Жаңа жердегі ирланд тілінің тарихы

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Scottish Gaelic in Canada

The Irish language was once spoken by some immigrants to the island of Newfoundland before it disappeared in the early 20th century. The language was introduced through mass immigration by Irish speakers, chiefly from counties Waterford, Tipperary and Cork. Local place names in the Irish language include Newfoundland (Talamh an Éisc; 'Land of the Fish'), St. John's (Baile Sheáin), Ballyhack (Baile Hac), Cappahayden (Ceapach Éidín), Kilbride and St. Bride's (Cill Bhríde), Duntara, Port Kirwan and Skibbereen (Scibirín). The dialect of Irish spoken in Newfoundland is said to resemble the Munster Irish of the 18th century. While the distinct local dialect is now considered extinct, the Irish language is still taught locally and the Gaelic revival organization Conradh na Gaeilge remains active in the province.

The use of the Irish language in Newfoundland was closely tied to the persistence of an ancestral culture preserved in scores of enclaves along the coast. That culture, in the Avalon Peninsula and elsewhere, included feast days, holy wells, games, mumming, Irish bardic poetry, faction fighting, and Gaelic games such as hurling. Church services were often conducted in the Irish language. The post 1815 economic collapse in Newfoundland after the Napoleonic Wars caused many of these Irish speaking settlers to flee to the nearby Maritime colonies, taking their language with them. Court records show that defendants sometimes required Irish speaking interpreters, as in the case of an Irishman in Fermeuse in 1752. Ecclesiastical records also illustrate the prevalence of Irish. In the mid 1760s the Reverend Laurence Coughlan, a Methodist preacher, converted most of the North Shore of Newfoundland to Protestantism. Observers credited the success of his evangelical revival at Carbonear and Harbour Grace to the fact that he was fluent in Irish. There are references to the need for Irish speaking priests between 1784 and 1807. In letters to Dublin, the Catholic Bishop James Louis O'Donel, when requesting a Franciscan missionary for the parishes of St. Mary's and Trepassey, said that it was absolutely necessary that he should be able to speak Irish. O'Donel himself was an Irish speaker, and the fact that his successor Bishop Patrick Lambert (a Leinsterman and coadjutor bishop of St. John's from 1806) had no Irish may have contributed to the mistrust shown towards him by Irish speaking Newfoundlanders.

The identities of the last speakers of Newfoundland Irish are unknown. There is a lack of information of the sort available from the adjacent Province of New Brunswick (where, in the 1901 Census, several individuals and families listed Irish as their mother tongue and as a language still spoken by them). There is interest in the Irish language, as indicated by the fact that Memorial University in St. John's, employs one of the Irish language instructors appointed every year by the Ireland Canada University Foundation to work in Canadian universities and support the Irish language in the wider community. Memorial University's Digital Learning Centre provides resources for learning the Irish language. Efforts to revive the Irish language in Newfoundland are taking place, however. In a 2016 article for The Irish Times, Sinéad Ní Mheallaigh, who teaches Irish at Memorial University, wrote, "There is a strong interest in the Irish language. Irish descendent and farmer Aloy O'Brien, who died in 2008 at the age of 93, taught himself Irish using the Buntús Cainte books and with help from his Irish speaking grandmother. Aloy taught Irish in Memorial University for a number of years, and a group of his students still come together on Monday nights. One of his first students, Carla Furlong, invites the others to her house to speak Irish together as the 'Aloy O'Brien Conradh na Gaeilge' group." Ní Mheallaigh further wrote, "An important part of my role here in Newfoundland is organising Irish language events, both in the university and the community. We held an Irish language film festival on four consecutive Mondays throughout November. Each evening consisted of a short film, and a TG4 feature length film, preceded by an Irish lesson. These events attracted people from all parts of society, not just those interested in Ireland and the language. The students took part in the international Conradh na Gaeilge events for 'Gaeilge 24' and we will have Gaelic sports and a huge Céilí mór later in March."