Emma Pratt
ERH-201WX
COL McDonald
9/21/17
Rhetoric Modification to Preserve the Irish Language
Help Received: Works Cited, Easybib.com (for citations), YouTube (for example), COL McDonald (professional opinion), MS Spellcheck, Preston Library Website (locating scholarly articles), citation provided by jstor.org,

Within the past several hundred years, Irish culture has suffered tremendous persecution at the hands of the British. As a result, the Irish language has continued to see a dramatic drop in speakers, especially so in the past few decades. This more recent decline can be attributed to the manner in which the material is presented in a classical educational setting (elaborate). The youth of Ireland, as a result of this poor education, are burnt out after years of the constant grind of learning Irish in such a non-communicative manner, and have begun to loathe the idea of slugging through the language. So, the interest of the youth (the future of any culture) is being lost in its instruction, and therefore it can be stated that the Irish language is dying. But how can this be reverted if the youth of Ireland are not even interested in their mother tongue? Indeed, why even bother to save the Irish language?

An Irish organization by the name TG Lurgan has taken up the gauntlet to prevent the decline of the Irish language. To do so, they’ve modified the way the material is presented to the youth and fused the rhetoric used by the school system with primarily American pop culture music to better persuade Irish students to continue the tradition. TG Lurgan, it would seem, understands the implications the loss of Irish would create. If the language disappears, it would lead to the gradual but sure decline of the Irish culture, leaving it a shadow of its former glory to disappear into history as so many nameless cultures have before. Ireland has had a profound impact on a great many of leading civilizations today, such as Canada and the United States, having provided a basis for the countries music, literature, vernacular, and even heritage. To lose such a cornerstone to these societies would leave them detached and ungrounded, and would result in a huge loss of connection with the past, not to mention cultural diversity (Research: What % of Americans have Irish heritage?).

2 Paragraphs: (1) RESEARCH HISTORY OF PERSECUTION (why/what happened to make is Irish so little spoken): 1. Why persecuted, early ex’s 2. Struggle, later ex’s (Jailtacht, touch on zeal)

(2) AND RESULTING GOV’T INFLUENCE (traditional teaching methods): (how taught currently, effect on student morale

Irish is dying because of faulty rhetoric. This current approach being used to teach the Irish is faltering because it is unable to persuade or give reason for the youth to learn the language, and as a result are disappointingly ineffective.The unwillingness to change the way things are done could be rooted in the fact that there really is no proven way to save a language- how ironic and heartbreaking is it that even after decades of bloody struggle to preserve the Irish way of life from British persecution, the final death knell comes from the Irish government’s ignorance on how to save it themselves? (RESEARCH: Teaching style failing).
These old methods of instruction fail to give The Irish youth a reason to learn, as well as inspire them to put forth the incredible effort it takes to revive a language. Since there’s no connecting piece, as it were, between the Irish youth of today and the zealous sacrifice of Irish men and women of old, these dated methods of instruction have failed to inspire the future of Ireland. This lack of direction results in the petering out of the efforts to preserve the language, because there’s no defined reason to.
What then, can be used to link the distant past with Irish teenagers and children today? What exists in nearly every culture as a unifying factor, and provides an emotional, motivating connection?

The answer, simply put, is music. Using the universal language, TG Lurgan is experimenting a new approach towards Irish revival by fusing primarily American pop music with Irish Gaelic to better appeal to its audience. In a culinary sense, they’re sweetening plain yogurt with fruit to better appeal to the consumer’s (or in this case, the youth’s) taste. By comparison with traditional instruction, this method is more effective especially since it is accessible to the world stage via YouTube videos. In this fashion, Irish issue becomes visible to all who are able to access these videos and have some type of tie to Ireland. As previously stated, not only do the US and Canada have a great sense of connection to Ireland, but it is also their music that is being reformatted to inspire Irish youth. Thus, it becomes “cool” to be a part of the cure for both Americans and Irish, which gives birth to greater interest and a sense of duty to all parties involved.

The importance of this whole situation, then, lies in the implications if failure does occur. This experiment, in a way, has become a beacon of hope for other struggling languages around the world. For example, the (RESEARCH EXAMPLES). TG Lurgan is pioneering a cure for the seemingly unstoppable death of a language. If that light is extinguished, the promising path it was following becomes a dead end, and still no solution has been found. These struggling languages would stumble on blindly, and whatever hope they have in saving their language and culture would be lost. If that happens, any language that finds itself on the steep downward slope would be in danger of extinction, and countless valuable cultures, with their achievements, wisdom, and world perspectives, would be lost forever. Such a loss would be a blow to the diversity of the world, and the survivability of other cultures that have been highly influenced by other cultures. But persists the question; how can one save a language (and by extension a culture) when nothing has ever worked in the past?

The key message in TG Lurgan’s modified version of rhetoric is to inspire the youth to continue to put forth the effort to preserve Irish culture. Even after hundreds of years of persecution, this rhetoric communicates through music and language that the worth of taking up the defense of the Irish language lies in the value placed on their history. It attempts to bring the past relevance to today, and thus far has been far more successful than dated traditional methods. If the Irish don’t embrace their bloody, struggle filled history, they’ll lose the pride they ought to have in it, and thus it will be lost, taking with it their language and culture. The work TG Lurgan is accomplishing today is rekindling a spark not only in the hearts of the Irish youth, but also in the hearts of those across the world with vested interest in the Irish plight. They’re lighting an unexplored rhetorical path to lead the way back to a revitalized culture, knowing that if they fail and darken the road, other struggling cultures will be left in the dark until another brave soul finds a new light and presses on to a future where there is a hope for new life in a dying culture.

Works Cited
Johnson-Sheehan, Richard, and Paul Lynch. “Rhetoric of Myth, Magic, and Conversion: A Prolegomena to Ancient Irish Rhetoric.” Rhetoric Review, vol. 26, no. 3, 2007, pp. 233–252. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20176789.
tglurgan. “Amhrán Na GCupán – When I’m Gone as Gaeilge.” YouTube, YouTube, 3 July 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz63M3v11nE.
http://vmi.worldcat.org/title/jailtacht-the-irish-language-symbolic-power-and-political-violence-in-northern-ireland-1972-2008/oclc/795182865&referer=brief_results
-Contests and contexts : the Irish language and Ireland’s socio-economic development
-A New View of the Irish Language.
-Can threatened languages be saved? : reversing language shift, revisited : a 21st century perspective