It is inaccurate to suggest that Protestants in Ireland disliked Irish language

Recent letters to your paper have stated that Protestants disliked having to learn the Irish language in the 26-county Irish state.

It is ironic that it was two Protestants, Douglas Hyde and Ernest Blythe, who did the most to encourage reversing the language shift from English back to Irish. Hyde was one of the founders of Conradh na Gaeilge (the Gaelic League) and was honoured for his work by being chosen to be the first President of Ireland.

Blythe was from Lisburn and is regarded by historians as being the government minister who did most to encourage use of the Irish language.

So, why would Protestants be opposed to the Irish language? There is no mention of either the Irish or English languages in the Bible and nor did Martin Luther and other reformers mention anything about the Irish language.

The problem is the use of an inaccurate label to describe who was opposed to the Irish language. There were many people of various faiths who loved or disliked the Irish language, so it is simply wrong to frame the argument as ‘Catholics were in favour of Irish, Protestants were against it’.

Many Catholics such as Daniel O’Connell, a native speaker and the so-called liberator of the Catholics, didn’t care about the demise of Irish.

The correct way to understand what is being referred to is that there was a community of Irish people with a British identity who didn’t like the Irish language and resented having to learn it as that impinged on their sense of Britishness. They were Irish, more Irish than say Éamon de Valera, but their identity was British. De Valera was born in New York and his father was from Spain.

It was nothing about their religion that made them dislike learning it. Many Catholics disliked learning Irish as well but there seems to be less attention made to any grievances they had.

It is also important to remember that many Protestants from different lands moved to Ireland. The Hugenots came from France, speaking French. The town of Portarlington was a Francophone community until about two hundred years ago.

It would be interesting to read records of that French community about having to succumb to the pressure of the English language in Ireland and become English speakers. Likewise, the Protestants who moved from the Palatinate in western Germany to Munster were originally German speakers.

It would be useful to know how they changed identity as Germans to anglophone Irish, perhaps anglophone British-Irish? Did those non-anglophone Protestants resent having to learn English when it was not their language?

So, let us all avoid the inaccurate and unhelpful suggestion that most Protestants in Ireland disliked the Irish language. It was the clash of national identities that caused the resentment rather than any religious basis.

Is mise,

Seanán Ó Coistín, Newcastle, Co Dublin