The Loaded Weapon
(Ireland and English)
SOE, Chapter 5; CEEL pp. 336-339)
--Ireland and its language history
--Features/influence of Irish
English
What are the Irish known for?
St. Patrick
– The patron saint and national apostle of
Ireland
– Credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland
– He wrote:
the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography
Epistola, a denunciation of British mistreatment of
Irish Christians
Patrick was born around 385 in Scotland,
probably Kilpatrick. His parents were Calpurnius
and Conchessa, who were Romans living in
Britian in charge of the colonies.
As a boy he was captured during a raiding party
and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend
sheep. Ireland at this time was a land of Druids
and pagans. He learned the language and
practices of the people who held him.
Patrick's captivity lasted until he was twenty, when he
escaped after having a dream from God in which he was
told to leave Ireland by going to the coast. There he
found some sailors who took him back to Britain, where
he reunited with his family and became a priest.
Later, Patrick was ordained a bishop, and was sent to
take the Gospel to Ireland. One legend says that he met
a chieftain of one of the tribes, who tried to kill Patrick.
Patrick converted Dichu (the chieftain) after he was
unable to move his arm until he became friendly to
Patrick.
Saint Patrick is also known for driving the
snakes from Ireland
Snakes in Ireland? Probably a symbol of putting
an end to pagan practices in Ireland
There are different accounts of Saint Patrick's
death
One says that Patrick died in Ireland, on March 17,
460 A.D.
Another account says that St. Patrick ended his
days at Glastonbury, England and was buried
there. The Chapel of St. Patrick still exists as part
of Glastonbury Abbey.
Shamrock: said have been used by St. Patrick to
represent the Trinity.
Blarney and the Blarney Stone
Blarney
– The “gift of gab” or eloquence in speech
Blarney Stone
– The stone is believed to be half of the Stone of Scone
which originally belonged to Scotland. Scottish Kings
were crowned over the stone, because it was
believed to have special powers.
The stone was given to Cormac McCarthy by Robert
the Bruce in 1314 in return for his support in the
Battle of Bannockburn.
Queen Elizabeth I wanted Irish chiefs to agree to
occupy their own lands under title from her. It is
said that Cormac used his eloquent excuses to
placate Queen Elizabeth I and her advancing
army while still keeping his Gaelic loyalties
The Queen eventually grew tired of his fasttalking and said: "This is all Blarney, he never
means what he says, he never does what he
promises!"
Kissing the Blarney Stone
History of Political Struggles:
English occupation in Ireland
1171: Henry II and a group of Anglo-Norman
knights invaded Ireland and imposed English
rule
1172: the Pope decrees that Henry II is feudal
lord of Ireland
The Anglo-Normans who stayed in Ireland did
not spread their language or ways of living. The
areas under English control/rule—known as
“The Pale”—was small
1366: Statues of Kilkenny forbid intermarriage
of English and Irish. Gaelic was culture
unsuccessfully suppressed.
1558-1603: (Reign of Elizabeth I) Policy of
Plantation to encourage English settlement.
During this time there was a good deal of
Catholic opposition to the Reformation. Series
of struggles introduced more Protestants.
1690: Battle of the Boyne
– The armies of King William III defeated the
Catholic James II, who fled to France. The
victory is commemorated annually on July 12
by Protestants in Northern Ireland.
New Anglo-Irish ruling class— The
Ascendancy
Quote from your book
The Anglo-Irish performed a sort of linguistic
imperialism in this country, largely because to be
Protestant, to be able to speak English, to be
culturally linked with England, meant better
status and better prospects of promotion.
Adherence to the Protestant cause did great
damage to the traditional Irishness of this
country. For centuries, to be linked to the
Ascendancy was a meal ticket, a linguistic meal
ticket.
--Lord Henry Mountcharles (SOE, p. 174)
More dates
1804: Act of Union makes Ireland part of the United
Kingdom
1916: A failed Easter Monday Rebellion touched off
several years of guerrilla warfare
1921: Independence from the UK for 26 southern
counties; six northern (Ulster) counties remained part of
the United Kingdom.
1948: Ireland withdrew from the British Commonwealth
1973: Ireland officially joined the European Community
1999: Good Friday Agreement, a new coalition
government was formed with the British government
formally transferring governing power to the Northern
Irish Parliament
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is composed of 26 districts.
Together they are commonly called Ulster,
though the territory does not include the entire
ancient province of Ulster. It is slightly larger
than Connecticut.
