Introduction

This chapter provides the historical context that led to the growth of a parent-led movement to establish Irish immersion schools in the 1970s. I briefly trace the development of the Irish language in education from the establishment of the national school system under British rule in 1831, when there was no place for the teaching of Irish, through the various Irish language campaigns leading up to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. The newly formed Free State government set out to revive the Irish language, with significant efforts to achieve this goal through the teaching and promotion of Irish in the school system. This chapter outlines the successes and failures of these policies and the manner in which government policies helped or hindered language revival efforts.

Geographical and Political Context

It is beyond the scope of this book to provide a comprehensive account of the geographical and political context on the island of Ireland. Nonetheless, in order to understand the different Irish language education policies in Ireland, some background information is required. The island of Ireland is divided into 32 counties. Twenty-six of these counties form the Republic of Ireland (RoI) and the remaining six counties form Northern Ireland (NI) which is part of the United Kingdom. Prior to 1922, all of Ireland had been under British rule for approximately 700 years. The partition of Ireland into Northern and Southern Ireland took place in 1921 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. After the War of Independence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Southern Ireland became the independent Irish Free State. Under the Irish constitution of 1937, the Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland, commonly known as Ireland.

The division of Ireland in this way led to two different education systems on the island of Ireland. In the RoI, the Irish language is a compulsory subject on the school curriculum throughout a child's education from entry, typically at age 4 or 5, to exit at age 17 or 18.