Language In Irish Language

1.2.1. Language
The 1960s also saw the birth of a new attitude towards the Gaelic language. Since the struggle for independence, there had been a hope for the revival of the language. Many intellectuals and politicians had stressed the importance of it as one of the constitutive elements of Irishness. One clear example is Douglas Hyde who, already in the XXX, had claimed that it was necessary to “de-anglicize” Ireland in order to XXX. Gaelic was thus promoted and made compulsory in schools when the new State was born so that the number of native speakers would grow and the language would come alive again.
However, the project of a return to Irish proved to be impossible to put into practice and by 1960s, a progressively smaller number people

Upon its creation, the television service had accepted to “bear constantly in mind the national aims of restoring the Irish language and preserving and developing the national culture.” (Broadcasting Act, Section 17). Despite these premises, just a few programmes were in Irish in that period. This provoked the reactions of various language supporters who attacked the low-quality of much of the material broadcast and hoped to change the situation [Savage 246-247] (Tobin 65). The reasons are linked again to material conditions: audiences and advertisers. Indeed, some personalities within TÉ thought that a prominence of Irish-language programmes in the daily schedule “could lead to a loss of communication with audiences” [Tobin 65]; the population would not welcome it [Brown; cf. Savage 287]. Related to this is the fact that there were too few companies ready to advertise during the transmission of such programmes: ratings would be too low to result advantageous to them. Hence, since it relied on advertising revenue, the television service could not afford major changes (Brown; Savage

In fact, as in various other consumerist societies, there was a growing interest in folk music in Ireland. Traditional music had always existed in the country but the way people made use of it changed. It came to be a good for consumption and amongst the most popular artists were The Clancy Brothers, The Dubliners and Seán Ó Ríada [Tobin 17]. The success of this phenomenon, just as that of other similar ones, is symptomatic of the existence of a “gap between the official image of Irish people and the reality.” [Tobin 67]. If even the most “sacred” aspects of Irish tradition and identity were exploited for commercial purposes and with positive responses by people, it meant that the way the Irish saw themselves was