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Jailtacht: The Irish Language, Symbolic Power and Political Violence in Northern Ireland, 1972-2008
Author(s): Diarmait Mac Giolla Chriost (Author)
- Publisher: University of Wales Press
- Publication Date: 31 Jan. 2024
- Language: English
- Print length: 280 pages
- ISBN-10: 9780708324967
- ISBN-13: 9780708324967
Book Description
Using research methods and techniques, the author closely analyses the emergence of the Irish language amongst republican prisoners and ex prisoners in Northern Ireland from the 1970 s up until the present. This pioneering study shows how the language was used exclusively in parts of the prison, despite the efforts of the prison authorities to suppress the language, and the dramatic impact this had on Irish society. Drawing on interviews with the prisoners, and various other materials, Mac Giolla Chriost shows how these developments gave rise to the popular coinage of the term Jailtacht , a deformation of Gaeltacht – the official Irish-speaking district of the Republic of Ireland, to describe this unique linguistic phenomenon.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Mac Giolla Chriost s study of the role of Irish in the republican conflict in Northern Ireland and, more broadly, the often-complex relationship between language and political violence is nuanced, innovative, and deeply compelling. This is sociolinguistic study at its very best. –Professor Stephen May, The University of Auckland
About the Author
Dr Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost, appointed as Lecturer in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University in 2004. He is currently a Reader there and a member of the School s Research Unit on Language, Policy and Planning. He is a native of Ireland and an authority on linguistic minorities and language planning, and, in particular, the situation of the Irish language.