David Trimble, Protestant leader of the Ulster
Unionist Party (UUP) and winner of the 1998
Nobel Peace Prize, became first minister. The
government has been suspended four times
since then; it has remained suspended since
Oct. 14, 2002.
Ulster and Ireland
History of Ulster
In the early seventeenth century Ulster was
settled by people from Britain In what is usually
referred to as "the Plantation of Ulster."
These people came mainly from the Scottish
Lowlands By the end of the century there were
over 100,000 Scots and 25,000 English in the
Province.
From these people emerged a new strain of
Ulstermen the "Ulster Scots" or the "Scotch
Irish"
The Mid-Ulster dialect of English spoken in
Northern Ireland shows influence from
both the West Midlands of England ans
Scotland thereby giving it a distinct accent
compared to Hiberno English along with
the use of such Scots words as wee for
'little' and aye for 'yes'.
There are supposedly some minute
differences in pronunciation between
Protestants and Catholics, the best known
of which is the name of the letter h, which
Protestants tend to pronounce as "aitch",
and Catholics tend to pronounce as
"haitch"
Ulster in America
During the years 1717 to 1770 over
250,00 Ulstermen left home with their
families to settle in America.
These people did not emigrate solely of
their own free will but rather for social and
economic reasons.
American Presidents of Direct
Scots Irish descent
Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James
Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses
Simpson Grant, Chester Alan Arthur,
Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison,
William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt,
and Woodrow Wilson.
What to take from this short
history?
The long-standing war between the AngloSaxons and the Gaelic-speaking Celts can
be seen in the following differences:
Irish English (Anglo-Irish descent) vs. Hiberno
English (Gaelic descent)
Religious lines between Roman Catholic (Irish)
and Protestant (English)
Political advantages of being Protestant
So…why is the title of the chapter on Irish
and English called “the loaded weapon”?
History of the English in Ireland
Long-standing differences between the
two groups, even if they are both speaking
English.
– Accent, pronunciation, place names all have
political significance
Features of Irish English
Youse for you plural
Did youse kids hear that? (Irish English)
Did you kids hear that? (Standard English)
be after and an ing-participle, as in:
She's after selling the boat means that she
just sold the boat
Positive anymore
Anymore, I just can't get out of bed in the
morning means at present or nowadays
Sentence final but to mean so
I don’t want it but (Irish English)
So I don’t want it (Standard English)
The verb to be
I be walking or She bees walking mean that it is a
habitual action (i.e., done most of the time)
and as a subordinate clause marker
It only struck me and you when going out the
door (Irish English)
It only struck me when you were going out the
door. (Standard English)
Pronunciation features: rhymes
Her thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey
Dost sometimes counsel take – and sometimes
tea
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm
Irish in America
Due to the the religious prejudice of
Protestant Masters to the Catholic Irish,
plus political subordination, many Irish had
no alternative by to emigrate to the United
States for relief. Between 1820 and 1860,
the Irish were never less than a third of all
immigrants.
By 1840, the Irish constituted nearly half of all
entering immigrants.
In years after 1860, Irish Immigration persisted.
More than 2.6 million Irish came in the decades
after 1860 .
Those Irish who did continue to flow into the U.S.
tended to settle in the already existing Irish
communities, where Catholic Churches had
been built, and cultural traditions were carried
out.
Irish in America
The 2000 United State Census reports 30,528,492 persons claiming
Irish ancestry, 10.8% of the total American population. This is over 7
times the population of Ireland itself, which was 4 million in the year
2003.
Irish-Americans are the largest ancestral group in Washington DC,
Delaware, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
The states with the largest Irish-American populations are:
1. California- 2,611,449
2. New York- 2,451,042
3. Pennsylvania- 1,981,106
4. Florida- 1,645,585
5. Illinois- 1,511,569
Chance to raise your score:
available on-line
English 121: Chance to Raise your Score
This assignment is for anyone who wants a chance to get an extra 50 points. It
is due on Thursday, November 10 and must be typed, double-spaced, and
printed out.
The internet opens new venues for the promotion of minority languages, dying
languages, dead languages, artificial languages, and more. Choose a
language that falls into ONE these categories (e.g., Manx, Welsh, Cornish,
Gaelic, Scots, any number of American Indian Languages, Klingon, Esperanto)
and explore the resources that are now available for that language on the Web.
In a 3-4 page paper:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Motivate why you have selected the particular language
Describe your findings
Speculate about their implications for the vitality of this language
Relate your findings to one or more issues that we have discussed in class
Provide a list of references to write the paper (a minimum of 5 references)
Edit your paper carefully.