On Monday 5 December 2023, the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act was passed at Westminster (Belfast Media). On the following Thursday, 8 December, the consultation period for the Scottish National Party (SNP) government’s proposed Gaelic and Scots Languages Bill ended, clearing the way for legislation in the new year. The politics underlying these developments are convoluted but relate to the struggle over the future of the United Kingdom, and not only in Northern Ireland and Scotland but in Wales and England too. This article investigates these developments, the apparent contradictions in their roll out and what this means for a radical politics in the present future of these islands. In the first place it visits the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act and contrasts the institutional responses of appeasement with popular agitation for the recognition of language with broader social struggles. It then considers the often forgotten and radical organisation of Welsh activists who inspired other communities, including those in Ireland, in their insistence on a living language embedded in thriving neighbourhoods. The spectre of Brexit and the departure from European protections of minority languages is then discussed.
StewartPMcKearneyTOMachailG, et al. (2018) The State of Northern Ireland and the Democratic Deficit: Between Sectarianism and Neo-Liberalism. Glasgow: Vagabond Voices.
