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An Ghaeilge Faoi Ghlas- The Irish Language
revival in the North of Ireland- Power,
Resistance and Decolonisation- A Fanonian
Interpretation Is Fanon Finished? American
University of Paris, 30-31 March 2012Feargal Mac
Ionnrachtaigh
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Ideology

• Rudes Formulation
• Mothers Milk(inherent) Derived Ideology
• Activists of Decolonisation
• Frantz Fanon
• Paulo Freire
• Ngugi wa Thiongo
• Alberto Memmi
• Kwame Nkrumah

Frantz Fanon
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Imperialism and Colonialism

• Moral Civilisers
• The basic legitimation of conquest over native
  peoples is the conviction of our superiority, not
  merely our mechanical, economic and military
  superiority, but our moral superiority. Our
  dignity rests on that quality, and it underlies
  our right to direct the rest of humanity.
• French commissar-general Jules Harmond
• Economic motive
• the most powerful force in world history over
  the last four or five centuries, carving up whole
  continents while oppressing indigenous peoples
  and obliterating entire civilizations. Parenti
• Dehumanisation
• As if to show the totalitarian character of
  colonial exploitation the settler paints the
  native as a sort of quintessence of evil. Native
  society is not simply described as a society
  lacking in values, but also the negation of
  values the enemy of values the absolute evil
  corrosive destroying disfiguring
  Fanon

Barbarism
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The role of Culture in Colonialism

• The most potent weapon in the hands of the
  oppressor is the minds of the oppressed
• Steve Biko-Black Consciousness
• Kenyan example
• ..one of the most humiliating experiences was
  to be caught speaking Gikúyú in the vicinity of
  the school. The culprit was given corporal
  punishment- three to five strokes of the cane on
  bare buttocks- or was made to carry a metal plate
  around the neck with the inscriptions such as I
  AM STUPID or I AM A DONKEY. And how did the
  teachers catch the pupils? A button was initially
  given to one pupil who was supposed to hand it
  over to whoever was caught speaking his mother
  tongue. Whoever had the button at the end of the
  day would sing who had given it to him and the
  ensuing process would bring out all the culprits
  of the day. Thus children were turned into
  witch-hunters and in the process were being
  taught the lucrative value of being a traitor to
  ones immediate community
• 
  Ngugi Wa Thongo

Steve Biko
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Neo-Colonialism

• Two aims according to Parenti
• the removal of a conspicuously intrusive
  colonial rule made it more difficult for
  nationalist elements within the previously
  colonized countries to mobilize anti-imperialist
  sentiments.
• the imperialist interests are free to
  concentrate on accumulating capitalwhich is all
  they really want to do
• Kwame Nkrumah
• Neo-colonialism is a greater danger to
  independent countries than is colonialism....the
  people are divided from their leaders and,
  instead of providing true leadership and guidance
  which is informed at every point by the ideal of
  the general welfare, leaders come to neglect the
  very people who put them in power and
  incautiously become instruments of suppression on
  behalf of the neo-colonialists.
• Fanon- Nationalist Bourgeoisie

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Decolonisation

• Frantz Fanon, Cultural revival and the three
  steps to decolonisation
• to fight for national culture means in the
  first place to fight for the liberation of the
  nation, that material keystone which makes the
  building of a culture possible.
• Paulo Freire and the importance of empowerment
  through education
• The more the alienated culture is uncovered,
  the more the oppressive reality in which it
  originates is exposed.knowledge of the
  alienated culture leads to transforming action
  resulting in a culture which is being freed from
  alienation.

Paulo Freire
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Cultural colonisation of Ireland
It hath ever been the use of the conquerors to
despise the language of the conquered, and to
force him by all means to learn his Edmund
Spenser
For Cultural
invasion to succeed, it is essential that those
invaded become convinced of their intrinsic
inferiority. Since everything has its opposite,
if those who are invaded consider themselves
inferior, they must necessarily recognize the
superiority of the invaders. The more the
invasion is accentuated and those invaded are
alienated from the spirit of their own culture
and from themselves, the more the latter want to
be like the invaders to walk like them, dress
like them, talk like them. Paulo Freire


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Conquest, dispossession and assimilation

• The Tudor conquest Power and Profit
• Moral justification Civilizing the Natives from
  barbarism
• Briseadh na nGael The Battle of Kinsale 1601
• The Penal Laws The ascent of English
• Assimilation Indigenous political leadership
  and the Catholic church
• The formation of the National schools 1831
• An Drochshaoil The Great Hunger 1845

Church
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Decolonisation and Reconquest

• Cumann Lúthchleas Gael 1884
• Conradh na Gaeilge 1893
• Pádraig Pearse-When the Gaelic League was
  formed the Irish revolution began.
• Easter Rising 1916
• Fanon- violence is a cleansing force Pearse-
  bloodshed is a cleansing and sanctifying thing
• The First Dáil and the vision of Pearse
• Not only free but Gaelic speaking and not only
  Gaelic speaking but free.

