124-614: Maurice Twomey ( Irish : Muirgheas Ó Tuama ; 10 June 1897 – October 1978) was an Irish republican and the longest serving chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Twomey was born in 1897 in Clondulane , near Fermoy , County Cork , Ireland and was educated by the Congregation of Christian Brothers . The son of a labourer at Hallinan's flour mill in the town, Twomey went to work there at
248-547: A unique dialect of Irish developed before falling out of use in the early 20th century. With a writing system , Ogham , dating back to at least the 4th century AD, which was gradually replaced by Latin script since the 5th century AD, Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe . On the island, the language has three major dialects: Connacht , Munster and Ulster Irish . All three have distinctions in their speech and orthography . There
372-585: A Cumann na mBan Camogie League. Within a few years he was Chairman of Sinn Féin in Armagh, and was also elected to Armagh County Council. Operating from the south Armagh/north Louth area, Aiken's unit was one of the most effective IRA in Ulster during the Irish War of Independence . This success is attributed primarily to Aiken's leadership and training methods. In May 1920, he led 200 IRA men in an assault on
496-594: A Fianna Fáil founding member, to the office. Aiken had in March 1932 been trying to reach a new rapprochement , and "reconciled the Army to the new regime". On 9 March he visited republican prisoners, including George Gilmour , in Arbour Hill prison; they were released the next day. This was the same day he had been appointed as Minister for Defence. Aiken was given a vice-presidency, 'Agriculture', by James Ryan at
620-595: A bad-tempered meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington DC. Roosevelt urged Aiken and Ireland to join the war on the allied side asking if it was true that he had said that 'Ireland had nothing to fear from a German victory'. Aiken denied saying this but cited the British 'supply squeeze' as an act of aggression and asked the US to help. Roosevelt agreed to send supplies, but only if Britain consented. At
744-717: A bargaining chip during government formation in Northern Ireland, prompting protests from organisations and groups such as An Dream Dearg . Irish became an official language of the EU on 1 January 2007, meaning that MEPs with Irish fluency can now speak the language in the European Parliament and at committees, although in the case of the latter they have to give prior notice to a simultaneous interpreter in order to ensure that what they say can be interpreted into other languages. While an official language of
868-575: A better future for Ireland and all her citizens." The Strategy was produced on 21 December 2010 and will stay in action until 2030; it aims to target language vitality and revitalization of the Irish language. The 30-page document published by the Government of Ireland details the objectives it plans to work towards in an attempt to preserve and promote both the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. It
992-756: A builder from County Tyrone, and Mary McGeeney of Corromannon, Beleek, County Armagh. James Aiken built Catholic churches in South Armagh. Aiken was a nationalist, a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and a county councillor, who refused an offer to stand as a member of parliament. James was Chairman of the Local Board of the Poor Guardians. In 1900, on her visit to Ireland, he told Queen Victoria that he would not welcome her "until Ireland has become free". Frank Aiken
1116-478: A cultural and social force. Irish speakers often insisted on using the language in law courts (even when they knew English), and Irish was also common in commercial transactions. The language was heavily implicated in the "devotional revolution" which marked the standardisation of Catholic religious practice and was also widely used in a political context. Down to the time of the Great Famine and even afterwards,
1240-553: A degree course in the NUI federal system to pass the subject of Irish in the Leaving Certificate or GCE / GCSE examinations. Exemptions are made from this requirement for students who were born or completed primary education outside of Ireland, and students diagnosed with dyslexia . NUI Galway is required to appoint people who are competent in the Irish language, as long as they are also competent in all other aspects of
1364-781: A far-left political party. However, Saor Eire quickly found itself under attack from both Cumann na nGaedheal and by the Catholic Church in Ireland for being a Pro-Soviet organisation, with the IRA painted as guilty by association. Simultaneously, the Cumann na nGaedhael government gave itself emergency powers and began arresting IRA members. Both Twomey and the IRA decided that in order to hold off Cumann na nGaedheal, they would need to rally around Fianna Fáil. In February 1932, Cumann na nGaedhael called an early election , hoping to catch both
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#17327730620631488-480: A formal surrender. Instead of giving up their weapons, their fighters would receive a further order to 'dump arms' and simply return home as honourable republicans. Aiken wrote: "We took up arms to free our country and we'll keep them until we see an honourable way of reaching our objective without arms". The ceasefire and dump-arms order, issued on 24 May 1923, effectively ended the Irish Civil War , though
1612-460: A fully recognised EU language for the first time in the state's history. Before Irish became an official language it was afforded the status of treaty language and only the highest-level documents of the EU were made available in Irish. The Irish language was carried abroad in the modern period by a vast diaspora , chiefly to Great Britain and North America, but also to Australia , New Zealand and Argentina . The first large movements began in
1736-427: A moderate, had a deep sense of history, and the belief that Ireland had the resources to provide a good living for all of its people. His policy as chief of staff was to allow individual members of the IRA to join left-wing groups, but not to let the IRA itself become attached to any political party . He simultaneously feared undermining support for Fianna Fáil and thus handing power back to Cumann na nGaedheal; but he
1860-428: A month. The pact was originally approved by Frank Aiken , who left soon after, before being succeeded by Cooney and Twomey who kept up the secret espionage relationship. Twomey was not himself an ideological Marxist-Leninist (though there were some communists in the IRA at this time such as Peadar O'Donnell ), he saw the arrangement purely as a means to gain the IRA badly needed funding. Twomey also repeatedly accused
1984-462: A more ambiguous position), Aiken ensured that Ireland vigorously defended the rights of small nations such as Tibet and Hungary , nations whose problems he felt Ireland could identify with and had a moral obligation to help. Aiken also supported the right of countries such as Algeria to self-determination and spoke out against apartheid in South Africa. Under Ireland's policy of promoting
