President Higgins’s Speech at Beo Festival
Merrion Square, Dublin Saturday, 14 April 2018
Dear friends,
Thank you all for your warm welcome today. I am delighted, as President of Ireland, to be here today to celebrate Bliain na Gaeilge 2018 with you.
Presidents of Ireland have had a big role in the promotion of the Irish language – as far back the first President, Douglas Hyde, a leader of the Revival and who chaired the meeting in July 1893, 125 years ago, when Conradh na Gaeilge was established.
We are gathered together today, young and old, fluent speakers and learners, city dwellers and rural dwellers, to celebrate our heritage, our ancient culture – which we have preserved despite the problems and challenges of history – and the most important, most valuable, most beautiful part of our culture: the Irish language, the native tongue of this island.
We are gathered together to celebrate the vision of an Craoibhín Aoibhinn and his colleagues, and to inspire and encourage the work which will be undertaken in the coming years.
Every language is a great thing. Every language in the world gives a certain insight to the people who speak it, to the community who speak it, and to the place it is spoken. Every community, in the way in which it treats a language, expresses their basic values.
For us, who love the Irish language, the language is a cause for celebration, as a central part of our heritage. When we understand the value of the language and everything that goes with it, we understand at the same time, the value of other languages that are used on this island, and the importance of the various traditions which live among each other all over the 32 counties.
125 years ago, when Douglas Hyde wrote to Eoin Mac Néill for the first time, he said that there was nothing more important than keeping the Irish language “being spoken” in Ireland. They both founded Conradh na Gaeilge, a movement which incited the people of Ireland to action: Action which was badly needed, because there was a great risk that the language spoken here for thousands of years would be lost forever.
Today, as part of Bliain na Gaeilge, we remember what generations before us have done on behalf of the language.
They stood their ground for our heritage and they claimed a central place, at the heart of the education system, for the Irish language.
They stood their ground and claimed a place for the Irish language in public life.
They stood their ground so that the Irish language, its value and its literature would gain recognition from the people of Ireland.
They stood their ground to gain recognition for our Gaeltachtaí, which are central in our understanding and in our identity and in our story as a community and as a nation.
They stood their ground because they had a vision of our country as it should be.
A country in which Irish was alive and kicking. A country which is comfortable with its heritage and with its culture. A country in which the problems and challenges which were created through the efforts to ruin our culture were behind us. A country which was equal to every other country in the world. It was and still is a human vision, a peaceful vision, and a radical vision. A vision that is still alive.
It is important that we understand that, that we recognise that, that we celebrate that.
Irish is alive in the Gaeltacht areas, is it alive in Irish play schools and Gaelscoileanna, it is alive in summer camps, it is alive in families all over the country, it is alive in the media and it is alive in the conversation groups, in the book clubs, in the “pop-up” Gaeltachtaí and in the music sessions all over the country and all over the world.
That’s not to say that there aren’t still challenges in the Gaeltacht to keep the language as a community language, and to allow those communities to grow and develop. The Gaeltacht communities still face certain challenges but they need further support to keep this jewel of our culture safe.
This year, we have to give the Gaeltacht communities specific recognition and celebrate them, and make every effort to ensure that they have a viable future. The Gaeltachtaí are the well of language in this country, and it is vital that we recognise how valuable they are.
We are now ready to take this next step towards the living vision of the renaissance, that is to encourage the use of Irish and to disseminate it proudly and all over the country and the world.
We each have a responsibility and a role in this effort. Be that saying ”Go raibh maith agat” to strangers, or using as much Irish as we have when we can. Be that raising our children through Irish or finding one of the thousands of ways we can achieve that vision. As long as the vision lives, the Irish language will live. As we strengthen the vision, we strengthen the Irish language.
For those of you who love our language but may not be confident speaking Irish. The revival of our Irish language starts with each and every one of you. I invite everyone, starting this year in Bliain na Gaeilge, to welcome the Irish language into their lives. To experience, relearn, re-engage with it. Give it a second chance. Dare to cherish it. Dare to value it. Dare to use it. Dare to recognise and love it as the most essential part of our culture. However much or little of the language you have, I urge you to use it. I promise you, it will be easier than you imagine!
In this regard I salute Minister Joe McHugh, who has shown such leadership in re-engaging with the language, in improving and using it. He has been an inspiration and an example to so many. I praise it!
The Irish language has been alive for at least five thousand years.
Alive 125 after the Renaissance and the Irish language will be alive for the next one hundred and twenty five years.
Alive as we speak to each other.
Alive as we establish and build new Gaelscoileanna.
Alive as we develop Gaeltacht areas, to ensure that those communities have a viable life for the future.
Alive as we establish and develop new Irish communities.
Alive as we attend pop-up Gaeltachtaí all over the world.
Alive as we raise our children through Irish, in the Gaeltacht, in cities, in houses all over the country and outside of it.
Alive as we remind our state system that we are here and that we have language rights.
Let that vision live. Let Irish live. Let us be Irish, proud and be a living community!
Thank you all very much, and enjoy the day!