Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Irish-Language Textbooks in the United States, 1873-1904

2005; Philosophy Documentation Center; Volume: 9; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/nhr.2005.0039

1534-5815

Thomas W. Ihde,

Irish and British Studies

A number of articles have been written about current Irish-language learning materials currently available from Ireland.1 Yet one may express concern regarding the dependence that the diaspora has on Ireland in regard to the production of language-learning materials.2 In the past forty years, only one textbook, Irish for Everyone, can be identified as written in America for Irish-language learners in America.3 The average American learner continues to rely on textbooks written for the self-taught language learner or adult learners living in Ireland. Such volumes often assume a knowledge of Hiberno-English, Irish-English, and of specific Irish terms used in Irish life—such as Áras an Uachtaráin and Garda. Some also expect the reader to be familiar with Irish television and radio personalities. Others assume that the student has been previously exposed to some Irish. Still others provide pronunciation guides assuming students know British or Irish English. None are designed for the traditional North American, fifteen-week academic semester. As a result, it is not uncommon to hear college instructors and adult education teachers express interest in developing and publishing textbooks exclusively for Americans taking courses at community colleges and senior colleges. [End Page 137] While such a goal is highly commendable, it is undoubtedly important to look first at past attempts to produce Irish-language textbooks in America. Although a description of Irish for Everyone has been included in the literature of textbook offerings, few references can be found to American textbooks of previous generations.4 In order to document Irish-language textbooks published in the United States from the late 1800s on, the following pages refer to the authors and publication history of each volume and, more important, provide an evaluation of the teaching texts in terms of language-teaching methodology. Such an historic account of this area of adult education will provide future textbook designers with an understanding of what past experiences of Irish-language textbook production in America entailed. Four series of Irish language textbooks were published after the Civil War, from 1873 to 1904, in the United States. These include: Bourke's Easy Lessons or Self-Instruction in Irish, published in New York; the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language books for three levels "for the use of the 'Irish classes' in America" also published in New York; John O'Daly's Key to the Study of Gaelic (1899), published in Boston; and O'Growney's Revised Simple Lessons in Irish published in New York. All of these were composed in the second half of the nineteenth century, even though O'Growney's text was published in New York in 1902 and 1904. Charles Davis's An Chéad Leabhar Gaedhilge published in Boston in 1912 will not be considered here.5 Three concerns should be noted before we look at the background information and actual texts. First, one may ask for what type of student were these textbooks actually published. Students of Irish in the late nineteenth century in the United States may be seen as fitting one of three general learner profiles. Immigrants from Ireland who were raised in English, and may or may not have been exposed to Irish were one group. Native Irish speakers emigrating from the West of Ireland who were for the most part illiterate in Irish were another group, though this group is hard to identify, because they usually had fluency and perhaps some literacy in their second language, English. The minority of learners initially were American-born Irish Americans. We can obtain a few clues as to who the learners of Irish were in the late-nineteenth century by looking at such publications as the monthly An Gaodhal/The Gael from Brooklyn. For example, in reference to a Philo-Celtic meeting reported in 1883, very few individuals are noted by identifiers such as place of birth, "Mr...