2108-462: A negotiated end to the Civil War, Aiken was arrested by pro-Treaty troops on 16 July 1922, under Dan Hogan and imprisoned at Dundalk Gaol along with about 200 to 300 of his men. After just ten days imprisonment, he was freed in a mass escape of 100 men from Dundalk prison on 28 July. Then, on 14 August, he led a surprise attack of between 300 and 400 anti-treaty IRA men on Dundalk. They blew holes in
2232-585: A paper suggested that within a generation, non-Gaeltacht habitual users of Irish might typically be members of an urban, middle class, and highly educated minority. Parliamentary legislation is supposed to be available in both Irish and English but is frequently only available in English. This is notwithstanding that Article 25.4 of the Constitution of Ireland requires that an "official translation" of any law in one official language be provided immediately in
2356-575: A pass in Leaving Certificate Irish or English, and receive lessons in Irish during their two years of training. Official documents of the Irish government must be published in both Irish and English or Irish alone (in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003, enforced by An Coimisinéir Teanga , the Irish language ombudsman). The National University of Ireland requires all students wishing to embark on
2480-582: A public walkout at a function in the French legation in Dublin . When McNeill took offence at de Valera's response and, against government advice, published his correspondence, de Valera advised King George V to dismiss the Governor General. The King arranged a special deal between both men, whereby McNeill would retire from his post a few weeks earlier than planned, with the resignation coinciding with
2604-625: A religious context. An Irish translation of the Old Testament by Leinsterman Muircheartach Ó Cíonga , commissioned by Bishop Bedell , was published after 1685 along with a translation of the New Testament. Otherwise, Anglicisation was seen as synonymous with 'civilising' the native Irish. Currently, modern day Irish speakers in the church are pushing for language revival. It has been estimated that there were around 800,000 monoglot Irish speakers in 1800, which dropped to 320,000 by
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#17327730620632728-634: A republic. During the Irish Civil War , Twomey became adjutant general on the staff of Liam Lynch (the IRA Chief of Staff), and was with Lynch when he was killed in the Knockmealdowns mountains on 10 April 1923. Twomey was imprisoned that same month in Dublin along with Tom Derrig . During 1924 he became involved in the reorganisation of the IRA, inspecting its southern divisions that summer and its northern units during 1925. First elected onto
2852-492: A result of linguistic imperialism . Today, Irish is still commonly spoken as a first language in Ireland's Gaeltacht regions, in which 2% of Ireland's population lived in 2022. The total number of people (aged 3 and over) in Ireland who declared they could speak Irish in April 2022 was 1,873,997, representing 40% of respondents, but of these, 472,887 said they never spoke it and a further 551,993 said they only spoke it within
2976-576: A rowdy by-election at Bessbrook in February 1918, Aiken was elected a captain of Volunteers, stewarding electioneering. As secretary and chairman of the South Armagh district executive (comhairle ceanntair) it was his job to be chief fund-raiser for the Dublin Executive, responsible for the Dáil loan masterminded by Michael Collins . In 1917, making an outward display of defiance, Aiken raised
3100-470: A sexual assault on Una McGuill, the wife of one of Aiken's friends, James McGuill. As well as the six civilians, two Special Constables were killed in an ambush, and two weeks later a unionist politician, William Frazer, was abducted, killed and his body secretly buried. It was not found until 1924. After the IRA split over the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922, Aiken ultimately became aligned with
3224-561: A shipment of grain, two merchant ships and coal. Roosevelt also gave 'his personal guarantee' that Britain would not invade Ireland. Aiken was Minister for Finance for three years following the war and was involved in economic post–war development in the industrial, agricultural, educational and other spheres. However, it was during his two periods as Minister for External Affairs —1951 to 1954, and 1957 to 1969—that Aiken fulfilled his enormous political potential. As Foreign Minister he adopted where possible an independent stance for Ireland at
3348-713: A turf stove, a beehive , an air shelter, an electric cooker and a spring heel for a shoe among others and also powered the family home in Sandyford through use of a wind turbine. He entered the first Fianna Fáil government in 1932 as Minister for Defence. On de Valera's urging, Vice-President of the Executive Council Seán T. O'Kelly and Aiken publicly snubbed the Governor-General of the Irish Free State , James McNeill , by staging
3472-545: A wider meaning, including the Gaelic of Scotland and the Isle of Man , as well as of Ireland. When required by the context, these are distinguished as Gaeilge na hAlban , Gaeilge Mhanann and Gaeilge na hÉireann respectively. In English (including Hiberno-English ), the language is usually referred to as Irish , as well as Gaelic and Irish Gaelic . The term Irish Gaelic may be seen when English speakers discuss
3596-603: Is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family . It is a member of the Goidelic language group of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous to the island of Ireland . It was the majority of the population's first language until the 19th century, when English gradually became dominant, particularly in the last decades of the century, in what is sometimes characterised as
3720-452: Is also An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , a standardised written form devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. The traditional Irish alphabet , a variant of the Latin alphabet with 18 letters , has been succeeded by the standard Latin alphabet (albeit with 7–8 letters used primarily in loanwords ). Irish has constitutional status as the national and first official language of
3844-511: Is divided into four separate phases with the intention of improving 9 main areas of action including: The general goal for this strategy was to increase the number of daily speakers from 83,000 to 250,000 by the end of its run. By 2022, the number of such speakers had fallen to 71,968. Before the partition of Ireland in 1921, Irish was recognised as a school subject and as "Celtic" in some third level institutions. Between 1921 and 1972, Northern Ireland had devolved government. During those years
