The Politics of Language in Ireland 1366-1922

A Sourcebook

Tony Crowley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9781134729012
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

For almost a thousand years language has been an important and contentious issue in Ireland but above all it reflects the great themes of Irish history: colonial, invasion, native resistance, religious and cultural difference.

Collected here for the first time are texts on language from the date of the first legislation against the Irish: the Statute of Kilkenny, 1366, to the constitution of the Free State in 1922. Crowley's introduction connects these texts to current debates, giving The Belfast Agreement as a textual example and illustrating that the language debates continue today. Divided into six historical sections with detailed editor's introductions, this unique sourcebook includes familiar cultural texts such as essays and letters by Yeats along side less familiar writings including the Preface to the New Testament in Irish. (1602).

Providing direct access to original texts, this is an historical resource book which can be used as a case study in the relations between language and cultural identity.

1
1366–1534
INTRODUCTION

The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, which began in 1169 with the official purpose of bringing the Irish Church and State to order (hence the Papal support of Laudabiliter) rapidly became a more extensive project. Henry II’s arrival in Ireland in 1171 achieved three distinct but related ends: recognition from the Irish bishops, the assertion of lordship over his Norman subjects, and the submission of several important Gaelic chieftains. Whether this was what Henry intended is in fact doubtful but, once completed, this series of events altered radically the link between the English Crown and Ireland and set off events that were to continue for eight hundred years or more. One of the immediate legacies of the invasion was the creation of a complex linguistic situation. Gaelic culture, despite the Viking raids and settlements and the ecclesiastical contacts with Europe, was relatively self-contained. The native population spoke Irish and there was already a written heritage in Old and Middle Irish (the oldest vernacular tradition in western Europe) as well as in Latin. The invaders brought to this culture a number of languages: the ruling group spoke Norman French; there were Welsh-speaking bowmen and Flemish men-at-arms; the general soldiery used English. Welsh and Flemish were to be of negligible import, but Norman French was retained for almost two centuries after the conquest as the medium (with Latin) of officialdom – commerce, civil government and law. Indeed one of the ironies of the Statute of Kilkenny, one purpose of which was to ordain that ‘every Englishman do use the English language’, was that it was written in Norman French. Gradually, however, it too faded under pressure from both Gaelic and English as medieval Ireland settled into a confrontation between, and interpenetration of, the cultures of Gaedhil and Gaill.

The initial success of the invaders, though slow, was extensive. A century after the invasion they had attained secure bases in Leinster and parts of Ulster and Munster, the towns in particular being strongholds; the rest of the country remained Gaelic. With the decay of Norman French (Normandy was lost to the English Crown as early as 1204) English began to emerge as the language of the Anglo-Norman settlements, though Irish was also clearly in use in them. During the thirteenth century, discord among the Anglo-Norman nobles, added to an increasing distance from the interests of the English Crown, inaugurated a period of decline in their power. As a corollary what was to become known as the Gaelic recovery took place, beginning in the mid- to late-thirteenth century and lasting to the start of the sixteenth. One of the practical consequences of the recovery was the Gaelicisation of the Anglo-Normans, or to put it another way, their assimilation into Irish society. For present purposes the most important aspect of this process was its cultural effect; it is here that the history presented in this Reader begins.

Ireland has long been afflicted by a particularly irritating nuisance known to historians as the cultural observer. Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) is the earliest and most notorious. Historian and apologist for the colonial invasion, his Topography of Ireland (1188) was enormously influential with later commentators and provided the catalyst for several significant replies in the debates which will be presented later in this book. The Anglo-Irish Chronicles of the Tudor and Stuart periods rely heavily upon Giraldus, and native historians such as Céitinn (Keating), Lynch and MacCruitín (MacCurtin) engage in hostile debate with his text. As one would expect of a polemical justification of the colonisation, his depiction of the Irish was highly negative, accusing them, among other things, of cultural barbarism, political treachery, laziness, paganism, incest, inconstancy and bestiality. Their alleged treachery in particular caused Giraldus to observe a pattern which was later a matter of great concern to the colonial rulers of Ireland:

the pest of treachery has here grown to such a height – it has so taken root, and long abuse has succeeded in turning it into a second nature – habits are so formed by mutual intercourse, as he who handles pitch cannot escape its stains – that the evil has acquired great force . . . Thus, I say, ‘evil communications corrupt good manners’; and even strangers who land here from other countries become generally imbued with this national crime, which seems to be innate and very contagious.

(Giraldus Cambrensis 1863: 137–8)

What Giraldus comments on in passing was a central consideration in the framing of colonial legislation in both medieval and early modern Ireland: how to stop the Gaelicisation of the descendants of the Anglo-Norman invaders. Law, as often a guide to the fears (real or imagined) of the powerful, was intended to prevent the English from becoming Hiberniores Hibernis ipsis (more Irish than the Irish themselves).

