Whither the Irish Language Act? Language policies in Northern Ireland

Abstract

This paper examines language policies in Northern Ireland vis-à-vis the Irish language. Whilst the devolution of powers has benefitted Welsh and Scottish Gaelic through the creation of separate language acts dedicated to them, there is no such act for Irish. Taking this policy discrepancy as its point of departure, this paper investigates how the peace process brought about through the Good Friday Agreement (1998. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-belfast-agreement) and the St Andrews Agreement (2006. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/136651/st_andrews_agreement-2.pdf) has impacted Irish in Northern Ireland. The investigation rests upon an analysis of the language policy legislation using critical theory. The paper takes a domain-based approach and examines statutes pertaining to different policy domains including administration, media, law, and healthcare to assess how the status of Irish has changed in different policy domains as a result of the peace process in Northern Ireland. In terms of methodology, this paper adheres to historical-structural analysis (HSA) which views language policies as a mechanism of maintaining power and inequality in society to explore the historical and structural factors that underpin language policies related to Irish in Northern Ireland.