Irish is as alive and modern as any other language. Many of the island’s inhabitants live in Irish every day, but many others reject it as useless. That is why Ciara Ní É has asked the Irish to touch on the false beliefs they have heard about Irish in relation to other languages. Put English, French, Chinese... in the place the Irish says... and, look, the sincerity of the statement is evident.

“How is English going to be a modern language, which does not have a word of its own to say croissant?” said a tweet, turning around the painful convictions that it has had to hear about the Irish. Another says that it would be unthinkable if the Air France system did not accept the accents when making a reservation and could not rename Chloé. The Irish airline Aer Lingus has not adapted its infrastructure to the typographical signs of Irish.

Another tweets shows a road sign indicating the name of the locality, in Irish and English. The tweet says: “English is a great waste to tax payers!

In another tweet they have used French: “It cannot be forgotten, of course, that in France there are French-speaking agents. If you want tourists to go to Provence, make that place incomprehensible, the signs in French are naive and unique.”

Dozens of tweets of this kind have been read over the past few weeks on Twitter, which shows that there has been a desire to break down prejudices. “I wanted to teach those who don’t know Irish how ridiculous some of the ideas they use spontaneously, if they replace the Irish word with another language it looks clear,” explains Ciara Ní É to ARGIA. He's a professor and a writer, and he came up with the idea that he was at the airport.

Sharing experiences

The hashtag #NílSé CGL has been an easy but effective way to empower and strengthen the community. “Many of the experiences reported are very widespread among those of us who have made the choice to live in Irish, tell us every day and risk being considered normal,” says Ní É. “It is a good thing that we can share our experiences and that we have created a space of mutual support, to express that what is said of our language is not right, hence the name of the traol.”

As the official language of the Republic of Ireland, all citizens learn Irish at school. But as with the Basque Country, the school has not guaranteed the full dissemination of the language. Many citizens refuse to speak outside of school and associate themselves with the Irish language with heavy lessons and boring readings. The Irish school has become a social pretext for abandoning it. However, another tweet who has participated in this Twitter campaign has wondered: Has anyone in England stopped speaking in English at school because they bothered to read Shakespeare?

Ciara Ní É believes that Irish needs visibility in society: “The situation is like a unilateral mirror, we see the English speakers, but they do not.” Since they have no relationship with the Irish outside school, they do not equate it to other languages: “Many do not know that Irish is a living and everyday language for people of all ages and circumstances.”

A starting point for reflection

In any case, Ní É has made it clear that the aim of this campaign is not to attack those who do not speak Irish. What is more, he has welcomed the broad impact it has had on the English media. Most of the tweets have been written in English, so the big media on the island have made it a niche. “One good thing we can get out of here is that people may reflect on whether their view of the Irish language is the right one and realise the prejudices they have against the Irish.”

The barriers to living in Irish and the contempt that speakers have to suffer are common in all the small languages, alongside the giant and hegemonic languages, or underneath, because surviving is not an easy task. Many of the phrases denounced by the hashtag #NílSé CGL are also known by the Basques. For example, hearing that Irish is ‘politicised’ is normal in the Republic and, of course, in Northern Ireland.

It is therefore to be welcomed that a humble campaign in favour of the Irish language has such an echo. Even more so if we take into account that 2018 is Bliain na Gaeilge, that is, the Irish Year. The Irish community has found a loophole for empowering itself in the most global language through a campaign that can serve as an example for the other minority languages.