The Gaelic recovery, political and cultural, meant that colonial governance moved to a defensive strategy of consolidating its power and keeping the native Irish at bay. In time this was to create the English Pale, a term first used in the 1490s to refer to the relatively small area around Dublin in which English writ ran and English culture and language were supposed to be practised. So strong was the recovery that by 1500 Irish had displaced English in all but the major towns, the Pale itself, and the Baronies of Forth and Bargy in Wexford. This process, and the reaction to it, is explored in the texts presented in this first chapter. It is worth noting the penalties stipulated in the legal orders as an indication of the colonial view of the gravity of the threat. The extent of the use of Irish is shown by the arrangement permitting legal proceedings to be held in Gaelic if necessary (this has added significance in this case given Waterford’s attested loyalty to the English Crown). The success of legislative attempts to halt Gaelicisation is demonstrated by the exclusion of the language issue from the reconfirmation of the Kilkenny Statute in 1495; the Statute was, however, invoked again in 1588.

1.1 The Statute of Kilkenny, 1366

Whereas at the conquest of the land of Ireland, and for a long time after, the English of the said land used the English language, mode of riding and apparel, and were governed and ruled, both they and their subjects called Betaghes, according to the English law, in which time God and holy Church, and their franchises according to their condition were maintained [and themselves lived] in [due] subjection; but now many English of the said land, forsaking the English language, manners, mode of riding, laws and usages, live and govern themselves according to the manners, fashion, and language of the Irish enemies; and also have made divers marriages and alliances between themselves and the Irish enemies aforesaid; whereby the said land, and the liege people thereof, the English language, the allegiance due to our lord the King, and the English laws there, are put in subjection and decayed, and the Irish enemies exalted and raised up, contrary to reason; our Lord the King considering the mischiefs aforesaid, in consequence of the grievous complaints of the commons of his said land, called to his Parliament held at Kilkenny, the Thursday next after the day of Cinders, in the fortieth year of his reign, before his well-beloved son, Lionel Duke of Clarence, his lieutenant in the parts of Ireland, to the honour of God and of His Glorious Mother, and of holy Church, and for the good government of the said land, and quiet of the people, and for the better observation of the laws, and punishment of evil doers there, are ordained and established by our said Lord the King, and his said lieutenant, and our Lord the King’s counsel there, with the assent of the archbishops, bishops, abbots, and priors (as to what appertains to them to assent to), the earls, barons, and others the commons of the said land, at the said parliament being and assembled, the ordinances and articles under written, to be held and kept perpetually upon the pains contained therein. . . .

I. First, it is ordained, agreed to, and established, that holy Church shall be free, and have all her franchises without injury, according to the franchises ordained and granted by our Lord the King, or his progenitors, by statute or ordinance made in England or in Ireland heretofore. . . .

II. Also, it is ordained, and established, that no alliance by marriage, gossipred, fostering of children, concubinage or by amour, not in any other manner, be henceforth made between the English and the Irish of one part, or of the other part; and that no Englishman, nor other person, being at peace, do give or sell to any Irishman, in time of peace or war, horses or armour, nor any manner of victuals in time of war; and if any shall do to the contrary, and thereof be attainted, he shall have judgement of life and member, as a traitor to our lord the King.

III. Also, it is ordained and established, that every Englishman do use the English language, and be named by an English name, leaving off entirely the manner of naming used by the Irish; and that every Englishman use the English custom, fashion, mode of riding and apparel, according to his estate; and if any English, or Irish living among the English, use the Irish language amongst themselves, contrary to this ordinance, and thereof be attainted, his lands and tenements, if he have any, shall be seized into the hands of his immediate lord, until he shall come to one of the places of our Lord the King, and find sufficient surety to adopt and use the English language, and then he shall have restitution of his said lands, by writ issued out of said places. In case that such person shall not have lands and tenements, his body shall be taken off by any of the officers of our Lord the King, and committed to the next gaol, there to remain until he, or some other in his name, shall find sufficient surety in the manner aforesaid: And that no Englishman who shall have the value of one hundred pounds of land or of rent by the year, shall ride otherwise than on a saddle in the English fashion; and he that shall do to the contrary, and shall be thereof attainted, his horse shall be forfeited to our Lord the King, and his body shall be committed to prison, until he pay a fine according to the King’s pleasure for the contempt aforesaid; and also, that beneficed persons of holy Church, living amongst the English, shall use the English language; and if they do not, that their ordinaries shall have issues of their benefices until they use the English language in the manner aforesaid; and they shall have respite in order to learn the English language, and to provide saddles, between this time and the feast of St Michael next coming.

IV. Also, whereas diversity of government and different laws in the same land cause difference in allegiance, and disputes among the people; it is agreed and established, that no Englishman, having disputes with any other Englishman, shall henceforth make caption, or take pledge, distress or vengeance against any other, whereby the people may be troubled, but that they shall sue each other at the common law; and that no Englishman be governed in the termination of their disputes by March law nor Brehon law, which reasonably ought not to be called law, being a bad custom; but they shall be governed, as right is, by the common law of the land, as liege subjects of our Lord the King; and if any do to the contrary, and thereof be attainted, he shall be taken and imprisoned, and adjudged as a traitor; and that no difference of allegiance shall henceforth be made between the English born in Ireland, and the English born in England, by calling them English hob, or Irish dog, but that all be called by one name, the English lieges of our Lord the King; and he who shall be found to the contrary, shall be punished by imprisonment of a year, and afterwards fined, at the King’s pleasure. . . .