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3968-587: Is only in Gaeltacht areas that Irish continues to be spoken as a community vernacular to some extent. According to data compiled by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht , Sport and Media , only 1/4 of households in Gaeltacht areas are fluent in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology , described
4092-412: Is still spoken daily to some extent as a first language . These regions are known individually and collectively as the Gaeltacht (plural Gaeltachtaí ). While the fluent Irish speakers of these areas, whose numbers have been estimated at 20–30,000, are a minority of the total number of fluent Irish speakers, they represent a higher concentration of Irish speakers than other parts of the country and it
4216-666: The Fíor-Ghaeltacht (true Gaeltacht ), a term originally officially applied to areas where over 50% of the population spoke Irish. There are Gaeltacht regions in the following counties: Gweedore ( Gaoth Dobhair ), County Donegal, is the largest Gaeltacht parish in Ireland. Irish language summer colleges in the Gaeltacht are attended by tens of thousands of teenagers annually. Students live with Gaeltacht families, attend classes, participate in sports, go to céilithe and are obliged to speak Irish. All aspects of Irish culture and tradition are encouraged. The Act
4340-551: The Arms Crisis it is said that the Taoiseach , Jack Lynch , turned to Aiken for advice on a number of issues. Aiken retired from politics in 1973 due to the fact that Charles Haughey , whose style of politics Aiken strongly disliked, was allowed to run as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the 1973 general election . Initially he planned to announce the reason for his decision, but under pressure finally agreed to announce that he
4464-616: The Bureau of Military History which had been set up to record the recollections of participants involved in the struggle against British rule. He was badly injured in an accident in 1971 and was deeply affected by the death of his wife Kathleen Twomey in April 1978. Twomey himself died in October of that year. The presence at his funeral of members of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael , Sinn Féin The Workers' Party and Provisional Sinn Féin ,
4588-871: The Ottawa Conference . He advised on the usage of cutting peat bogs in County Meath and visited the Curragh Camp in County Kildare to accelerate land distribution to poor tenantry. Land was released in the 'Midlands' for development. C.S. Andrews credits Aiken for the Turf Development Board in his second autobiography, Man of No Property . The Turf Development Board would later become Bord na Móna . According to Andrews, Lemass said to him "I want you to head this organisation to get Aiken off my back". Aiken remained interested in
4712-731: The RIC barracks in Newtownhamilton , attacking the building and then burning it with paraffin spayed from a potato sprayer; however, the garrison did not surrender. Aiken himself led a squad which blasted a hole in the wall of the barracks with gelignite and entered through it, exchanging shots with the policemen inside. At a sports event in Cullyhanna in June 1920, Aiken led a group of three men that demanded that three RIC men hand over their weapons. Shooting broke out and one man on each side
4836-631: The Republic of Ireland , and is also an official language of Northern Ireland and among the official languages of the European Union . The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island. Irish has no regulatory body but An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , the standard written form, is guided by a parliamentary service and new vocabulary by a voluntary committee with university input. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official [Written] Standard ")
4960-536: The Ulster Volunteers who had imported weapons to resist Home Rule in 1913–14. As well as UVF dumps, Aiken and the Newry Brigade also raided prominent local unionist barracks at Dromilly, Ballyedmond Castle and Loughall Manor. Although they failed to capture many weapons the raids gave experience to newly recruited Volunteers. Aiken was also responsible for setting up GAA Club, Gaelic League branch,
5084-559: The United Kingdom , and pass information to Red Army military intelligence in New York City and London in return for £500 a month. The pact was originally approved by Aiken, who left his position as chief of staff soon after. He was succeeded by Andrew Cooney and Moss Twomey , who kept up the secret espionage relationship. Aiken was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin candidate for Louth in 1923. Aiken
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5208-634: The 17th century, largely as a result of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland , which saw many Irish sent to the West Indies . Irish emigration to the United States was well established by the 18th century, and was reinforced in the 1840s by thousands fleeing from the Famine . This flight also affected Britain. Up until that time most emigrants spoke Irish as their first language, though English
5332-734: The 1998 Good Friday Agreement , the language gradually received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, and then, in 2003, by the British government's ratification in respect of the language of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . In the 2006 St Andrews Agreement the British government promised to enact legislation to promote the language and in 2022 it approved legislation to recognise Irish as an official language alongside English. The bill received royal assent on 6 December 2022. The Irish language has often been used as
5456-403: The 6th century, used the Latin alphabet and is attested primarily in marginalia to Latin manuscripts. During this time, the Irish language absorbed some Latin words, some via Old Welsh , including ecclesiastical terms : examples are easpag (bishop) from episcopus , and Domhnach (Sunday, from dominica ). By the 10th century, Old Irish had evolved into Middle Irish , which
5580-571: The Act all detailing different aspects of the use of Irish in official documentation and communication. Included in these sections are subjects such as Irish language use in official courts, official publications, and placenames. The Act was recently amended in December 2019 in order to strengthen the already preexisting legislation. All changes made took into account data collected from online surveys and written submissions. The Official Languages Scheme
5704-643: The British military, when his men derailed a British troop train heading from Belfast to Dublin, killing the train guard, three cavalry soldiers and 63 horses. Shortly afterwards, the Specials took four Catholics from their homes in Bessbrook and Altnaveigh, shooting them dead. After an IRA reorganisation in April 1921, Aiken was put in command of the Fourth Northern Division of the IRA. The cycle of violence in south-east Ulster area continued
