2014-02-10

REVIVALIST TO SURVIVALIST: Confessions of an Irish-Language Partisan

Caint a tugadh ag 25ú Comhdháil an Chraoibhín, Bealach an Doirín, Co. Ros Comáin,25 Deireadh Fómhair 2013.

Ar fáil anseo:

"Every word is loaded. Every word of the title of this paper is loaded: revivalist; survivalist; confessions; partisan. I hope to unburden this sweet load as I go along.
Revivalist? Yes, Irish turned my head. I became a Revivalist. A Revivalist tends to be an innocent creature, methinks, idealistic, naïve, romantic, hopeful, enthusiastic, generous, impressionable, prone to Utopian fantasies. (As opposed to a diehard language fanatic of whom we shall say nothing.) 
I must confess that in boarding school I became a contrarian, seeing the mob at work, and their cauliflower-eared self-appointed leaders; I vowed to belong to a minority. I saw authoritarianism and corporal punishment at work and thus were sown the seeds of anarchism."