Note #14

Bell Hooks
"It is not the English language that hurts me, but what the oppressors do with it, how they shape it to become a territory that limits and defines, how they make it a weapon that can shame, humiliate, colonize."

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/conradh-na-gaeilge-negative-reaction-speaking-irish-2975889-Sep2016/
This text in the form of a personal anecdote aims to promote the cause of Irish being reinstated as the primary language in Ireland.

The way language has been used as a tool of imperialism can be well demonstrated in this text. Years of English colonialism have resulted in certain ideologies being proliferated to the common public on either sides of the Isle of Man.  One of the central themes of this text is mimicry. The Irish have adopted English ways and the English language in order to avoid scrutiny. ("People will say I'm rude, arrogant.") This line was commonly directed towards the writer by the Irish themselves. Mimicry has paved the way for English hegemony and diminished the Irish to a sub-altern status.

Speaking Irish in Ireland has become an indicator of lower social strata. One can be humiliated simply on the basis of speaking their mother tongue in an official and commercial context. There is widespread encouragement to take up received pronunciation in order to avoid marginalization at work. The linguistic discrimination enforced upon the Irish is founded in English colonialism.  Due to English colonialism that forced ideals of linguistic supremacy on the masses, English became the de facto prestige language. It's connotations extended to that of political, economic and social superiority. The power dynamics in terms of linguistics are skewed in the favour of the English. The economic power yielded by England in recent times has been a major factor in the assertion of English as the lingua franca. This has been further elevated by the dominance of English in the spheres of education, politics and British society in general. The Irish language and subsequently the culture have been swallowed up into a larger English dominion.

Anti-Irish sentiment, as showcased in the text, has prevailed for centuries and manifested itself in the forms of racism, oppression, bigotry, persecution, discrimination, hatred or fear of ethnic Irish people. Negative stereotyping of the Irish had served as a way to direct the opinions of the masses in the opposite direction and paint an unfavourable image of the Irish.

The violence associated with early Irish immigrants in England led to Irish accents being barred from social validity. This widespread marginalization has led to Irish resistance in the recent years.