The West Limerick Gaeltacht in the Early Twentieth Century: Irish Language Shift and Schooling

The Irish language in southwestern Co. Limerick in the early twentieth century stood at a decisive point between loss and revival when the newly independent Irish Free State was defining its Irish language policy as a key element of state building. Irish was spoken in this rural area at the time by a majority of those over forty years of age and while in decline overall, had seen a sharp increase in speakers the younger age cohorts through its introduction as a school subject, taught from before independence, by local teachers. The paper analyses native language survival and local efforts at consolidation in the context of early 20th century language policy, drawing on data from the national censuses (1901 and 1911), the Gaeltacht Commission Report (1926), education and Gaelic League archives, and secondary contemporary sources. The decline of Irish as a community vernacular and the role of the education system in that process, and then the contrary dynamics of the early twentieth-century reinvigoration of the language through schooling and the Gaelic League is of wider relevance for the time and has implications for successful contemporary interventions in language ideologies and practices.