VI. Also, whereas a land, which is at war, requires that every person do render himself able to defend himself, it is ordained, and established, that the commons of the said land of Ireland, who are in the different marches at war, do not, henceforth use the plays which men call hurling, with great sticks [and a ball] upon the ground, from which great evils and maims have arisen, to the weakening of the defence of the said land, and other plays which men call quoit; but that they do apply and accustom themselves to use and draw bows, and throw lances, and other gentlemenlike games, whereby the Irish enemies may be the better checked by the liege people and commons of these parts; and if any do or practise the contrary, and of this be attainted, they shall be taken and imprisoned, and fined at the will of our Lord the King.

1.2 Stat.Ire. An Act that the Irishmen Dwelling in the
Counties of Dublin, Meath, Uriel, and Kildare, Shall
Go Apparelled like Englishmen, and Wear their
Beards after the English Manner, Swear Allegiance,
and Take English Surname, 1465.

At the request of the commons it is ordained and established by authority of said Parliament, that every Irishman, that dwells betwixt or amongst Englishmen in the county of Dublin, Meath, Uriel and Kildare, shall go like to one Englishman in apparel and shaving of his beard above the mouth, and shall be within one year sworn the liege man of the king in the hands of the lieutenant or deputy, or such as he will assign to receive this oath, for the multitude that is to be sworn, and shall take him to an English surname of one town, as Sutton, Chester, Trim, Cork, Kinsale: or colour, as white, black, brown: or art or science, as smith or carpenter: or office, as cook, butler, and that he and his issue shall use this name, under pain of forfeiting of his good yearly, till the premisses be done to be levied two times by the year to the King’s wars, according to the direction of the lieutenant of the King or his deputy.

1.3 Archives of the Municipal Corporation of
Waterford, 1492–3

Also, in the said day and year, it was enacted that no manner of man, freeman nor foreign, of the city or suburb dwellers, shall plead nor defend in the Irish tongue against any man in the court, but that all they that any matters shall have in court to be ministered shall have a man that can speak English to declare his matter, except if one party be of the country; then every such dweller shall be at liberty to speak Irish.

1.4 Stat.Ire. An Act of Confirmation of the Statutes of
Kilkenny, 1495

Item, pray the commons, that forasmuch as the statutes of Kilkenny were made and ordained for the public weal of the King’s subjects of Ireland to keep them under due order and obeyance, and all the season that the said statutes were set in use, and duly executed, the said land continued in prosperity and honour, and since the time that they were not executed, the foresaid subjects rebelled, and digressed from their allegiance, and the land did fall to ruin and desolation: the premisses considered, that it be ordained, enacted, and established by authority of this present parliament, that all and every of the foresaid statutes (those that will, that every subject shall ride in a saddle, and those that speaketh of the Irish language, only excepted) be authorised, approved, confirmed, and deemed good and effectual in law, duly to be enquired of, and to be executed according to the tenors and purport of them, and every of them; any act or ordinance made to the contrary of them notwithstanding.

2
1534–1607
INTRODUCTION

The practice of Tudor and early Stuart rule in Ireland mirrored to a great extent that exercised in England, Wales and, later, Scotland: the centralisation of the State, the running of a relatively efficient bureaucracy, and the consolidation and development of the monarch’s powers. In Ireland, in the light of the circumstances set out in Chapter 1, this meant the extension of English rule beyond the borders of the Pale by means of legal dictate, military conquest, sequestration of land, and plantation of a loyal population. This state of conflict was exacerbated by the new factor of religious difference. Henry VIII’s break with Rome and the passing of the Act of Supremacy in the Irish Parliament (1537), confirming the King and his successors as supreme Head of the Church of Ireland, began a new phase in Anglo–Irish relations. The distinction which the Statute of Kilkenny had interdicted, between ‘the English born in Ireland, and ‘the English born in England’, was already in use by the beginning of the sixteenth century. It became sharper during this period and developed along religious lines: the Sean Ghaill (Old English) aligned themselves increasingly with the Gaelic order and Catholicism, while the Nua Ghaill (New English) were firmly Protestant and loyal to the Crown. The split, though significant at this stage, issued in the political confederation of the Gaels and the Sean Ghaill only later in the rising of 1641.

Colonial rule in Ireland in this period can be, and was, presented as simply the military con...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Familiar and Foreign
• 1. 1366–1534: Introduction
• 2. 1534–1607: Introduction
• 3. 1607–1690: Introduction
• 4. 1690–1800: Introduction
• 5. 1800–1876: Introduction
• 6. 1876–1922: Introduction
• Postscript
• Themes
• Select Bibliography