Language, resistance and revival: from prison to community

featuring Irish academic and language activist Dr. Feargal MacIonnrachtaigh

Thursday 12th November, 6pm, Wolfson Research Exchange

This event is a public conversation with Irish academic and language activist Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh, who will present the research that resulted in his powerful and widely acclaimed book Language, Resistance and Revival: Republican Prisoners and the Irish Language in the North of Ireland. Mac Ionnrachtaigh’s work tells the story of Irish Republican prisoners incarcerated throughout the Troubles and their use of the Irish language as a form of resistance. He explains and describes the near-destruction of the Irish language in Ireland as a means of cultural subjugation under British imperial rule, and traces the highly unusual trajectory of the revival movement – from the cells of Long Kesh prison to the community outside the prison walls.

Mac Ionnrachtaigh’s postcolonial framework speaks to contemporary legacies of colonial cultural degradation and he is an active participant in the astonishing grassroots language revival movement in the north of Ireland. Mac Ionnrachtaigh is an inspiring speaker, with a personal history marked by the tragedies of the Troubles. He has spoken at book launches and conferences across Europe and the US, drawing great interest within the fields of sociolinguistics, transitional justice, Irish studies and Irish historiography, culture and identity politics and critical criminology.