The native Irish language has likely been the most desperately pushed in modernity. Not only during the Gaelic revival proper, but without cessation during the early Irish Republic. In my mind, by the time Ireland became independent it was too late. While national languages were virtually built in Germany, Italy, and, to some degree, France, they we based around commonalities and these commonalities were widely spoken. Gaelic, as a language, on the other hand, is entirely different from English, the primary tongue, and thus, especially since immersion is impossible, becoming fluent is nearly unfeasible. This is reflected by recent studies showing that, despite instruction throughout schooling, most Irish students finish with no real understanding of their ancient tongue.
My question is this, barring the obvious "Britain never takes over," what does it take for Ireland to maintain a significant Gaelic speaking community? It doesn't have to be a majority, though potentially this is possible, but a significant enough minority could see a large-scale rebound in the 1920's. Psycho-linguistics and linguistic history has never been more then a non-academic interest of mine, but I was wondering what everyone else thought. What does it take for a British Ireland to maintain some sort of ties to Gaelic?
My question is this, barring the obvious "Britain never takes over," what does it take for Ireland to maintain a significant Gaelic speaking community? It doesn't have to be a majority, though potentially this is possible, but a significant enough minority could see a large-scale rebound in the 1920's. Psycho-linguistics and linguistic history has never been more then a non-academic interest of mine, but I was wondering what everyone else thought. What does it take for a British Ireland to maintain some sort of ties to Gaelic?