okay, i'd like to talk about ireland
specifically i'd like to talk about the irish language,
and how important it is that it is kept alive.
gaeilge has been consistently stripped from irish people, starting in 1367 with the statute of kilkenny. this law made it illegal for native irish people to speak their language when interacting with english colonists.
in 1537, the statute of ireland – an act for the english order habit and language made it illegal for gaeilge to be spoken in courts, which was followed by further legislation in 1541, which banned the use of gaeilge in areas of ireland which were then under english rule.
the administration of justice (language) act (ireland) was passed in 1737, which not only banned the use of gaeilge in courtrooms, but also prohibited the completion of legal documentation in gaeilge and imposed a financial penalty of £20 (equivalent to £3,800 today) each time gaeilge was spoken in court. this caused many people who only spoke gaeilge to be wrongly accused and incarcerated, as they could not defend themselves in court.
this act was only abolished in the north of ireland in 2022.
today, only 40 percent of residents of ireland speak gaeilge, with 25 percent of those saying that they never spoke it. (based on a study done in april 2022)
