Almost 2 million people in the North and South of Ireland identify as Irish speakers and an estimated 70 million around the globe can claim Irish heritage. While Irish ancestry may be distant for many, the Irish language is active in numerous locations in the diaspora, as documented in research profiling communities across the globe (e.g. Callahan, 1994; Garland 2008; Giles 2016; Kallen 1984, 1994; Noone, 2012a; O hEadhra, 1998;O Conchubhair 2008; Walsh & NiDhuda 2015 inter alia) and evidenced by the existence of many cultural and language groups. Census figures indicate that at least25,000 people currently speak the language in Canada, the United States and Australia alone (Statistics Canada, 2013; United States Census Bureau, 2015; Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012), yet very few in-depth general accounts of Irish-language use in the diaspora exist. Linguistic practices within Irish communities worldwide vary widely with regard to Irish-language use and language ideologies, with each community subject to distinct concerns, histories and discourses. As such, each has distinct possibilities for creating social and cultural meaning, possibilities that are fundamentally shaped by the socio-cultural and politico-historical contexts within which the Irish language has existed in the last 200 years. This paper investigates how the Irish language is recruited in constructions of cultural authenticity in three sites in the Irish diaspora: Boston, U.S.; Melbourne, Australia; and St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Research is based on open-ended qualitative interviews with 41 learners and speakers regarding the Irish language and their own language practices, and in extensive participant observation of cultural and language-related activities in each site. Thematic content analysis of interview data provides the basis for ethnographic descriptions of each site. A Foucauldian understanding of discourse (e.g. Pennycook, 1994; Foucault, 1981, 1972) affords the identification and delineation of predominant discourses within which Irish-language use is implicated as a meaningful social act, and that are enacted or actively resisted within and across communities, as well as key subject positions made available within these discourses. This approach provides the basis for an exploration of (i) the processes of authenticating a cultural practice within discourse; (ii) how such processes shape the changing configurations of who is included and who is excluded within dominant politico-cultural discourses; and (iii) the various formations of community that exist within and across the diaspora space. The paper shows that the role of the Irish language in authenticating Irish cultural identity is subject to reworkings across time and space, as exemplified in the variety of local meanings it has taken on across the three diaspora sites featured.

/pdf/landscapes-of-the-irish-language-discursive-constructions-of-26y2o6swfi.pdf

Landscapes of the Irish Language: Discursive Constructions of Authenticity in the Irish Diaspora

Language revitalization and the future of ethnolinguistic identity

The Dice Tower consists of 30 professional board gamers and has the largest online following with 60,000 podcast listeners and over 140,000 YouTube subscribers (Dice Tower, 2017a). This study uses Kramer’s Multilevel Communication Model of Voluntary Socialization (MCMVS) to understand how the Dice Tower gains followers and socializes others to become board gamers. This study applies MCMVS to a population with more ambiguous membership boundaries than volunteer organizations, specifically socialization to board game leisure. Through interviews of 18 participants and participant observation during a board gaming cruise hosted by the Dice Tower this study examines the role of the Dice Tower and similar organizations in socializing board gamers. Results indicate MCMVS successfully captures socialization to board gaming. MCMVS displays the socialization process of outsiders becoming insiders of an organization, but board gamers do not become members of the Dice Tower. Board gamers voluntarily associate (Putnam, 2001) with organizations such as the Dice Tower. The Dice Tower and similar organizations are Socialization Gateway Organizations (SGO), which serve as a socialization resource for recruitment, networking, and guiding board game purchases.

/pdf/cruising-to-be-a-board-gamer-understanding-socialization-1ws2v49ekc.pdf

Cruising to be a Board Gamer: Understanding Socialization Relating to Board Gaming and The Dice Tower

This is a pilot study on the relationship between speaking Irish and belonging, with a focus on Irish-speakers of diverse ethnicities and/or nationalities in Ireland. The research includes twelve respondents with diverse backgrounds in terms of nationality and/or ethnicity. We examine whether the language gives them a sense of belonging to Ireland, but also if they experience any exclusion on the basis that it does not ‘belong’ to them. Our research is qualitative and we analyse the data through the lens of nationalism studies. We suggest that Irish can be an important tool in the hands of speakers of diverse ethnicities and/or nationalities, a power that they can use in diverse ways, including to foster integration, avoid alienation, legitimise their presence in the country and fight against forms of discrimination. Yet, questions arise when the national heritage is passed on by individuals that many people do not consider ‘national’. Do clashes occur between people who consider themselves to be of Irish ethnicity and nationality and Irish speakers of diverse ethnicities and/or nationalities? What are the reasons for the clashes and what are the consequences? This study offers some answers while pointing to the needs of more investigation of the subject. 

Speaking Irish and belonging among Irish-speakers of diverse ethnicity and nationality in Ireland: a pilot study

If subsistence were not a factor, in a time of less available work, a simple shift for human lifestyles would be from vocation to avocation, such as serious hobby and skilled leisure activities. As expressed in the West, avocations can be all-consuming: expensive, time-intensive, resource-intensive, skilled, long-term, sophisticated, pro-social, and self-affirming. In many cases, serious leisure activities may result in skillsets that are near-professional in status and scope. Some people practice as amateurs (and novices) in various professional fields, as citizen practitioners and citizen scientists. This work offers a conceptual exploration of the affordances and constraints of expansive serious hobbies and skilled leisure activities to stand-in for full work participation.

Swapping Avocation for Vocation: Expansive Serious Hobby and Skilled Leisure Activities to Supplement Diminishing Work Opportunities?

“No, it is a hobby for me”: Examining the motivations of non-Irish learners of the Irish language in North America

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“No, it is a hobby for me”: Examining the motivations of non-Irish learners of the Irish language in North America