TRANSCRIPT
For hip-hop trio from Northern Ireland, Kneecap, music is a tool for social change.
Rapping in Irish, the group is committed keeping the Irish language alive..
Kneecap member Mo Chara says their music centres on the resilience of Irish language and culture.
“Where we live, the fact that we live under British occupation and survive and socialise in a language that the British government tried to eradicate for 800 years. The fact that we still speak that is an act of defiance.”
The success of a semi-fictional film about the group launched Kneecap to prominence last year.
Kneecap member DJ Provai says the film's narrative of language revival after colonisation appeals to audiences outside of Ireland, too.
“That's what we hope for all Indigenous languages, as well. That's something that came off the back of the film. People are resonating with our language struggle and our cultural struggle and seeing themselves in what we're doing. So long may that continue.”
The Irish language – or Gaeilge – is considered "endangered" by UNESCO.
Professor Ronan Mcdonald is Gerry Higgins Chair of Irish Studies at the University of Melbourne.
He says while Colonial-era policies definitely contributed to the decline in Irish language, loss of life during the great famine was particularly significant.
“Irish was discouraged by the British colonial powers and at certain stages made illegal certainly in law. But it was still spoken. Ireland was overwhelmingly rural, a lot of it, very, very isolated. It was still widely spoken among the peasantry, but what really did for us was the great famine, as I've said, the potato famine of the 1840s, which effectively halved the population of Ireland.”
He says after the partition of Ireland, there was an effort from the Government of the Republic of Ireland to strengthen the language.
“It was a big priority of that state to revive the Irish language. So Irish became compulsory in schools from a very early age up to the leaving Cert. It became compulsory to join the civil service. There was a concerted effort in some domains, some would say the effort didn't go far enough to revive the language, which was only partially successful. I would say English is still the overwhelming language spoken in Ireland."
Mo Chara says while there's been a resurgence in Irish language in recent years, the enduring effects of marginalisation have been hard to shake.
“People are now starting to take confidence in the language again, there was a shame around speaking Irish in Ireland for a long time. like even Irish people- we hear stories of people from Connemara into Galway city, and people in the city would be spitting on them. It was ingrained in people that this was lower than you.”
Irish language activist and author Darach Ó Séaghdha says for Kneecap, their message of cultural survival and resistance is all the more effective with music as its vehicle.
“The music people can actually dance to and enjoy... People aren't realising that they're enjoying it, and then they get into it and it also changes the perspective on what language is for and You can’t say a language is dead or useless if people are dancing to it.”
