A series of posters made with the intent to target the key demographics; children, young adults and teachers. These three major audiences can make a huge impact on the revival of the Gaelic language, through constant practise and talking with friends. It is no fault of Ireland that Irish is classified as an endangered language by UNESCO in 2021, with an average of 20k-40k Irish speakers in the world. Since 1367, England has always had the tendency to remove the privilege of speaking Irish in areas under English ruling. This was a continuous event that initially only affected some counties in the North before spreading viciously towards Southern Ireland. Despite constant English invasion, Irish continued to be the most spoken language until a standardised education system was introduced. From the beginning of the 1800s, the Gaelic had started to decline as Anglican schools prohibited the use of Irish. Punishing students for speaking it through the Bata Scóir - a tally stick that would carve an indent per word in Irish and be used to beat the child per carving. Soon, parents would encourage their children to learn English out of fear that their future would rely on it and swiftly removed Irish from their homes. Irish would eventually be allowed to be taught outside of school hours, and slowly but surely, get included into the curriculum by the early 1900s. However, by that point, the only areas that spoke Gaelic were poorer counties that could not afford their children to go to school. And thus, Irish slowly became useless and impractical for day-to-day life and less people were inclined to speak it. Despite the attempt to revive the language through Gaelscoil, schools that only teach in Irish, having at least one school in every county - it has been to no avail.
The first poster [translated: if you can read this, why can’t you speak this?] is aimed towards children, through the use of two iconic characters found in primary school textbooks - Rossa and Tomás. A playful nod to the characters who first introduced us to Gaelic when we were younger. Encouraging the idea of speaking Irish, as they already have the vocabulary to read it. The second poster targets teenagers to young adults, who have been through the education system and forced to learn Irish- but most often, do not continue to use it. A fun way to encourage Irish is through gossip, as most of my friends from Ireland often only get the chance to practise it whenever they want to talk secretly to one-another. This reminder creates the notion that Irish is practical in certain settings and can be playful, compared to the education system. Lastly, the third poster tackles the ongoing problem with the current education system. A continuous cycle that is being accelerated by devastating changes such as The Minister of Education Norma Foley, wanting to reduce more hours that were allocated to Irish in early 2023. This simple poster demonstrates how a poor education system will not motivate students to learn, especially when there is no thriving element to use Irish outside of the curriculum. Therefore, students who become teachers will have poor proficiency in Irish- and ultimately do not need to learn/know the language to be a teacher. Creating an endless loop, which worsens every rotation as with each generation- the knowledge of Gaelic will plummet and distort until it is finally extinct.
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