5828-471: The European Union , only co-decision regulations were available until 2022, due to a five-year derogation, requested by the Irish Government when negotiating the language's new official status. The Irish government had committed itself to train the necessary number of translators and interpreters and to bear the related costs. This derogation ultimately came to an end on 1 January 2022, making Irish
5952-586: The Free State government did not issue a general amnesty until the following year. Aiken remained IRA Chief of Staff until 12 November 1925. That summer the IRA sent a delegation led by Pa Murray to the Soviet Union for a personal meeting with Joseph Stalin , in the hope of gaining Soviet finance and weaponry assistance. A secret pact was agreed whereby the IRA would spy on the United States and
6076-528: The IRA Executive at the November 1925 IRA General Army Convention, he became a full-time IRA activist. He was the editor and regular contributor to the newly established Irish republican weekly newspaper , An Phoblacht . During 1926 he was acting IRA chief of staff in the absence of Andrew Cooney , and in 1927, he was confirmed in that position and held it until May 1936. In the summer of 1925,
6200-427: The IRA and Fianna Fáil on the backfoot. However, Fianna Fáil were able to secure victory. To the surprise of many, Cumann na nGaedhael choose to respect the result of the vote and stood aside to let Fianna Fáil into power. Initially, many Republicans and members of the IRA were overjoyed with the result. At first Fianna Fáil seem to signal goodwill to the IRA by releasing many IRA prisoners. However, it quickly dawned upon
6324-469: The IRA cooperated with German intelligence and pressed for a German landing in Northern Ireland, the government, with Aiken's approval, interned several hundred of its members and executed six for the shooting of Irish police officers. Even so, Aiken remained somewhat sympathetic to them in private and visited their prisoners in Arbour Hill prison in Dublin. However, he did not appeal for clemency for those condemned to death. Thinking that Britain would lose
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#17327730620636448-450: The IRA that Fianna Fáil were not going to declare a Republic, and this put them in an awkward spot. A week after Fianna Fáil came to power, an internal document produced by the IRA leadership asked two fundamental questions: "can Fianna Fáil’s methods and policies achieve the Republic?", to which they answered No, and "can the IRA launch a successful revolution against the Fianna Fáil Government?", to which they also answered No. Both Twomey and
6572-465: The IRA were unsure how to proceed. In Twomey's own words "nobody had visualised a Free State which Republicans were not supposed to attack". Following the election of Fianna Fáil, Tom Barry and Twomey clashed over the direction going forward. Barry wished to see Saor Eire ended (believing its policies never gain mass support, and in fact, this made Saor Eire an undemocratic concept) and for the IRA to reconcile with Fianna Fáil. Twomey instead thought that
6696-469: The IRA's main spymaster in America "Mr. Jones", whom historians Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly have identified as Daniel "Sandow" O'Donovan , passed "reports of the army ’s chemical weapons service, state-of-the-art gas masks, machine-gun and aeroplane engine specifications, and reports from the navy , air service and army" to the Soviet GRU. Twomey was considered a Socialist , albeit one who put practicality before ideology. Twomey considered himself
6820-419: The IRA's units there that were planning the 1939-40 sabotage and bombing campaign - the S-Plan . Twomey concluded that the IRA was in no position to launch a campaign and withdrew from IRA activity. In 1939 he opened a newsagents and confectioners in Dublin's O'Connell Street . Following a crackdown on the IRA by Éamon de Valera 's government, he was interned for two weeks during 1940. He remained close to
6944-409: The IRA, giving assistance to republicans deported from Britain and mediating in disputes between IRA factions. While he did not take an active role in politics after the 1940s, he did speak at a number of republican commemorations , most notably at the restoration of Wolfe Tone's grave at Bodenstown in 1971. He never claimed an IRA pension from the Irish government or gave an account of his record to
7068-469: The Irish labour movement and old IRA comrades from the 1930s was evidence of his enduring popularity. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery , Dublin. Twomey's papers from his period as IRA chief of staff, consisting of 28 boxes, are now kept at the Archives Department of University College Dublin . Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish : Gaeilge ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( / ˈ ɡ eɪ l ɪ k / GAY -lik ),
7192-440: The Irish Army was expanded under Aiken's ministry. It increased to a strength of 41,000 regulars and 180,000 in auxiliary units – the Local Defence Force and Local Security Force – by 1941, although these formations were relatively poorly equipped. Aiken wanted to incorporate the IRA into the Army and offered the former an amnesty in the spring of 1940, which the underground organisation turned down. Nevertheless, during wartime as
7316-425: The Irish language policy followed by Irish governments as a "complete and absolute disaster". The Irish Times , referring to his analysis published in the Irish language newspaper Foinse , quoted him as follows: "It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but
7440-610: The Irish would have to convince of their support for the agreement in Dublin. At the outbreak of Second World War , a period known in Ireland as The Emergency , Aiken was appointed as Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures by de Valera with Oscar Traynor assuming the role of Minister for Defence, in de Valera's first major cabinet reshuffle as the country was put on a wartime footing to defend Irish neutrality. He gained notoriety in Dublin media circles for overseeing censorship: his clashes with R. M. Smyllie , editor of The Irish Times , ensured this censorious attitude
7564-476: The Protestant Church congregation in the village hostage to lure the Specials out onto the road. However, Mathew Lewis states that both Catholic and Protestant churchgoers were held in a pub to prevent their getting caught in the crossfire. Nevertheless, sectarian bitterness deepened in the area. The following month, the Special Constabulary started shooting Catholic civilians in revenge for IRA attacks. In June 1921, Aiken organised his most successful attack yet on
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#17327730620637688-424: The Republic of Ireland ), new appointees to the Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland , including postal workers , tax collectors , agricultural inspectors, Garda Síochána (police), etc., were required to have some proficiency in Irish. By law, a Garda who was addressed in Irish had to respond in Irish as well. In 1974, in part through the actions of protest organisations like the Language Freedom Movement ,
