ABSTRACT
There are three separate Gaeltacht areas in Mayo, according to the official map, and the first such map after the official revision in 1956 distinguished five separate ‘cores’, describing the rest as included for reasons other than the current strength of the language there (Límistéirí Gaeltachta 1956; and see map 9). All these cores were tiny and most did not stand up to detailed investigation, at least as purported ‘districts in which Irish speakers formed a large proportion of the population’. The main expanse of the north-west Mayo Gaeltacht is often referred to derogatorily as ‘Lindsay’s Gaeltacht’, as P. J. (‘Pat’) Lindsay was a Mayo TD and the (first) Minister for the Gaeltacht responsible for drawing the new boundaries – in conjunction with ‘Pa’ O'Donnell, who, already mentioned in Donegal, was Minister of Local Government. The implication is that the boundaries were drawn wide to include as many beneficiaries of ‘Gaeltacht’ subsidies as possible, to curry electoral favour.