Douglas Hyde
Pádraig Pearse
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Partition, split and counter-revolution

• Revival in retreat
• It would be well for the public to inquire how
  much the Irish language is used in Free State
  departments. Gossip is current to the effect that
  Irish is not welcome in these departments, to the
  extent that the staffs of the land Commission are
  strictly forbidden to sign their names in Irish.
  (1924)
• Continuation of the project of
  decolonisation
• It is the duty of Gaelic revivalists to
  be socialists. The Gaelic-speaking population in
  the Gaeltachts make up a class that is the most
  abandoned and the most oppressed of the Irish
  people. Their salvation and the salvation of the
  language are one and the same thing to me. But
  this is not possible without the reconquest of
  Ireland- Ireland and its productive resources to
  be taken back into the control of the people. To
  me the revolution that is necessary for the
  reconquest is necessary also for the salvation of
  Gaelic language. Therefore any action which
  raises the spirit and enthusiasm of the
  Gaelic-speaking public is part and an important
  part of the reconquest.
• Máirtín Ó
  Cadhain
• During the colonial period the people are
  called upon to fight against oppression after
  national liberation, they are called upon to
  fight against poverty, illiteracy and
  underdevelopment. The struggle, they say, goes
  on. The people realise that life is an unending
  contest
• 
  Fanon

Máirtín Ó Cadhain
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Hostility and Marginalisation inThe Orange
State

• What use is it here in this busy part of the
  Empire to teach our children the Irish language?
  What use would it have to them? Is it not leading
  them along a road which has not practical value?
  We have not stopped the teaching we have stopped
  the grants, which I think amounted to 1,500 a
  year. We have stopped the grants simply because
  we do not see that these boys being taught Irish
  would be any better or loyal citizens.
  
• Stormont/NI Prime-Minister James Craig,
  1933.
• The language is of no practical utility, but may
  be of much value to incipient traitors, as a
  means of fomenting troublethe only people
  interested in this language are the avowed
  enemies of Northern Ireland.
• 
  William Grant MP
• Language marginalised in education system,
  teaching of history stopped
• Colonialism is not satisfied merely with
  holding a people in its grip and emptying the
  natives brain of all form and content.it turns
  to the past of the oppressed people, and
  distorts, disfigures and destroys it
• 
  Fanon

James Craig
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A Hidden Ulster

• Ardscoil Ultach 1928
• Cumann Chluain Árd 1936
• Planting the Seed Gaeltacht Bhóthar Seoighe
  1969
• First Gaelscoil- Bunscoil Phobal Feirste 1971
• An Ghaeilge faoi Ghlas Long Kesh Prison
  Struggle

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Long Kesh- The Cages

• Internment and status in the Cages
• Cage 11- Gaeilge más féidir, Béarla más
  gá gt knowing subjects not mere recipients
• Fanonian Construct
• Our main motivation was our politics
  because we knew how political the language was in
  Cage 11we recognised the lengths the
  imperialists went to destroy the language and
  from this reasoned that it must be important.
  When you look at imperialists all over the world
  the first thing they try and do is destroy the
  culture of the nation and attempt and replace it
  with there own as it makes the people easier to
  manage!with all the classes you were taking
  yourself and with helping others we were doing up
  to 13 hours a day learning the language
• 
  
• 
  Jim McCann
• Formal Education- preparing for revival

Bobby Sands
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H-Blocks- Ar an Phluid-Resisting through
Language

• Ulsterisation, criminalisation,
  Normalisation
• The Blanket and No Wash Protests-
  1976-1981
• Increase in brutality and intimidation
• I remember one day, shouting a class out
  at the hinge of the door when a screw slid in and
  threw hot water over my face- Jake Mac Siacais
• It gave us hope- Organic growth of language as
  means of communication and resistance
• ....In the difficult times on the blanket,
  the language functioned as a weapon against the
  systemas an inspirational tool to oppose the
  state from inside prison as we had opposed it on
  the outside...I never understood how important,
  how powerful and how central it is to the
  identity of a person and especially in my own
  life until the end of the hunger strikes....the
  language helped and transformed all those who
  learned it in prison.
• 
  Máirtín Ó Maolmhuaidh
• Hunger Strikes 1980-81

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Bringing the Language to the people

• Language represents emancipatory power that
  trancends the immediacy of the Blanket protest
  itself and the very prison walls of Long Kesh
• The Hunger Strikes changed
  everything...transformed the views of people who
  had never thought of the Irish language as a
  means of struggle beforethere was always
  sympathy for the language but now people wanted
  to do something about that sympathy
• 
  Eoghan Ó Néill
• Gaels against H-Blocks- Building
  influence
• Reclaiming the streets- Gaelicising
  streetnames, challenging hegemony
• The laughter of our Children- Growth of
  Irish Medium Education
• -British Government Reaction- Divide and
  Conquer

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Legacy, Future and Challenges

• -Freireian Conscientisationgt critical
  consciousness amongst the community of prisoners
  could both resignify and recast resistance while
  inspiring those beyond prison walls
• From the Bottom Up- Transformational activismgt
  Social beings transforming not as knowledge
  recipients but knowing subjects and finishing
  as Agents for Change
• Current Status Challenges - Second-Class
  Citizens-Human Rights?
• Co-opted by the State or movement independence?
• Importance of Ideology Developing campaigning
  culture of struggle
• Project of Decolonisation gt Another world is
  possible
• the past, our stories local and global, the
  present, our communities, cultures, languages and
  social practices - all may be spaces of
  marginalisation, but they have also become spaces
  of resistance and hope. Tuhiwai Smith