Landscapes of the Irish language: discursive constructions of authenticity in the Irish diaspora

Almost 2 million people in the North and South of Ireland identify as Irish speakers and an estimated 70 million around the globe can claim Irish heritage. While Irish ancestry may be distant for many, the Irish language is active in numerous locations in the
diaspora, as documented in research profiling communities across the globe (e.g. Callahan, 1994; Garland 2008; Giles 2016; Kallen 1984, 1994; Noone, 2012a; Ó hEadhra, 1998;Ó Conchubhair 2008; Walsh & NíDhúda 2015 inter alia) and evidenced by the existence of many cultural and language groups. Census figures indicate that at least 25,000 people currently speak the language in Canada, the United States and
Australia alone (Statistics Canada, 2013; United States Census Bureau, 2015; Australian
Bureau of Statistics, 2012), yet very few in-depth general accounts of Irish-language use
in the diaspora exist. Linguistic practices within Irish communities worldwide vary
widely with regard to Irish-language use and language ideologies, with each community
subject to distinct concerns, histories and discourses. As such, each has distinct
possibilities for creating social and cultural meaning, possibilities that are
fundamentally shaped by the socio-cultural and politico-historical contexts within which
the Irish language has existed in the last 200 years. This paper investigates how the Irish
language is recruited in constructions of cultural authenticity in three sites in the Irish
diaspora: Boston, U.S.; Melbourne, Australia; and St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.
Research is based on open-ended qualitative interviews with 41 learners and speakers
regarding the Irish language and their own language practices, and in extensive
participant observation of cultural and language-related activities in each site. Thematic
content analysis of interview data provides the basis for ethnographic descriptions of
each site. A Foucauldian understanding of discourse (e.g. Pennycook, 1994; Foucault,
1981, 1972) affords the identification and delineation of predominant discourses within
which Irish-language use is implicated as a meaningful social act, and that are enacted
or actively resisted within and across communities, as well as key subject positions
made available within these discourses. This approach provides the basis for an
exploration of (i) the processes of authenticating a cultural practice within discourse; (ii)
how such processes shape the changing configurations of who is included and who is
excluded within dominant politico-cultural discourses; and (iii) the various formations
of community that exist within and across the diaspora space. The paper shows that the
role of the Irish language in authenticating Irish cultural identity is subject to
reworkings across time and space, as exemplified in the variety of local meanings it has
taken on across the three diaspora sites featured.