7812-402: The Soviets of being "shifty" and "out to exploit us." Nevertheless, London-based IRA spymaster Seán MacBride passed specifications of "submarine detection sonar and aeroplane engines for bombers, military journals and manuals, and gas masks" to the USSR through Berlin -based GRU operative Walter Krivitsky , whom ciphered IRA communications referred to only by the code name "James". Meanwhile,
7936-403: The UN the Irish delegation sat between Iraq and Israel forming a kind of physical 'buffer': in Aiken's time (who as a minister spent a lot of time with the UN delegation) both the Italians (who on their turn sat in the vicinity of the Iraqi delegation), the Irish and the Israelis claimed to be the one and only UN delegation of New York, a city inhabited by many Irish, Jewish and Italians. Aiken
8060-406: The Ulster Council Command, however. He was quickly promoted through the ranks, rising to commandant of Newry Brigade and eventually commander of 4th Northern Division from spring 1921. The IRA units he would eventually command extended from County Louth , southern and western County Down , and from March 1921 the whole of County Armagh. Nonetheless, the local IRA's inaction at this time did not end
8184-518: The United Nations and other international forums such as the Council of Europe . Despite a great deal of opposition, both at home and abroad, he stubbornly asserted the right of smaller UN member countries to discuss the representation of communist China at the General Assembly. Unable to bring the issue of the partition of Ireland to the UN, because of Britain's veto on the Security Council and unwillingness of other Western nations to interfere in what they saw as British affairs at that time (the US taking
8308-426: The age of 14 where he rose to the position of works manager. In 1914 he became active in the Irish Volunteers . Twomey was a dedicated and well respected Irish Republican who successfully dealt with factions within the Irish Republican movement. "He was dedicated to Irish freedom and nothing else mattered to him. Compromise was not in his vocabulary." Twomey maintained a strong faith in Roman Catholicism. By 1918 he
8432-408: The anti-Treaty side in spite of personal efforts to prevent division and civil war and by remaining neutral at first. After fighting broke out between pro- and anti-Treaty units in Dublin on 28 June 1922, he wrote to Richard Mulcahy on 6 July 1922 calling for a truce, the election of a new reunited IRA army council and the removal of the Oath of Allegiance from the Free State constitution. Mulcahy
8556-417: The anti-treaty IRA had sent a delegation led by Pa Murray to the Soviet Union for a personal meeting with Joseph Stalin , in the hopes of gaining Soviet finance and weaponry assistance. A secret pact was agreed where the IRA would spy on the United States and the United Kingdom and pass information to Red Army military intelligence ( GRU ) spymasters in New York City and London in return for £500
8680-415: The army barracks there and rapidly took control of the town at a cost of just two of his men killed. The operation freed 240 republican prisoners seizing 400 rifles. While in possession of the town, Aiken publicly called for an end to the civil war. For the remainder of the conflict he remained at large with his unit, carrying out no major attacks on Free State forces. Aiken was to remain unenthusiastic about
8804-577: The beginning of the following academic year. For a number of years there has been vigorous debate in political, academic and other circles about the failure of most students in English-medium schools to achieve competence in Irish, even after fourteen years of teaching as one of the three main subjects. The concomitant decline in the number of traditional native speakers has also been a cause of great concern. In 2007, filmmaker Manchán Magan found few Irish speakers in Dublin , and faced incredulity when trying to get by speaking only Irish in Dublin. He
8928-632: The bloodshed in South Armagh . Aiken has been accused by unionists of ethnic cleansing of Protestants from parts of South Armagh, Newry and other areas of the north. In particular, Aiken's critics cite the killing of six Protestant civilians, on an incident called the Altnaveigh Massacre, on 17 June 1922. The attack was in reprisal for the Special Constabulary's killing of two nationalists near Camlough on 13 June and
9052-466: The close Aiken asked the President to 'support us in our stand against aggression'. 'German aggression, yes' Roosevelt replied, to which Aiken retorted 'British aggression too'. This infuriated Roosevelt, who shouted 'nonsense' and 'pulled the tablecloth [from under his lunch] sending cutlery flying around the room'. Ultimately, Aiken was not able to secure a promise of American arms, but was able to get
9176-457: The conflict in the area took on an increasingly bitter and sectarian quality. Aiken tried on a number of occasions to ambush USC patrols from the ruins of his family home. In April 1921, Aiken's men mounted an operation in Creggan, County Armagh to ambush the police and Special Constabulary. One Special constable was killed in the ensuing firefight. Some accounts have reported that Aiken took
9300-684: The dates de Valera had suggested for the dismissal. While agreeing that the situation was "regrettable" de Valera, instead of chastising the ministers, suggested that the Governor-General inform the Executive Council of his social engagements to enable ministers to avoid ones he was attending. MacNeill was a brother of Eoin MacNeill and this was a campaign to encourage him to resign as Governor-General which he did. Having done so, de Valera appointed appointed Domhnall Ua Buachalla ,
9424-531: The development of Ireland's natural resources throughout his political life. Aiken was not involved in the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement negotiations which took place on 25 April 1938. According to some sources this was because of his associations with the IRA, while other sources suggest that he was tactically left at home by de Valera – as Aiken was perceived in the UK as a vexed Anglophobe who
9548-718: The education system. Linguistic analyses of Irish speakers are therefore based primarily on the number of daily users in Ireland outside the education system, which in 2022 was 20,261 in the Gaeltacht and 51,707 outside it, totalling 71,968. In response to the 2021 census of Northern Ireland , 43,557 individuals stated they spoke Irish on a daily basis, 26,286 spoke it on a weekly basis, 47,153 spoke it less often than weekly, and 9,758 said they could speak Irish, but never spoke it. From 2006 to 2008, over 22,000 Irish Americans reported speaking Irish as their first language at home, with several times that number claiming "some knowledge" of
