing herself after presenting her Letters of Credence to President Michael D Higgins last week Kara Owens opened her short video on X in Irish.
“Dia dhaoibh. Is mise Cara Owen agus is mór an onóir dom mé féin a chur in aithne daoibh mar ambasadóir nua na Breataine chun na hÉireann,” she said last week. (Hello. I’m Kara Owen and it is a great honour for me to introduce myself as the new British ambassador to Ireland).
Her embrace of the Irish language comes as the race to decide whether President Higgins’s successor will be Heather Humphreys, who does not speak Irish, or Catherine Connolly who speaks it fluently, enters its final days.
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But does fluency in Irish matter in an Irish president. And is the issue a factor in voting intentions, particularly among younger voters? In short, could her Gaeilge help swing it for Connolly?
[ If Catherine Connolly wins, it means one of two thingsOpens in new window ]
Last week’s Irish Times opinion poll asked those surveyed what was their “most important” value in a presidential candidate. Just 3 per cent said “speaks Irish”. But the fact this option was included at all is significant.
It was the first time the Irish language featured as an issue in an Irish Times political poll and was included, says political editor Pat Leahy, because “anecdotally” there was evidence it was one for voters.
Perhaps, if respondents were asked to name their top three values in a candidate, the Irish language might have featured more strongly.
Certainly, a vox-pop in a recent Irish Times video among Trinity College students suggested it was important to them, with all those featured indicating they would vote for Catherine Connolly, and her speaking Irish was important, they said.
Of ten young voters who spoke to The Irish Times in Dublin’s Ilac shopping centre in recent days, two said they wouldn’t vote at all. One said the Irish language was not important and did not indicate how he might vote.
The seven remaining said they were voting, or leaning towards voting, for Connolly, all citing her ability to speak Irish as a factor.
It was “most important” for just one. Niamh O’Sullivan (19) from Swords said Irish “is very much” an issue for her.
“I am leaning towards Catherine Connolly because I did hear Heather Humphrey doesn’t speak [Irish]. I feel as the leader of the country you should know the national language. Imagine the head of state in Spain couldn’t speak Spanish.
“Without the Irish language nothing separates us from the British, or the Americans or the Canadians,” she said.
Michael Murphy (30) said: “The president should speak Irish, yes.” It wasn’t his main reason for preferring Connolly but he valued Irish. “With Kneecap and bands like that, there is a bit of a cultural movement around the language at the moment. I know in Wales they have reclaimed their language. I think Ireland should do the same.”
Though friends Aidan and Sally don’t believe Irish fluency is crucial in a president, they say it is important. They plan to vote for Connolly. “I think we should keep our Irish, but it wouldn’t be a determining factor,” says Aidan (19).
Back in Trinity College the Cumann Gaelach (Irish society) is hosting its weekly Anraith agus Arán (soup and bread). The lunch attracts about 60 students to the Seomra Gaeilge, where conversation is as Gaeilge.
“The cumann has grown a lot,” says reachtaire (auditor), Hugh Ó Caoláin (22). The 4th year mechanical engineering student says the cumann is now “one of the biggest societies” with over 450 members.
When asked whether young people see Irish, as this writer did in the 1980s, as boring, backward, pointless and imposed by a repressive education system, he shakes his head and laughs.
“I think there has been a huge mentality change. It doesn’t represent conservatism any more. It’s progressive. It’s about non-colonialism and reclaiming our indigenous culture. A lot of young people look at the culture that was and realise such richness is being lost.
“Halloween, our Samhain, is now represented by plastic pumpkins. Our language and our culture is being lost to global events that have nothing to do with indigenous Irish culture.”
For Réiltín Ní Churnáin (20), a second-year Spanish and history student from Rathfarnham, Dublin, Irish represents “community, helping one another, protecting smaller communities”.
“Speaking Irish I feel very tied to my identity as an Irish person, and the shared experience [with other minority language-speakers] of having to fight for the right to speak it and use it day to day.”
Dearbhla Sacoman (21) from Co Meath, studying Irish and history of art, “absolutely love[s] Irish”.
“It just feels so natural, so right. I feel connected to myself, who I am, my history, my culture, the placenames around me.
“I don’t think older people understand that. Every time I talk to them they say how much they hated Irish, that it was forced on them. I think they should take a page from younger people and feel the sense of connection and community that’s there.”
All born since the Troubles and the decline of the Catholic Church they make no link between the Irish language and violent nationalism or moral repression. “As a gay man, I would always view Irish as a symbol of a modern progressive, non-colonial, inclusive Ireland,” says Pól Ó hÍomhair (20) from Skerries.
Far from being a “useless” language, they see career opportunities aplenty due to their fluency – in the EU where it is an official language, and at home – in public bodies, the arts, media and advertising into which Government funding is flowing.
All will vote for Catherine Connolly, and although not necessarily just because she speaks Irish, it is a factor.
“I am [a] left, left-wing voter and couldn’t imagine voting for any other candidate anyway,” says Ó hÍomhair. “I think she better represents the grass roots, understands what is happening. Her Irish-speaking aligns with that and is certainly a confirming factor.”
Osgur Ó Ciardha (45), who in 2016 founded the pop-up Gaeltacht that still sees Irish speakers in their hundreds gathering in Dublin pubs, has seen Irish described as “cool” and “having a moment” many times over the decades.
“Something feels different this time,” he says. “It is almost like a tsunami now. With Kneecap, [Irish-language film] An Cailín Ciúin, there’s a real opportunity for that all to catch and grow and run away.”
Julian de Spáinn, general secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge, agrees. “Attitudes to the language have changed dramatically. As the world has become a smaller with travel, the internet, global brands, I think young people especially are looking to see: ‘What identifies me as where I am from?’ Language is crucial in that.”
Young people “do not want greenwashing, do not want LGBT-washing” says Ó Ciardha. “They want authenticity, something that has depth, meaning – where the mission, vision and values all align.”
And context is always important. “So, the end of the Troubles, the departure of the Catholic Church from the scene – all of that is allowing the Irish language to grow and become that spine of Irish identity.
“People can engage in it in a coffee-book kind of way, they can go to a Gaeltacht course and learn to speak it fluently, or anything in between.”
Echoing younger voices, they believe Irish is featuring in the presidential race, and will increasingly be an issue for voters in other elections.
“To be at a point where the ability to speak Irish might be a key driver in young people voting for a potential president – that’s huge, that’s something really extraordinary,” says Ó Ciardha. “The cultural cringe is finally falling away. It’s powerful.”
