irish

cloons

Hi, I visited a cemetary today where most of the graves dated to mid 17oo's to late 18oo's. all the graves are in english, I noticed this before why weren't they in irish. was it just because irish was frowned upon as being the less wealthy mans language or was there actually laws against it? any help would be great, thanks

brianthebard

I would say anyone who could afford a headstone (certainly one that would survive until now) would be wealthy and therefore an English speaker. Plus some of the period you're talking about would have been governed by the penal laws and other discriminatory practises.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_Laws_(Ireland)

Red Hand

It can depend on the denomination of the graveyard in question-whether Roman Catholic or one of the Protestant religions. More likely to get an "English name" in the non-RC cemetaries. Plus, the wealth of the person in question and the penal laws would play a factor as the previous poster says.

Also, in many instances, the person might be "officially" known by an English name (in terms of the right to rent a plot of land/baptismal/death record would be in English name), yet could have been known in the community in his/her Irish name.

MarchDub

cloons wrote: »

Hi, I visited a cemetary today where most of the graves dated to mid 17oo's to late 18oo's. all the graves are in english, I noticed this before why weren't they in irish. was it just because irish was frowned upon as being the less wealthy mans language or was there actually laws against it? any help would be great, thanks

Where was the cemetery located? I mean, in which part of the country?

Joe1919

Headstones are often replaced and its not always the case that the headstone is as old as the dates on it.
As far as I know, Irish went into decline in the early 1800s in some areas and Daniel O'Connell is often blamed for this. The Catholic church have been criticised by some for being more interested in Latin than in Irish.

conchubhar1

one example

daniel o connol was an irish speaker - he only used english and only went by his english name

add these to religious and social reasons above - and the location is very important also

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weird - the chap above mentioned o connel also but in a different context

dlofnep

There is an old graveyard by me from around the same age - many of the headstones are in Irish. One on my way to kilkenny was the same.

In the 1700's, the Irish language was the primary language in Ireland. Ireland was entirely bilingual even up until the famine, to where the majority of Irish speakers died out. Irish started to fade from the early mid-1800's, and then faded further with the introduction of the national schools where Gaeilge was banned from been taught, and English was the only medium used for education. Irish was frowned upon during the introduction of the penal laws also.

blingBabe

You should also take heed to the fact that not everyone was afforded burial in the same way. There are many examples of 'cemeteries' turning up in the archaeological record from that period than are marked on maps or in registers.

cloons

thanks for all the info