9672-474: The end of the famine, and under 17,000 by 1911. Irish is recognised by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of Republic of Ireland (English being the other official language). Despite this, almost all government business and legislative debate is conducted in English. In 1938, the founder of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League), Douglas Hyde , was inaugurated as
9796-560: The first President of Ireland . The record of his delivering his inaugural Declaration of Office in Roscommon Irish is one of only a few recordings of that dialect. In the 2016 census, 10.5% of respondents stated that they spoke Irish, either daily or weekly, while over 70,000 people (4.2%) speak it as a habitual daily means of communication. From the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 (see History of
9920-494: The following year, despite a formal truce with the British from 11 July 1921 (see The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922) ). Michael Collins organised a clandestine guerrilla offensive against the newly created Northern Ireland State. In May 1922, for reasons that have never been properly determined, Aiken and his Fourth Northern Division never took part in the operation, although it was planned that they would. Aiken remained Head of
10044-508: The internecine struggle. His son Frank Jr. recalls "I did ask him about the Civil War a little bit, but he wouldn't answer. He'd give me an answer like terrible things happen in wars and worse in civil wars." Aiken was with IRA leader Liam Lynch 's patrol when they were ambushed at Knockmealdown on 10 April 1923. Lynch was shot and killed. Aiken rescued crucial IRA papers, "saved and brought through at any cost". He succeeded Lynch as IRA Chief of Staff on 20 April. Always ambivalent about
10168-716: The language family, is derived from the Old Irish term. Endonyms of the language in the various modern Irish dialects include: Gaeilge [ˈɡeːlʲɟə] in Galway, Gaeilg / Gaeilic / Gaeilig [ˈɡeːlʲəc] in Mayo and Ulster , Gaelainn / Gaoluinn [ˈɡeːl̪ˠən̠ʲ] in West/Cork, Kerry Munster , as well as Gaedhealaing in mid and East Kerry/Cork and Waterford Munster to reflect local pronunciation. Gaeilge also has
10292-410: The language was in use by all classes, Irish being an urban as well as a rural language. This linguistic dynamism was reflected in the efforts of certain public intellectuals to counter the decline of the language. At the end of the 19th century, they launched the Gaelic revival in an attempt to encourage the learning and use of Irish, although few adult learners mastered the language. The vehicle of
10416-476: The language. For most of recorded Irish history , Irish was the dominant language of the Irish people , who took it with them to other regions , such as Scotland and the Isle of Man , where Middle Irish gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx . It was also, for a period, spoken widely across Canada , with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers of Irish in 1890. On the island of Newfoundland ,
10540-759: The local branch in 1917 and joined Sinn Féin . His sister Nano Aiken organised Cumann na mBan in Newry, setting up a local branch at Camlough. While working at the Co-Operative Flax-Scutching Society, Aiken committed to speaking Irish , which he learned at the Donegal Gaeltacht and Omeath Irish College. He first met Éamon de Valera at the East Clare election in June 1917, riding despatches for Austin Stack . During
10664-520: The mid-18th century, English was becoming a language of the Catholic middle class, the Catholic Church and public intellectuals, especially in the east of the country. Increasingly, as the value of English became apparent, parents sanctioned the prohibition of Irish in schools. Increasing interest in emigrating to the United States and Canada was also a driver, as fluency in English allowed
10788-804: The name of the language is Gaeilge , from the South Connacht form, spelled Gaedhilge prior the spelling reform of 1948, which was originally the genitive of Gaedhealg , the form used in Classical Gaelic . The modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent ⟨dh⟩ in Gaedhilge . Older spellings include Gaoidhealg [ˈɡeːʝəlˠəɡ] in Classical Gaelic and Goídelc [ˈɡoiðʲelɡ] in Old Irish . Goidelic , used to refer to
10912-469: The new immigrants to get jobs in areas other than farming. An estimated one quarter to one third of US immigrants during the Great Famine were Irish speakers. Irish was not marginal to Ireland's modernisation in the 19th century, as is often assumed. In the first half of the century there were still around three million people for whom Irish was the primary language, and their numbers alone made them
11036-520: The newly formed Irish National Army to end the occupation of the Four Courts would destroy the Republic. The subsequent destruction of the Four Courts showed government leadership that it was out of touch with the level of opposition to the treaty and also the awesome power of artillery. Twomey concurred with Liam Mellows that if a government was to be formed in the interest of labour, it must be
11160-588: The number now is between 20,000 and 30,000." In the 1920s, when the Irish Free State was founded, Irish was still a vernacular in some western coastal areas. In the 1930s, areas where more than 25% of the population spoke Irish were classified as Gaeltacht . Today, the strongest Gaeltacht areas, numerically and socially, are those of South Connemara , the west of the Dingle Peninsula , and northwest Donegal, where many residents still use Irish as their primary language. These areas are often referred to as
11284-503: The other official language, if not already passed in both official languages. In November 2016, RTÉ reported that over 2.3 million people worldwide were learning Irish through the Duolingo app. Irish president Michael D. Higgins officially honoured several volunteer translators for developing the Irish edition, and said the push for Irish language rights remains an "unfinished project". There are rural areas of Ireland where Irish
11408-557: The political party holding power in the Stormont Parliament , the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), was hostile to the language. The context of this hostility was the use of the language by nationalists. In broadcasting, there was an exclusion on the reporting of minority cultural issues, and Irish was excluded from radio and television for almost the first fifty years of the previous devolved government. After
11532-627: The primacy of international law and reducing global tension at the height of the Cold War , Aiken promoted the idea of "areas of law", which he believed would free the most tense regions around the world from the threat of nuclear war. The 'Aiken Plan' was introduced at the United Nations in an effort to combine disarmament and peace in the Middle East, Ireland a country being on good terms with both Israel and many Arab countries . In
