This is something that comes up on IGTF periodically as well, and it's a valid concern. In fact, RnaG's pop music program (Anocht FM) is the one program that's allowed to have songs in English, because there simply aren't enough popular songs in Irish (and not having a popular music show was seriously hurting the station's ratings). While popular music isn't my bag, I'd love to hear of some young people out there writing songs in Irish. The language wouldn't be a barrier to international recognition, even, if the MUSIC was good...look at all the non-English hits we've seen over the past 30 years or so.The Sporting Pitchfork wrote:According to the 2000 census figures, there are about 25,000 people who speak Irish in the home in the US.
For all the unfortunate experiences listed above. It should be noted that there are more native Irish speakers living in large cities like Dublin and Belfast now than there have been in perhaps as many as 200 years. It's just the fact that the Gaeltachtaí regions have continued to steadily shrink since independence that's really damnable.
I had a bit of atypical experience when I was living in Ireland as I lived in Dingle/An Daingean/Daingean Uí Chuis/whatever they're officially calling it now. I was in college at the time and I was friends with a number of high school students and university students home for the summer. They were all native Irish speakers (they'd switch to English for my benefit, though they were quite patient and obliging in letting me practice my meagre Irish skills with them). One of them went on to work for Raidió Na Gaeltachta, where she DJ'd a pop music program. All of the songs were, of course, in English.
Herein, I think, lies an interesting aspect of the problem. Young people like popular music & popular culture, as they're supposed to, and the vast majority of what's available to them is in English. I noticed this when on Skye in Scotland as well: children were quite happy to speak Gaelic with parents and teachers and some of them liked traditional music well enough, but what they really wanted to listen to--what they felt identification with were things like Oasis, Fatboy Slim and Robbie Williams (this was around 1998, by the way). It is a terrible shame that there aren't more musicians in Ireland trying to perform rock, pop, and hip-hop in Irish. There are undoubtedly people who could, but maybe they figure it wouldn't be a lucrative career move. Yet in Wales, there is a FANTASTIC, truly thrilling Welsh-medium popular music scene and it has arguably had a major effect on demonstrating to young Welsh people that Welsh can be vibrant, modern, and dare I say it, hip. I know of two punk bands and one electronica group that do all their vocals in Gaelic in Scotland. I'm not aware of any in Ireland (barring Kila, and I really don't think they count), though I'm sure there are maybe a handful of bands that do sing in Irish. I think that perhaps one of the most valuable things that could be done for the betterment of Irish at this point would be for the development of a viable popular music scene in Irish...Even if it results in some dreadful U2 or Coldplay wannabes wailing pathetically about how "nil sí i ngrá liom" or something like that, I think it might be worth it.
Redwolf
