How did Irish Republican prisoners learn Irish behind bars?

the O Reilly connection

Bail ó Dhia oraibh, Dé bhur mbeathasa, go mbeannaí Dia daoibh - some Irish greetings used by TV and Radio presenters in Ireland.

I would like to know how Irish was taught to political prisoners in Ireland? I've come across some documentaries about this topic and it is a recurring theme throughout the twentieth century. Was TV or radio available in the Curragh Internment Camp or Longkesh?

What methods did they use and which were the most effective?

Esel

I would imagine by face to face classes, or orally from cell to cell etc.

I know classes were used in the Curragh Internment Camp during the "Emergency" (1939-1946?).

the O Reilly connection

There is a documentary series called Ealu and a lot of the guys who came out of Longkesh were fluent.They didn't didn't say how though.

deirdremf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058360833/how-did-irish-republican-prisoners-learn-irish-behind-bars

People like Máirtín Ó Cadhain, native Irish speakers, taught Irish in the Curragh.

Similarly, people with good Irish helped teach those with less Irish in Long Kesh. They also would have had access to books, and probably recordings too. There were probably some fluent speakers imprisoned at times too.

Beyond that, you'd want to speak to some people who actually went through the system if you want fuller information.

BalcombeSt4

Well, the Provos & INLA would have been able to learn easily enough as they had their own classes in Long Kesh. In fact Gusty Spence the leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force along with some other UVF men were able to learn it, most Loyalists struck me as not the brightest but a couple in the UVF like Spence, David Ervine, Plum Smith & former Lord Mayor of Belfast Hugh Smyth seemed intelintellectual as capable as their Provo & Stick counter-parts, as did Gary McMichael of the UDA's UDP.

the O Reilly connection

That's interesting. I took Irish at university myself for a year and we went through different classes of reading, writing and speaking. The lecturers never said what method was the most effective for acquiring a language though. I was never convinced that reading would help you achieve fluency but now I am reconsidering it considering how little of it I done at that time and how little materials were available.

BalcombeSt4

Well, between 1971 - 1976 Republicans called Long Kesh the University of Revolution, they would organize their own classes, and politics was high on the curriculum, they would learn about different struggles like Palestine, Catalonia, Basque, Vietnam, East Timor, Cuba etc. So I'm guessing they probably had an Irish class as well, obviously unlike the 26 counties, in the North a hardline Unionist government would not allow any Irish in schools. They also had classes on political theory in the Kesh as well like things on Republicanism, Liberalism, Maoism, Socialism, Marxism-Leninism (the dominant world Communist theory at that time), Libertarian-Socialism, Anarcho-Syndacalism, Council Communism, and so on and which one was the best for Ireland, things like that.

Some Loyalists learned Irish as well, Gusty Spence being the most famous one, he was also keen to teach younger Loyalists about the history of the island of Ireland because he said they didn't have a clue about Irish or just Ulster history, David Ervine being one of his students.

But after the new regime in the Maze, post-1976 all that stuff was gone, you could still take classes but they were state-run ones. I'm guessing people who learned Irish in the Kesh like Bik McFarlane (who was involved in the Bayardo Bar attack supposedly in revenge for the Miami Showband attack) taught Irish to young Volunteers coming into the Maze. They were also able to smuggle in small hand-held radios into the Maze which is how they got a lot of news delivered inside. After the 1983 Maze escape which 39 IRA Vols escaped & Bik & Gerry Kelly went about setting up ASU's on mainland Europe, the regime became much more acceptable to the POWs and they could teach their own classes again until it closed in 2000.

the O Reilly connection

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122840966#Comment_122840966

That's great info. Thank you!

banie01

A family friend who was on the political wing in Limerick learned Russian via immersion method. A lot of reading russian with a dictionary and Radio Moscow.

He never bothered his hole with Irish as he was quite convinced the USSR would win the cold war and we would have a 32 county socialist Republi, aligned with Moscow...

Not quite the full shilling.

Hasbaralies

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122840966#Comment_122840966

The bit about Loyalists learning the language is very interesting, at least there were open minds on both sides.