11656-492: The relationship between the three Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx). Gaelic is a collective term for the Goidelic languages, and when the context is clear it may be used without qualification to refer to each language individually. When the context is specific but unclear, the term may be qualified, as Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Manx Gaelic. Historically the name "Erse" ( / ɜːr s / URS )
11780-504: The republican Irish tricolor , opposite Camlough Barracks in Armagh, a move designed as deliberate provocation. In March 1918 he was arrested by the RIC for illegal drilling — an act of open defiance that provoked a sentence of imprisonment for one month. On release that summer he joined the secretive Irish Republican Brotherhood fighting Hibernianism in the area. By 1919 Aiken's clandestine activities mainly consisted of arms raids on dumps of
11904-432: The requirement for entrance to the public service was changed to proficiency in just one official language. Nevertheless, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools in the Republic of Ireland that receive public money (see Education in the Republic of Ireland ). Teachers in primary schools must also pass a compulsory examination called Scrúdú Cáilíochta sa Ghaeilge . As of 2005, Garda Síochána recruits need
12028-647: The revival was the Gaelic League ( Conradh na Gaeilge ), and particular emphasis was placed on the folk tradition, which in Irish is particularly rich. Efforts were also made to develop journalism and a modern literature. Although it has been noted that the Catholic Church played a role in the decline of the Irish language before the Gaelic Revival, the Protestant Church of Ireland also made only minor efforts to encourage use of Irish in
12152-583: The social programme of Saor Eire could and would gain democratic support. On 21 May 1936 Twomey was arrested in his house in Dublin under Article 2A of the Irish Constitution . On 18 June 1936 the Fianna Fáil government banned the IRA. The following day Twomey was tried and jailed for three years for membership of the newly proscribed organisation. Under the IRA constitution, his tenure as IRA chief of staff ended automatically upon his arrest. He
12276-421: The suspension of all offensive operations in your area as from now, Monday April 30th. 2. You will ensure that while remaining on the offensive all units take adequate measures to protect themselves and their munitions. Chief of Staff. Aiken had remained close to Éamon de Valera , who had long wanted to end the Civil War, and together the two came up with a compromise that would save the anti-Treaty side from
12400-675: The vacancy to which they are appointed. This requirement is laid down by the University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3). In 2016, the university faced controversy when it announced the planned appointment of a president who did not speak Irish. Misneach staged protests against this decision. The following year the university announced that Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh , a fluent Irish speaker, would be its 13th president. He assumed office in January 2018; in June 2024, he announced he would be stepping down as president at
12524-492: The war against the Free State, Aiken soon issued a letter ordering a suspension of offensive operations from 30 April. Department of the Chief of Staff, General Headquarters, Dublin, April 27th, 1923. Special Army Orders. To OCs, Commanders and Independent Brigades. Suspension of Offensive 1. I order to give effect to the decision of the government and Army Council embodied in attached Proclamation of this date. You will arrange
12648-452: The war in 1940, he refused to back senior British civil servant Malcolm MacDonald 's plan for the unification of Ireland in return for the Irish state joining the British effort. In diplomatic negotiations Aiken told him that a united Ireland, if it was conceded, would still stay neutral to safeguard its security and that further talks were 'a sheer waste of time'. Furthermore, the Irish people 'would not support their government taking them into
12772-407: The war without some actual provocation from Germany'. When asked on American radio about the offer of unity in return for entering the war, he replied, 'most certainly not. We want union and sovereignty, not union and slavery'. In March 1941, Aiken was sent to America to secure US supplies, both military and economic, that DeValera claimed Britain was withholding owing to Irish neutrality. Aiken had
12896-594: The work of such writers as Geoffrey Keating , is said to date from the 17th century, and was the medium of popular literature from that time on. From the 18th century on, the language lost ground in the east of the country. The reasons behind this shift were complex but came down to a number of factors: The change was characterised by diglossia (two languages being used by the same community in different social and economic situations) and transitional bilingualism (monoglot Irish-speaking grandparents with bilingual children and monoglot English-speaking grandchildren). By
13020-695: Was adjutant of the Fermoy Battalion and a year later became an adjutant of the Cork No. 2 Brigade. He took part in an ambush of British troops in Fermoy in September 1919, one of the first attacks on British soldiers in Ireland since the 1916 Easter Rising and one of the first of the Irish War of Independence . During 1920 he helped direct IRA intelligence in his brigade area. He was staff commandant of Liam Lynch's 1st Southern Division when he
13144-460: Was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Louth constituency from 1923 to 1973, making him the second longest-serving member of Dáil Éireann and the longest-serving cabinet minister. Originally a member of Sinn Féin , he was later a founding member of Fianna Fáil . Frank Aiken was born on 13 February 1898 at Carrickbracken, Camlough, County Armagh , Ireland, the seventh and youngest child of James Aiken,
13268-637: Was also a champion of nuclear non-proliferation, for which he received the honour of being the first minister to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1968 at Moscow. Aiken's impact as Minister for External Affairs was such that he is sometimes referred to as the father of Irish foreign policy. His performance was praised in particular by a later Minister for Foreign Affairs, Fine Gael 's Garret FitzGerald . Aiken retired from Ministerial office and as Tánaiste in 1969. During
13392-533: Was also apprehensive about the IRA being seen as attached to Fianna Fáil. In 1930, Twomey married Kathleen MacLaughlin of Donegal and had two children in the early 1930s. Twomey had the qualities and skills of diplomacy when dealing with the various factions of the Republican movement. In 1931 Twomey tried to quell different factions within the IRA (those seeking to establish a social programme vs those against it) by permitting IRA members to create Saor Eire ,
