Kerry councillors call for the expansion of the county’s Gaeltacht areas

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

Kerry councillors have called for the expansion of the county’s Gaeltacht areas as the spread of Irish continues to stagnate.

Updating the over 50-year old boundaries could bolster the support for Irish in these regions and recognise existing Irish-speaking communities that are being left out.

Dingle-based Councillor Robert Brosnan believes the conversation about the county’s Gaeltacht boundaries should be had, and potential expansion considered.

Little has changed since their rigorous definition, with only Brandon’s incorporation into the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht in 1974 being the substantive change in Kerry.

“The Gaeltachts were drawn up maybe a hundred years ago…and some say at the time there was a bit of corruption involved in parochial politics, and this fella didn’t get on with this fella, so they were left out,” said Cllr Brosnan.

“At Annascaul and Inch there’s a vibrant community of Irish speakers. At Foley’s bar in Inch they even have a Ciorcal Comhrá.”

“Maybe there should be a review of the boundaries of the Gaeltacht status. It’s advantageous because it draws in grants and supports for areas that would be disadvantaged because of their rural isolation and lack of infrastructure.”

The first Coimisiún na Gaeltacht established the rough designation of Gaeltacht areas in 1926, classifying areas with more than 80pc Irish-speaking population.

However, in the 1950s another commission concluded the boundaries were ill-defined and they were significantly reduced to resemble their current expanse today.

The decision gave Kerry’s other Gaeltacht, Uíbh Ráthach, on the Iveragh Peninsula its distinctive ‘patchwork’ territory which local councillor Norma Moriarty claims has impacted the area.

“One of the main difficulties we’ve had in the Uíbh Ráthach Gaeltacht over the years is when they originally drew the maps, they drew what was a patchwork as opposed to an enclosed entity that made walking within that entity very clear-cut,” she said.

“If you drive from Catherdaniel to Waterville, you go in and out of the Gaeltacht area 10 times.”

“If it is ultimately by everybody who’s living locally being pointed to as an inhibitor to the development of the language, then surely it should be looked at and removed as an obstacle, or at least a roadmap developed for how it can be removed as an obstacle.”

Cllr Moriarty was involved in a promising project in Waterville which was looking to avail of support from Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta.

However, the national Gaeltacht organisation was unable to provide assistance due to Waterville falling outside the Gaeltacht, despite being surrounded by the area.

“We were approached by a lovely project which would have been a very good use of a building…when they heard that the actual building was in the village of Waterville, they said we can’t go any further with it,” said Cllr Moriarty.

“It would have been a lovely venue and a lovely use of that venue for the development of the Irish language and young people in interacting in play. So the boundaries are just daft, they mean nothing.”

Census figures show the number of Irish speakers aged three years and over in Kerry’s Gaeltacht areas has dropped slightly between 2011 and 2022, down from 6,185 to 6,086.

Nationally, the number of Irish speakers has slightly risen in the same period, from around 1,770,000 to 1,870,000, though almost 473,000 in the 2022 census stated that they never spoke it.

The prominence of second homes continues to make housing expensive in Kerry’s scenic Gaeltacht areas, while planning permission can be illusive due to a variety of factors, including affecting the often spectacular views.

“A lot of our Gaeltacht areas are on the coastline and the coastline attracts tourism, but more so what it attracts is retirees who have deep pockets from cities and buy up everything,” said Cllr Brosnan.

“They are consuming our heritage in the process as well, because a lot of them have no interest in the Irish language. They may have felt that it was forced upon them in school, and they’ve no time for that.”

Despite the challenges, Cllr Brosnan remains optimistic about the future of Irish and feels younger generations are now being inspired to speak it from a more diverse range of sources.

“There’s definitely a bigger appetite to speak Irish…I think some of that was brought about by community groups outside of Irish language movements like sports,” he said.

“How the Dingle team utilized the Irish language in interviews and things when they won the All-Ireland…the captain, Paul Ganey, giving all his speeches in Irish. I think that kind of inspired a generation.”

“The new generations now actually wear a badge of pride when they talk their language, because it’s one of the oldest languages in Europe…I think there’s a national sense of pride that was never there before in regards to cultural language, and that’s a hugely positive thing.”