13516-531: Was also sometimes used in Scots and then in English to refer to Irish; as well as Scottish Gaelic. Written Irish is first attested in Ogham inscriptions from the 4th century AD, a stage of the language known as Primitive Irish . These writings have been found throughout Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain. Primitive Irish underwent a change into Old Irish through the 5th century. Old Irish, dating from
13640-552: Was an Irish revolutionary and politician. He was chief of staff of the Anti-Treaty IRA at the end of the Irish Civil War . Aiken later served as Tánaiste from 1965 to 1969 and Minister for External Affairs from 1951 to 1954 and 1957 to 1969. He was also Minister for Finance from 1945 to 1948, Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures 1939 to 1945, and Minister for Defence from 1932 to 1939. He
13764-533: Was at the April 1925 Commemoration ceremony at Dundalk, but by March 1926—when de Valera founded a new party, Fianna Fáil —he was in America. In June 1927 he was re-elected for Louth for Fianna Fáil, continuing to be re-elected for that party at every election until his retirement from politics in 1973. In May 1926 he bought Dun Gaoithe, a dairy farm, at Sandyford , County Dublin. Aiken was an innovator , an amateur inventor who took out patents throughout his life for
13888-494: Was captured and imprisoned on Spike Island during 1921. He managed to escape from the prison by rowing boat along with Dick Barrett , Tom Crofts and Bill Quirke. Twomey opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 and was critical of the tactics adopted by the anti-Treaty forces - the occupation of the principal seat of justice in Ireland the Four Courts . He was influenced by Oscar Traynor 's opinion that an attack by
14012-670: Was educated at the Camlough National School and in Newry by Irish Christian Brothers at Abbey Christian Brothers Grammar School , although he had only a 'vague' recollection of school. He was elected a lieutenant in 1914 when he joined the Camlough Company of Irish Volunteers and the Gaelic League. But the northern nationalists split so they took no part in the Easter Rising. He became secretary of
14136-668: Was enacted 1 July 2019 and is an 18-page document that adheres to the guidelines of the Official Languages Act 2003 . The purpose of the Scheme is to provide services through the mediums of Irish and/or English. According to the Department of the Taoiseach, it is meant to "develop a sustainable economy and a successful society, to pursue Ireland's interests abroad, to implement the Government's Programme and to build
14260-541: Was establishing itself as the primary language. Irish speakers had first arrived in Australia in the late 18th century as convicts and soldiers, and many Irish-speaking settlers followed, particularly in the 1860s. New Zealand also received some of this influx. Argentina was the only non-English-speaking country to receive large numbers of Irish emigrants, and there were few Irish speakers among them. Frank Aiken Francis Thomas Aiken (13 February 1898 – 18 May 1983)
14384-586: Was evasive, however, and said he 'could not see a way to advise the government' to agree with Aiken's proposals. Subsequently, Aiken travelled to Limerick meet with anti-Treaty IRA leader Liam Lynch , and urged him to consider a truce in return for the removal of references to the British monarch from the constitution. Aiken later felt that without the sterling work done in support of the Treaty by Eoin O'Duffy , aided by Mulcahy and Eoin MacNeill , civil war would have been avoided. Despite his neutrality and pleas for
14508-521: Was imprisoned in Arbour Hill Prison and the Curragh from 1936 to 1938. During his period of imprisonment his family depended heavily on money sent to them by Joseph McGarrity of Clan na Gael , a US-based IRA fundraising organisation. On his release, Twomey became adjutant general on Seán Russell 's army council . He travelled to Britain with IRA leader Jack McNeela and inspected
14632-512: Was killed. In July, he was almost killed at Banbridge . While riding a motorcycle to Lurgan he was chased by an angry mob. In December 1920, he led another assault, this time abortive, on the RIC station in his home village of Camlough. In reprisal, the newly formed Ulster Special Constabulary burned Aiken's home and those of ten of his relatives in the Camlough area. They also arrested and killed two local republicans. From this point onward,
14756-474: Was passed 14 July 2003 with the main purpose of improving the number and quality of public services delivered in Irish by the government and other public bodies. Compliance with the Act is monitored by the An Coimisinéir Teanga (Irish Language Commissioner) which was established in 2004 and any complaints or concerns pertaining to the Act are brought to them. There are 35 sections included in
14880-451: Was resented by many. Aiken not only corrected war coverage by The Irish Times , whose editorial line was largely pro-British, but also banned pro-allied war films and even forbade the reporting of parliamentarians' speeches that went against the government line of strict neutrality. Aiken justified these measures, citing the 'terrible and all prevailing force of modern warfare' and the importance therein of morale and propaganda. However, it
15004-407: Was retiring on medical advice. After his retirement, the outgoing President of Ireland Éamon de Valera , sought to convince Aiken—one of his closest friends—to run for Fianna Fáil in the 1973 presidential election . However, Aiken refused all requests to run and the party finally selected Erskine H. Childers to be its candidate. Childers won the election. In 1934 Aiken married Maud Davin ,
15128-693: Was spoken throughout Ireland, Isle of Man and parts of Scotland . It is the language of a large corpus of literature, including the Ulster Cycle . From the 12th century, Middle Irish began to evolve into modern Irish in Ireland, into Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, and into the Manx language in the Isle of Man . Early Modern Irish , dating from the 13th century, was the basis of the literary language of both Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland. Modern Irish, sometimes called Late Modern Irish, as attested in
15252-580: Was the former government minister, Joseph Connolly , and fellow Ulster founder member of Fianna Fáil, who was appointed to the office of censor. Aiken remained opposed to a British role and partition in Ireland, and was therefore a strong supporter of de Valera's policy of Irish neutrality that denied Britain use of Irish ports during the Battle of the Atlantic . Aiken considered that Ireland had to stand ready to resist invasion by both Germany and Britain, and
15376-442: Was unable to accomplish some everyday tasks, as portrayed in his documentary No Béarla . There is, however, a growing body of Irish speakers in urban areas, particularly in Dublin. Many have been educated in schools in which Irish is the language of instruction. Such schools are known as Gaelscoileanna at primary level. These Irish-medium schools report some better outcomes for students than English-medium schools. In 2009,
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